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Film Review: King Kong (1933)
Fig. 1 King Kong (1933) Film Poster
Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack’s ‘King Kong’ is a film of many themes from the
judgement of humanity to romance. A monster adventure film, ‘King Kong’ follows the plot of an
island-dwelling ape creature that lusts over the ownership of Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) after a director
takes his crew and star to shoot his film on Skull Island.
The film explores parables about human-animal relationships with the fear Kong generates
in Darrow, the hate generated in Darrow’s rescuers but also the fear and hate in Kong himself
towards those who will not leave him peacefully. The theme of Beauty and the Beast is evident
throughout with Kong portraying the alienated outcast, Darrow the constant and those around her,
the misinterprets. At points Kong seems like a lost child, trying to discover and understand his place
in life. One key scene that shows his childish behaviour is where he pulls a dead dinosaur’s jaw about
to check it is dead. That is his understanding of death…simplicity. This could also be applied to his
want for Darrow; young children are fixated by beauty around them and Kong sees this beauty in
Darrow so wants to keep her. A text that does this similarly is Matthew Weiner’s ‘Mad Men’ where
when character Betty Draper gets asked to babysit the young boy is extremely interested in her and
her pretty hair and asks to keep a strand.
Cooper and Schoedsack’s film is full of racist and sexual discrimination and conforms to
Tessa Perkin’s theory on stereotypes and whereas, a 1930s audience would see this as normal
behaviour a more contemporary audience may feel shocked by the shear amount that takes place.
Even though this may not have been Copper and Schoedsack’s intentions this may make audiences
now even more empathetic with King Kong. The use of binary oppositions of Darrow and Kong’s
colouring just makes Kong seem all the more alienated and different but this doesn’t stop him saving
Darrow from all the horrors she faces throughout the film, even if he himself is considered one. ‘But
“King Kong” is more than a technical achievement. It is also a curiously touching fable in which the
beast is seen, not as a monster of destruction, but as a creature that in its own way wants to do
the right thing.’ (Ebert, 2002) Kong’s acts to protect Darrow seem so selfless compared to John
Driscoll’s (Bruce Cabot) attempts. Kong only resorts to violence when he himself is targeted
whereas; the humans automatically start using whatever weapons they can get their hangs on. In
this respect Kong is represented as more human than the film’s humanity itself and the audience
follow with the ideology of Kong as an archetype of many films to come where ‘monster’ is actually
the hero.
Fig. 2 King Kong’s childlike behaviour
The sets and production themselves also add to the narrative of Cooper and Shoedsack’s
‘King Kong’. The environments are so well composed through their foreground, mid-ground and
background that the audience is just automatically drawn in and become ever more emotive with
the screenplay. In ways, these cleverly composed shots make us believe we are actually a part of the
film so when Kong defeats the dinosaurs and brings down the bi planes we release our breath and
cheer.
Kong is the real energy of the film and along with the stop motion animation and
animatronics he is brought further to life. Yes these effects are so old that some may feel they are
rather cheesy and laughable when matched against the special effects we have now but ‘King Kong’
isn’t about being the most realistically and powerfully animated film. Instead, it is the emotion
brought forth through these ‘laughable’ effects that are so time consuming to produce which makes
‘King Kong’ stand out from other films. We forget how old the film is because of how much this
emotion immerses us in the narrative. ‘While the special effects that really came to symbolize the
film look a bit ragged and prehistoric today, they carry an emotional weight that remains
unequalled by modern CGI trickery and model work.’ (Breese, 2004)
Fig. 3 The defeat of the bi planes
The actual stop motion itself is something ‘King Kong’ is remembered for. Its clumsy
jerkiness stands out throughout the film but it is something that causes much disagreement. Some
feel that the actual jerkiness adds to Kong’s character; imperfect, explorative and well human. Each
of these individual little movements brings its own emotion to the screen and some films nowadays
just don’t do this as effectively. The glossed over, smoothly operated animation just doesn’t match
in emitting emotion as the somewhat fragility of the animatronic Kong. ‘There has always been a
somewhat more frightening aspect to Kong because of the somewhat jerkiness resulting from stop
motion animation.’ (Hatfield, 2011) Yet others feel this animation makes Kong less appealing to
audiences because it feels destructive with its heavy footed motion making Kong seem much more
animalistic than he may be meant to be portrayed. However, this jerkiness could link in with the idea
of Kong as childlike; he is physically evolving as his personality does throughout the film.
Bibliography
Ebert, R. (2002) rogerebert.com
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20020203/REVIEWS08/202030301/102
3 (Accessed 06/11/11)
Breeze, K. (2004) filmcritic.com http://www.filmcritic.com/reviews/1933/king-kong/ (Accessed
06/11/11)
Hatfield, JJ. (2004) cityonfire.com http://www.cityonfire.com/king-kong-1933/ (Accessed 06/11/11)
List of Illustrations
Fig. 1. King Kong (1933) Film Poster From: King Kong Directed by: Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B.
Schoedsack. [film poster] On moviegoods.com
http://www.moviegoods.com/Assets/product_images/1010/433480.1010.A.jpg (Accessed
06/11/11)
Fig. 2. King Kong’s childlike behaviour From: King Kong Directed by: Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B.
Schoedsack. [film footage] On youtube.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBmlaDBVRik
(Accessed 06/11/11)
Fig. 3. The defeat of the bi planes From: King Kong Directed by: Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B.
Schoedsack. [film still] On fanpop.com http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/2800000/King-
Kong-1933-king-kong-2814496-2400-1891.jpg (Accessed 06/11/11)