Set mostly during the early 1970s this was a surprisingly harrowing interpretation of the King Kong theme.
Conceptually it was well intentioned but the sudden changes in tone from war movie to adventure movie seemed at times a little jarring. Visually spectacular there were a few shots very reminiscent of Apocalypse Now.
There was certainly an attempt of the movie to make it an allegory for the nature and meaning of war as represented by the actions of the military vs King Kong. There were also scene elements that was suggestive of Moby Dick.