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Congo (film)

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Congo is a 1995 American science fiction action-adventure film based on the 1980 novel by Michael Crichton. It was directed by Frank Marshall and stars Laura Linney, Dylan Walsh, Ernie Hudson, Grant Heslov, Joe Don Baker and Tim Curry. The film was released on June 9, 1995, by Paramount Pictures and tells the story of an expedition team and a mountain gorilla owned by one of its members who go to the Congo jungles to find a missing expedition and the ruins of an ancient civilization where diamonds might be located while encountering the gray gorillas that lurk near there.[1][2]

Congo
Theatrical release poster
Directed byFrank Marshall
Screenplay byJohn Patrick Shanley
Based onCongo
by Michael Crichton
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyAllen Daviau
Edited byAnne V. Coates
Music byJerry Goldsmith
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • June 9, 1995 (1995-06-09)
Running time
108 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$50 million
Box office$152 million

It received negative reviews, but performed better than expected at the box office.[3]

Plot

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Searching for rare blue diamonds that could enable a revolutionary communications laser, TraviCom employees Charles Travis and Jeffrey Weems discover the ruins of a lost city near a remote volcano in the Congo jungle.

Karen Ross, Charles's ex-fiancée and a former CIA operative, and R.B. Travis, Charles's father and the CEO of TraviCom, lose contact with the team while tracking their progress at the company headquarters. A remote camera shows the camp destroyed and strewn with corpses, before an ape-like creature destroys the camera. Travis asks Karen to lead another expedition to the site.

Primatologist Peter Elliott and his assistant Richard teach human communication to a mountain gorilla named Amy, whose sign language is translated into a digitized voice. Peter is concerned by Amy's drawings of jungles and the Eye of Providence, and wants to return her to Africa. Karen and Romanian philanthropist Herkermer Homolka join the expedition.

The group flies to Uganda and meets wilderness guide Monroe Kelly. Military leader Captain Wanta warns them not to trust Homolka and lets them proceed only upon receipt of a large bribe. On their journey via Tanzania and then Zaire, Monroe reveals that Homolka has led previous, disastrous safaris in search of the "Lost City of Zinj". Their plane is shot down as they parachute into the jungle.

A native tribe leads them to Bob Driscoll, a wounded member of Charles's expedition who dies screaming upon sight of Amy. The group continues by boat and they learn that Homolka believes Amy can lead them to the mine. They find the ruined camp near the City of Zinj. Richard and some porters are killed by a gray gorilla. The group keeps the gray gorillas at bay with automated sentry guns.

At daybreak, they explore the city and surmise from hieroglyphs that the inhabitants bred the gray gorillas to guard the mine. At the mine, Homolka begins collecting diamonds only to be killed by the gray gorillas. Monroe, Karen, and Peter flee deeper into the mine where they discover Jeffrey and Charles's bodies with the latter still holding a giant blue diamond. Karen fits the diamond into a portable laser and uses it to kill several gray gorillas. The volcano erupts and the four escape as lava floods the city killing the gray gorillas.

Karen reports to Travis. Realizing Travis was only interested in the diamond, Karen destroys the TraviCom satellite. They find a hot-air balloon in one of Travis's wrecked cargo planes. Seeing Amy with a troop of mountain gorillas, Peter bids her goodbye. The three take off in the balloon and Karen has Peter throw the diamond into the jungle below. Amy watches the departing balloon then joins the other mountain gorillas.

Cast

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The mountain gorillas and gray gorillas are in-suit performed by Christopher Antonucci, David Anthony, John Munro Cameron, Jay Caputo, Nicholas Kadi, John Alexander Lowe, Garon Michael, Peter Elliott, Brian La Rosa, David St. Pierre, and Philip Tan.

Featuring

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The following were listed under this section in the credits:

Voices

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  • Shayna Fox as the voice of Amy
  • Frank Welker as the gorilla vocal effects
  • Gary A. Hecker & Peter Elliott provide the gorilla vocalization

Production

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Development and writing

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After the success of The First Great Train Robbery, Crichton decided to write a screenplay specifically for Sean Connery as the character Charles Munro, an archetypal "great white hunter" akin to H. Rider Haggard's hero Allan Quatermain.[4] The film was envisioned as an homage to classic pulp adventure tales, and Crichton successfully pitched the movie to 20th Century Fox in 1979 without a fleshed out story.[4] Crichton left the project when he learned that he could not use a real gorilla to portray the character of Amy.[4] It was offered to several directors including Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter.[4] A brief attempt was made to revive the project in the late 1980s.[4] Eventually, Frank Marshall directed the film with little, if any, involvement from Crichton.[4] The film's teaser credits John Patrick Shanley and Crichton as co-screenwriters, but the trailer and the film itself credit Shanley alone.

Originally, Delroy Lindo was set to shoot his scene in the Dominican Republic, but ended up shooting it in Pasadena, California.[5]

The gorilla suits for Amy the mountain gorilla and the gray gorillas as well as the hippopotamus puppet were created by Stan Winston's company Stan Winston Studio.[6]

Release

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Marketing

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A teaser trailer for Congo debuted in theaters on November 18, 1994, with the release of Star Trek Generations. It was also attached to the VHS release of Forrest Gump. Promotional partners included Taco Bell, Pepsi, and Kenner Products.[7]

Home media

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Congo was released on VHS and LaserDisc on November 21, 1995. The LaserDisc release is THX certified and consists of widescreen and pan and scan fullscreen versions, while also featuring a Dolby Digital AC-3 track.[8] A widescreen VHS release debuted a year later on September 10, 1996.[9] The DVD was released on July 27, 1999.

In 2024, ahead of the film's 30th anniversary, Vinegar Syndrome announced a 4K Blu-ray release of the film as part of their "Ultra" sub-label, under license from Paramount and newly remastered from the original film elements.[10]

Reception

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Box office

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Congo was estimated to gross $13–$15 million in its opening weekend, but surprised the industry when it grossed $24.6 million for the weekend, placing number one at the US box office ahead of Casper.[11][12] It was overtaken by Batman Forever during its second weekend.[13] In the United States and Canada, the film grossed $81,022,101. The final worldwide gross was $152,022,101 versus a $50,000,000 budget.[14]

Critical response

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Rotten Tomatoes collected 52 reviews to give the film an approval rating of 23% with a rating average of 4.1/10. The site's consensus states: "Mired in campy visual effects and charmless characters, Congo is a suspenseless adventure that betrays little curiosity about the scientific concepts it purports to care about."[15] Metacritic rated it 22/100 based on 19 reviews, meaning "generally unfavorable reviews".[16] Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times rated it 3 out of 4 stars. He called the film a splendid example of a genre no longer much in fashion, the jungle adventure story.[17] It was nominated for seven Golden Raspberry Awards. Hal Hinson of The Washington Post called the film a "Spielberg knockoff...shamelessly lifting themes and ideas from a handful of Steven's greatest hits." He criticized Amy the gorilla as "the most disappointing 'performance' of all" and opined that the supporting actors, Tim Curry and Ernie Hudson, stood out more than the lead actors.[18]

The A.V. Club's Ignatiy Vishnevetsky said Congo was full of "goofy pleasures" like "delectably goofy" lasers and "mutant killer apes", calling it one of the most enjoyable films that came out of the post–Jurassic Park period. He said he enjoyed the film more as a campy comedy than as the thriller the trailers made it out to be, and concluded with "Is Congo a good film? It's certainly a good time."[19]

Accolades

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Award Category Subject Result
Golden Raspberry Award Worst New Star Amy the Talking Gorilla Nominated
Worst Supporting Actress Nominated
Worst Supporting Actor Tim Curry Nominated
Worst Original Song Jerry Goldsmith "(Feel) the Spirit of Africa" Nominated
Worst Screenplay John Patrick Shanley Nominated
Worst Picture Kathleen Kennedy
Sam Mercer 		Nominated
Worst Director Frank Marshall Nominated
Saturn Award Best Science Fiction Film Kathleen Kennedy
Sam Mercer 		Nominated
Best Director Frank Marshall Nominated

Other media

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Video game

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A video game based on the film, Congo the Movie: The Lost City of Zinj, was released for Sega Saturn in 1996. A different game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis was in development, but was cancelled.[20] Another adventure game was released for PC and Macintosh called Congo the Movie: Descent into Zinj.

Pinball

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A Williams pinball machine named Congo was produced in 1995 that was based on the film.[21]

References

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  1. ^ Turan, Kenneth (June 9, 1995). "MOVIE REVIEW : They Took Crichton Out of the 'Congo'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 24, 2010.
  2. ^ Doll, Pancho (October 13, 1994). "REEL LIFE / FILM & VIDEO FILE : Crichton 'Congo' Crew Beats a Path to Simi Ranch : A menagerie helps create the setting of a jungle airstrip. Another thriller is shot at a Potrero Road house". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 24, 2010.
  3. ^ Natale, Richard (June 12, 1995). "800-Pound Gorilla Takes a Seat on Box-Office Bus : Movies: Ape tale 'Congo' opens huge despite bad reviews, bumping 'Casper' to second place. 'Bridges of Madison County' takes third, shows promise of a long life". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 2, 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Lambie, Ryan (September 12, 2016). "The strange prehistory of 1995's Congo". Den of Geek. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  5. ^ Nemiroff, Perri (March 2, 2021). "'Stop Eating My Sesame Cake!': Delroy Lindo Revisits His Unforgettable Scene in 'Congo'". Collider. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  6. ^ "Stan Winston School of Character Arts".
  7. ^ Kilday, Gregg (June 30, 1995). "Congo's surprise box office success". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on July 10, 2022. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
  8. ^ "'Apollo 13' Soars Into The VCR Universe". Newsday (Nassau Edition). November 24, 1995. p. 131. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  9. ^ King, Susan (August 16, 1996). "'Letterbox' Brings Wide Screen Home". Times Staff Writer. Los Angeles Times. p. 96. Archived from the original on March 11, 2023. Retrieved March 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.  
  10. ^ "Congo". Vinegar Syndrome. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
  11. ^ "800-Pound Gorilla Takes a Seat on Box-Office Bus : Movies: Ape tale 'Congo' opens huge despite bad reviews, bumping 'Casper' to second place. 'Bridges of Madison County' takes third, shows promise of a long life". Los Angeles Times. June 12, 1995.
  12. ^ Klady, Leonard (June 19, 1995). "'Bat' blitz bodes new B.O. era". Variety. p. 11.
  13. ^ "'Batman' Takes a Bite Out of 'Jurassic' Record: Movies: Third Bat film soars to an estimated opening weekend gross of $53 million. 'Pocahontas' makes a staggering $2.7 million in just six--albeit large--theaters". Los Angeles Times. June 19, 1995.
  14. ^ Eller, Claudia (June 13, 1995). "Company Town : At the Box Office, Literary Prestige Is One for the Books". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 24, 2010.
  15. ^ "Congo". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved August 30, 2024.
  16. ^ "Congo". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. August 2, 2016. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
  17. ^ Ebert, Roger (June 9, 1995). "Congo Movie Review & Film Summary (1995)". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  18. ^ Hinson, Hal (June 9, 1995). "Congo Review". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
  19. ^ Vishnevetsky, Ignatiy (April 28, 2021). "It's no Jurassic Park, but fellow Crichton adaptation Congo has goofy pleasures galore". The A.V. Club. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
  20. ^ Nielsen, Martin; Hedger, Greg (September 12, 2003). "CONGO: THE SECRET OF ZINJ - UNRELEASED, FORGOTTEN AND REDISCOVERED..." NESWORLD. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  21. ^ "Williams Pinball machine 'Congo' in the Internet Pinball Machine Database". Internet Pinball Machine Database. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
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