King Kong (1933) - Film Review.

Figure 1: Kong Film Poster.

The creative force that is King Kong (1933) was directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack and written by the visionary minds of James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose.  Devised from the ideology of beauty and the beast, it shows Kong to lose sense of the world around him in order to ‘protect’ Ann (Fay Wray), who throughout the film since after meeting Kong is clearly distressed and anxious of Kong’s possessive tendencies. Forming a whirlwind of cinematography as it “plunders every trick in the book to create its illusions” (Ebert, 2002) for the audiences at the time of its release date. (Figure 1).

Figure 2: Ann kidnapped by tribes' people.

At the time of King Kong’s (1933) release America was at the peak of the Great Depression (1929-1939), most citizens were unemployed and some even left homeless due to companies going out of business. So, for Hollywood to put out the blockbuster King Kong (1933) it not only created jobs, but it also allowed those a place to escape from reality and submerge themselves in an action-packed adventure if only for a little while. Kong depicts themes of adventure and exploration into the unknown, allowing audiences of the time to feel as if they are with the actors, experiencing the terror and excitement instilled in the early primitive talkie as “the sets and locations added greatly to the realism of this fantastic story” (THR Staff, 2018). Kong also explores themes of race and gender stereotypes throughout the moving picture, although subliminal to the audience at first becomes more apparent in contrast to recent cinematic themes we see today. These being the typical stereotype of women relying on men to provide for them; as seen early on in the picture where Ann goes to pick up an apple from a street kiosk and gets caught by the owner; which then proceeds to her meeting Carl Denham for the first time and getting a job in his new moving picture. Others being racial towards other ethnicity's within society, as shown within the tribes’ people on Skull Island (figure 2) and how they are made out to seem uncivilized and somewhat barbaric to the Denham’s film crew. At the time people wouldn’t have batted an eye at its racial implications as African Americans were still segregated and discriminated against within society; but in today’s modern industry, audiences may feel uncomfortable at the connotations Kong implies to different ethnic groups. As Mark C. Smith mentions “Kong has been interpreted as a symbol for persecuted blacks and seen as a metaphor for man’s destruction of the environment.” (Smith, M. C, 1991).

Figure 3: Stop-Motion Sets.

Figure 4: Kong Background Projection.

King Kong (1933) however despite its implicit and suggestive messages, can be seen as “more than a technical achievement” (Ebert, 2002) as it explores a range of skills and techniques such as “live action, back projection, stop motion animation, miniatures, models, matte paintings and sleight-of-hand.” (Ebert, 2002) across the film. Through combining different elements within one action packed film it creates a stronger foundation to build on for man-made special effects and evoke a response from the audience; similarly to Metropolis (1927), King Kong (1933) uses miniaturized (figure 3) sets especially when it comes to scenes where Kong is fighting with other predators of Skull Island (figure 4); that is projected to a backdrop behind the actors to give Kong and his opponents height and appear more threatening to the actors and audiences. The technical advances in Kong have paved the way and helped influence films in terms of graphics and how images are superimposed into cinematic scenes as seen in films like Jurassic Park (1993) and Godzilla (1998) where they incorporate large scale monstrosities into the shot with the actors.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Ebert, R (2002) King Kong movie review & film summary (1933) | Roger Ebert https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-king-kong-1933 [Accessed 16th October 2019]. In text citation: (Ebert, 2002).

THR Staff (2018) 'King Kong' Review: 1933 Movie | Hollywood Reporter https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/king-kong-review-1933-movie-1070365 [Accessed 16th October 2019]. In text citation: (THR Staff, 2018).

Smith, M. C (1991) FILM : Everything's Monkey-Dory in 'Kong' - Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-10-24-ol-253-story.html [Accessed 16th October 2019]. In text citation: (Smith, M. C, 1991).

ILLUSTRATION LIST:

King Kong (1933) figure 1: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024216/mediaviewer/rm3978610176 [Accessed 16th October 2019].

King Kong (1933) figure 2: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024216/mediaviewer/rm2230832128 [Accessed 16th October 2019].

King Kong (1933) figure 3: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024216/mediaviewer/rm4153838337 [Accessed 16th October 2019].

King Kong (1933) figure 4: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024216/mediaviewer/rm1639024384 [Accessed 16th October 2019].