King Kong - Review

 Fig 1 - Poster

King Kong is a Pre-code 1933 fantasy monster adventure film co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. The film tells the story of Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) who agrees to star in a film directed by Carl Denham. They voyage to an unknown mysterious island where Ann is captured by the natives and is offered to the mighty Kong.

“The ape may be a monster, but he's also an innocent in love.” (Kim Newman, 2005). Every man/creature has a weakness and the mighty Kong’s is love. The fact Kong has no interest in the black woman from the village shadowed by the great wall what keeps Kong on the other side of the island with the prehistoric creatures is slightly racist but the beauty of Ann makes Kong keep her for his pleasure. Kong grows great affection towards Ann and shows this many times throughout the film by fighting a Tyrannosaurus, a Pterodactyl and a giant snake, risking his life to protect her from them. Emotion is shown from Kong through his eyes, this help show that even though he’s a fifty foot beast, he still has feelings.

 Fig 2 - fight scene

“When Kong battles the large flesh-eating dinosaur in his first big battle scene, there is a moment when he forces its jaws apart, and the bones crack, and blood drips from the gaping throat, and something immediate happens that is hard to duplicate on any computer.” (Roger Ebert, 2002). The scene where Kong fights the T-rex shows another aspect of Kong, his intelligence when fighting the dinosaur. Most of the fighting was with the two giant’s wrestling  with each other until Kong jumps on the T-rex’s back and starts to try grabbing the T-rex’s jaw but has little control other the giant so Kong pins the T-rex to the ground and that’s when Kong has great control over the giant and snaps its jaws apart. Then after the giants fight up, the powerful Kong sits next to the T-rex’s head and plays with the jaws like an innocent child playing with their toys.

“In "Jurassic Park" you are looking, more or less, at a real dinosaur. In "King Kong," you are looking at an idea of a dinosaur, created by hand by technicians who are working with their imaginations.” (Roger Ebert, 2002). The film is the father of many Sc-fi films what have came after it, the designs of the T-rex’s in the film are very toy like, maybe the designs of the Dinosaurs in the film are the designs what inspired or influenced in what toy dinosaurs use to look like. The film was the kick start of all the giant monster films and revolutionised the Sc-Fi genre.

Illustrations

fig 1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Kong_(1933_film)

fig 2 - http://drnorth.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/king-kong-randomised/

Bibliography 

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20020203/REVIEWS08/202030301/1023

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?DVDID=116908