# Old movie special effects that still hold up well **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 14, 2007, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movie-special-effects-that-still-hold-up-well/426329 "2007-11-14T03:42:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movie-special-effects-that-still-hold-up-well/426329/61 "2007-11-15T08:26:10Z")
[QUOTE=Sublight] I don’t think I’ve seen one that managed to be more realistic than the original Kong [/QUOTE] The performance of the ape may be wonderfully sensitive and physiologically accurate, but that’s not what the thread is about. You’re confusing _performance_ for _special effects_. Jerky motion, thumbprints, inaccurate dinosaurs, and simplistic two dimensional matte paintings, the visual effects do not stand up well today; nobody would be convinced of their believability these days. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movie-special-effects-that-still-hold-up-well/426329/62 "2007-11-15T10:02:54Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad] Jerky motion, thumbprints, inaccurate dinosaurs, and simplistic two dimensional matte paintings, the visual effects do not stand up well today; nobody would be convinced of their believability these days. [/QUOTE] I’m aware of that, what I’m saying is that regardless of how poorly it holds up by an absolute measure today, it still holds up much better than any of the dozens of “guy in a rubber suit” attempts that have come since. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movie-special-effects-that-still-hold-up-well/426329/63 "2007-11-15T12:48:47Z")
> [@](#): > > Most movie gorillas are absolutely pathetic. > [@](#): > > it still holds up much better than any of the dozens of “guy in a rubber suit” attempts that have come since. I woulda agreed with you, until I saw an outtake from **Gorillas in the Mist** , and one of the gorillas stood up and took off his suit. Both Pepper Mill and I went “Damn!” We had no notion that had been anything but a real gorilla. Most gorillas in film were the old-style “never mistake it for the real thing” Charles Gemora-type gorilla. Rick Baker has done LOTS of truly amazing gorilla and ape suits over the years. But in most cases, it s pretty clearly indicated by the film that that’s NOT a real ape. But for GitM there was no warning that some of those gorillas were guys in suits, and you didn’t notice them. You CAN do a good “ape in a suit” nowadays. By the way, nobody loves the original Willis O’Brien **King Kong** than me, and while I do think many of the effects in Kong have held up well (see my comments above), I recognize the limitations on the animation effects. They’re still great effects, but they wouldn’t hold their own in a film today – and that’s partly a measure of our own growing visual sophistication. But I see no poibnt in running down Peter Jackson’s new King Kong. The effects are DAMNED good, and the creatures have plenty of personality. You want bad Kong? Go see the 1976 Dino de Laurentiis tragedy. They squandered what good effects they had (Rick Baker contributed some superb mask work, and Carlo Rambaldi’s articulated mechanical hands beat the hell out of the ones used in 1933) by diluting it with awful and uninspired effects work, blue-screen, and a ludicrous Full Sized model, not to mention an awful screen story and script (I hate Lorenzo Semple, Jr.) The film has nothing to recommend it. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movie-special-effects-that-still-hold-up-well/426329/64 "2007-11-15T12:56:44Z")
The galley battle in Ben-Hur was well done for its day, as was the chariot race and the recreation of ancient Rome. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movie-special-effects-that-still-hold-up-well/426329/65 "2007-11-15T12:58:24Z")
Another great Ape performance of a guy in a suit is in [Buddy](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118787/), a film with Rene Russo. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movie-special-effects-that-still-hold-up-well/426329/66 "2007-11-15T13:57:43Z")
An Open Letter To The SDMB Ray Harryhausen Fan Club: 😃 I can agree that his stop-motion work was top notch for what it was. And a scene, or a film, with _all_ stop-motion creatures, would probably be more watchable for me. But any time that his beasties are thrown in the same scene with human actors, it’s _completely_ jarring to me - far more so than when humans interact with painted (_Who Framed Roger Rabbit?_) or CGI (Gollum from _LotR_) creatures. The jerkiness of the movements, the egregious difference in resolution…all of it just screams “ **CHEESE!** ” to me. Can we agree to disagree? Hey…put down those stop-motion torches and pitchforks! Sincerely, OneCentStamp “Release the Kraken!” ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movie-special-effects-that-still-hold-up-well/426329/67 "2007-11-15T14:42:18Z")
[QUOTE=H3Knuckles] _laughs out loud at self_ :smack: Why, oh why do I keep adding a year to my age? I’ll be **twenty-four** this Sunday. I was born in '83. PS. Seriously, I’ve been doing that ever since I turned 22. I haven’t the foggiest idea _why_. [/QUOTE] I t’ink it’s wunna dem, whatchcallit, psychomalogical t’ings. 😃 My usual impulse is to subtract years… ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movie-special-effects-that-still-hold-up-well/426329/68 "2007-11-15T17:16:42Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] You want bad Kong? Go see the 1976 Dino de Laurentiis tragedy.… The film has nothing to recommend it. [/QUOTE] There is _one_ scene, where Jessica Lange is drugged, the gates are opened, and she is chained on the platform to be sacrificed to Kong. The direction, photography, sound mix, and editing are all superior to the 1933 version. John Guillermin directed one of the best post-MGM Tarzan movies (not to mention _Shaft in Africa_), so he had experience with scenes like that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movie-special-effects-that-still-hold-up-well/426329.md?page=3)