Faculty of Film, Theater and Animation

CT223

(Screen)

Subject :

FILM THEORY

(CTS 463)

Assignment:

KING KONG (1933) REVIEW

Prepared for:

Mr. Khong Kok Wai

Prepared by:

Mohd Aeidil B. Amdan

2012444546

Submission date:May 10th , 2013

KING KONG (1933) REVIEW

SYNOPSIS

In 1933, in New York harbor Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), a fierce independent

film director famous for shooting animal pictures in remote and exotic locations, who

is also a shifty showman, has recruited a bunch of macho seamen but is unable to

hire an actress for his newest project His usual agent Charles Weston (Sam Hardy)

refuses to supply anyone because of the dangerous nature of the expedition, so Carl

goes wandering in the streets of New York searching for a suitable girl. He chances

upon starving unemployed Ann Darrow (Fay Wray), as she is caught trying to steal

an apple. Denham is taken with her, pays off the grocer , then buys her a meal and

tries to convince her to join him on the adventure of a lifetime, offering her the lead in

his project. Although Ann is apprehensive, she has nothing to lose and agrees. They

set sail aboard the Venture, a tramp steamer, and travel for weeks in the direction of

Indonesia, where Denham claims they will be shooting. Despite his ongoing

declarations that women have no place on board ships, the ship's first mate Jack

Driscoll (Bruce Cabot) is obviously becoming attracted to Ann. Denham informs

Driscoll he has enough trouble without the complications of a seagoing love affair.

Driscoll sneers at the suggestion, reminding Denham of his toughness in past

adventures. Denham's reply outlines the theme of the movie he is making: "The

Beast was a tough guy too. He could lick the world, but when he saw Beauty, she

got him. He went soft. He forgot his wisdom and the little fellas licked him." One

afternoon Carl wants to practice filming with Ann. As he rolls the camera, he tells her

first to look around relaxed, then to look puzzled, surprised, look upwards, then

further upwards, terrorized and speechless, finally to scream loudly for her life, while

staring at the most horrifying thing she has ever seen . .After maintaining secrecy for

weeks, Denham finally tells Driscoll and Captain Englehorn (Frank Reicher) that

they're searching for an uncharted island shown on a map in Denham's possession.

The island has three labeled features: "peninsula", "jungle", and "Skull Mountain".

Denham has the only map that shows the location, originally drawn by a native of the

island who had been swept out to sea.

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KING KONG (1933) REVIEW

Denham then describes something monstrous connected to the island, a legendary

entity known to the islanders only as "Kong". The Captain has heard of something

with that name. As the Venture creeps through the fog surrounding the island, the

crew hears drums in the distance. Arriving at the island's shore, they see a native

village on a peninsula, cut off from the bulk of the island by an enormous wall. A

landing party, including the filming crew and Ann, goes ashore and encounters the

natives, who are about to hand over a girl to Kong as a ritual sacrifice. Although

Denham, Englehorn, Jack and Ann are hiding behind foliage, the native chief (Noble

Johnson) spots them and approaches. Captain Englehorn is able to understand the

native speech, and at Denham's urging makes friendly overtures to the chief.

However, another tribe member (Steve Clemento) rushes up to the chief and tells

him that the presence of outsiders has spoiled the ceremony. While translating this

to the rest of the party, Englehorn says he must be the witch doctor.

The chief then gets a clear look at Ann, and he begins speaking with great energy.

Englehorn translates this as, "Look at the golden woman!" The chief proposes to

swap six native women for Ann, an offer Denham delicately declines as he and his

party edge away from the scene, assuring the chief that they will return tomorrow to

get better acquainted. Back on the Venture, Jack and Ann openly express their love

for each other. When Jack is called away to the captain's quarters, a stealthy

contingent of natives captures Ann, takes her back to the wall, where she is

presented to Kong in an elaborate ceremony, leaving her tied to columns behind the

wall. Kong emerges from the jungle and is revealed to be a giant gorilla. The Venture

crew returns to the village and open the huge gate on the wall; half of the crew then

go after Kong, encountering an enraged stegosaurus, a brontosaurus, and a

territorial apatosaurus. They get on a makeshift raft to cross a body of water, which

is upended by a giant plesiosaurus.

Up ahead in a jungle clearing, Kong places Ann in a high cleft of a tree, then goes

back and confronts his pursuers as they are crossing a ravine on an enormous log.

Kong shakes them off into the ravine, with only Driscoll and Denham surviving.

Driscoll, continues the chase while Denham returns to get help.. Kong has become

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KING KONG (1933) REVIEW

smitten with Ann, and Driscoll faces a challenge to save her from the beast and

avoid being killed himself. Meanwhile, a tyrannosaurs rex approaches a terrified Ann,

whose screams alert Kong, who rushes back and confronts the tyrannosaurus. The

titanic fight between the two ends when Kong pries open the dinosaur's jaw until it

breaks. Kong takes Ann up to his mountain lair, where a plesiosaurus emerges from

a bubbling swamp and tries to strangle Kong, who kills it as well. Kong then inspects

his blonde prize and begins to caress her, tearing off pieces of her clothing and

tickling her. Jack interrupts the proceedings by knocking over a boulder. When the

gorilla leaves Ann to investigate the noise, a pteranodon swoops from the sky and

clutches Ann in its talons. A final fight ensues and the pterodactyl is dispatched.

While Kong is distracted, Jack rescues Ann and takes her back to the village. To

escape, at one point, they must jump into a deep pool of water many feet below.

Kong chases them, breaks through the large door in the wall and rampages through

the village, killing many natives.

Denham hurls gas bombs at Kong, knocking him out, whereupon he exults in the

opportunity presented: "He's always been King of his world. But we'll teach him fear!

We're millionaires, boys! I'll share it with all of you! Why, in a few months, his name

will be up in lights on Broadway! Kong! The Eighth Wonder of the World!". The next

scene shows those last words in lights on a theater marquee. Along with hundreds of

curious New Yorkers, Denham, Driscoll and Ann are in evening wear for the gala

event. The curtain lifts, and Denham presents a subdued and shackled Kong to the

stunned audience. All goes well until photographers, using the blinding flashbulbs of

the era, begin snapping shots of Ann and Jack, who is now her fiancé. Under the

impression that the flashbulbs are attacking Ann, Kong breaks free of his bonds and

escapes from the theater, as the screaming audience flees. He rampages through

city streets, destroying an elevated train and killing several citizens. He looks into

windows, his glaring eyes looming in the windows of the wrecked elevated train

Kong sees Ann in an upper floor hotel room, he reaches in the window, grabs her,

and carries her to the top of the Empire State Building. The military dispatches four

Curtiss Helldiver biplanes to destroy Kong. The ape gently sets Ann down on the

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KING KONG (1933) REVIEW

building's observation deck and climbs atop the upper mast, trying to fend off the

attackers. He manages to swat one plane down, but he is mortally wounded by

machine-gun fire and plummets to his death in the street below. Denham picks his

way to the front of the crowd, where a cop remarks "Well Denham, the airplanes got

him." Denham replies, "It wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast."

In my view, King Kong is a true classic, and one of the best adventure movies ever

made. I prefer the 2005 version because it's a lot more intense, but the original must

have been completely amazing back in 1933. Even by today's standards it's fairly fun

and exciting. And as far as content goes, this is a great family movie. There's some

violence. Kong breaks a T-Rex's jaw and then smashes in its skull (just like in the

2005 version), Kong snacks on people like popcorn and smashes them into the

ground, and Kong destroys things and eats people in New York. This all would be

very disturbing if Kong and the dinosaurs looked real, but it's not, you can tell they're

puppets easily. This film right here is a masterpiece It is almost completely flawless,

and is just one of the greatest motion pictures around. Actors Fay Wray and Robert

Armstrong played their roles beautifully, and who can forget the wonderful scene in

which Robert Armstrong directs Fay Wray in a screen test which ends in a horrifying

scream that let's us know there destination, Skull Island, will be nothing close to a

happy vacation. Also, I thought the stop-motion people did great with Kong and the

other prehistoric creatures, especially Kong because they actually gave a lump of

clay and hair genuine emotions, which makes us root for him while he famously

swats at horrible bi-planes atop the Empire State Building. A spectacular piece of

film history, this is one movie you will forever remember and love.

Beauty and the Beast

I was blown away by this small yet enormous tale about the enormous gorilla Kong,

which this groupon of film makers find on an island they had no business being on,

but it was for the sake of making a movie. After a dozen deaths, they gas and ship

Kong to Broadway where he breaks free, and the rest is history. This movie is so

gripping even after being 75+ years old and because of that fact I think it is one of

the finest films of all time.

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KING KONG (1933) REVIEW

The Special Effects

Kong was an "animatronic" movie star before the word was minted, and while stop-

motion animation had been done, no one had ever pulled it off on the scale of King

Kong - especially on a shoestring budget. Early stop-motion genius Willis

O'Brien also did a superb job with the dinosaurs, animating them so accurately that

he anticipated future scientific discoveries about the way real dinosaurs moved. In

1933, audiences hadn't seen many gorillas, even in zoos, and nothing like a giant

ape twisting the neck of a T-Rex until the blood gooped out. They'd never seen a

brontosaurus chomping on crew members, a "giant" iguana scaling a miniature set

or any of the other tricks that would become commonplace in years to come.

So what if Kong keeps changing size in relation to the world? If his fur ripples oddly

in the skyscraper scenes (marked by fingertips as he was posed for each shot)? So

what if Kong's big, bear paw is clearly mechanical as he plucks off bits of Ann's

dress? Crude by today's lights, these special effects were all new, big and

sensational in 1933. The low-budget fantasy was a gargantuan hit and a huge

money-maker.

The Backstory

Some of King Kong's juicier moments were censored for its 1938 re-release, after

the Hays Production Code had gone into effect. The scene of the besotted ape

partially undressing Ann and tickling her was deemed too risqué. Scenes of Kong

squishing helpless villagers into the mud, eating various people and throwing a

woman to her death were thought too violent.

There's disagreement over why a scene of crew members being eaten by a giant

crab and a huge spider was deleted. Some say it was cut for reasons of pacing;

others because a test audience found it too gruesome. The scene was restored in

the 2005 remake by Kong aficionado and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.

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KING KONG (1933) REVIEW

'King Kong' - The Bottom Line

While it may seem melodramatic, even cheesy today, King Kong was a work of

enormous creativity, vision and huge ambition in 1933. It taps into the enduring

themes of the primitive world versus civilization, art and exploitation, fear, desire and

sexual taboos. It retells the ancient tale of beauty and the beast on a literally gigantic

scale.

Cinematography

The one aspect of King Kong that saw much innovation was its cinematography.  For

example, rear projection, dummy miniature models of characters, and other cameral

tricks that were adopted during the making of this film were to become standard

procedures in the film industry.  In spite of such revolutionary innovations, King Kong

did not receive even a single Academy Award nomination.  The category where it

would have swept all prizes was “Special Effects”.  Since there was no separate

“Special Effects” department during the 1930s, this coveted recognition evaded King

Kong.  Also, the constant depiction of violence in the film and the popular acclaim

that it received might have swayed the decision of members of the Academy.

The director maintains an element of suspense and mystery during the adventurous

voyage to an island, whose inhabitants are not known to the outside world.  First of

all, Denham, on whose orders the ship is run, does not disclose any information

regarding their destination when the ship leaves shore.  He finally decides to brief his

crew members of their impending exotic experience.  Even at that point there were

more questions than answers.  The crew only had a vague conception of their

enterprise.  The director is not just keeping his crew members in a state of

uncertainty and anxiety, but also the audience .  Movies in the horror genre exploit

this aspect of human psychology very well.  This is a time-tested technique used in

narrative arts of all types – novels, plays, movies, etc., to keep the audience hooked

to the narrative.  Again, this is classic Hollywood.  The narrative technique, which

was very effective in arousing audience interest found varied expression in Alfred

Hitchcock movies decades later.

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KING KONG (1933) REVIEW

The second half of the film is a showcase of visual innovations.  The scene where

King Kong would mount the Empire State building with his lady love in hand was

masterfully crafted.  Here, the giant beast takes on an array of fighter planes.  The

use of miniature models in arriving at a real-life visual effect was so perfect that it

would escape our notice

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References

1933 King Kong Classic Movie Review - The Original King Kong Classic Movie.

(n.d.). Retrieved May 9, 2013, from

http://classicfilm.about.com/od/earlysciencefiction/fr/King_Kong.htm

King Kong by David N. Rosen. (n.d.). Retrieved May 9, 2013, from

http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC06folder/KingKong.html

King Kong (1933) - Movie Review. (n.d.). Retrieved May 9, 2013, from

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/king-kong-1933

King Kong (1933) - Synopsis. (n.d.). Retrieved May 9, 2013, from

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024216/synopsis

King Kong (1933): An Analysis | Jotted Lines. (n.d.). Retrieved May 9, 2013, from

http://jottedlines.com/media-studies/king-kong-1933-an-analysis/

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