In 1933, King Kong is considered by many to be the first giant monster movie ever in cinema. It contains groundbreaking filmmaking aesthetics for its time. Including stop motion animation which ushered in a new kind of special effects for the rest of the 20th century. This film is responsible for so much going forward. Without it, no one could ever imagine seeing a creature terrorize Tokyo, Japan. Or see lifelike dinosaurs in the silver screen. SPOILERS will appear.
1. Creature Feature
Since I chose this month to be mostly movies about making movies, I decided that this would be a great compromise because I wanted to review some giant monster movies. The film starts with director Carl Denham who is looking for an actress in his next film. He shoots safari movies and plans to shoot his next one in a mythical island. He goes into New York City to find any woman who looks the part.
He meets Ann who tells him that she has a minimal acting experience. That convinces Denham to be in his next film. Soon, Denham’s crew on the ship Venture sails to the island. Denham and the ship’s first mate Jack discuss about the mythical island where Carl is going. This is the part where we get to hear about Kong. It’s this moment where we only hear just glimpses of the creature since Denham wants to film it for his new feature.
As the crew come down and explore the island, they encounter a native tribe that plans to sacrifice a woman for Kong. The islanders kidnap Ann and have her be the new sacrifice. It is then we get to see Kong. For 1933, his movements is the best thing in the movie, I’ll elaborate more on the film’s techniques. So the crew go into the island and see more creatures that are dinosaurs as they try to rescue the woman from the giant ape.
For one thing, the whole story can be interpreted as the folly of man through greed. Denham is the antagonist of the movie since he wants to see Kong by any means necessary. He even goes far to bring explosives that contains anesthetic. When the situation changes since his crew has been mauled and killed by the various creatures in the island. Denham wants to use Kong as a display. There’s never a moment when he has a conscience that his ambition goes too far or just his actions are literally having people being killed.
It’s not technically brand new in storytelling since it’s human nature to want something and have it just blow up in disastrous ways. His motive is relevant since years before King Kong was released, films called travelogues which were movies that have shots of exotic places since people didn’t have the luxury to actually go to those locations. Additionally, there were films that have shown aboriginal people in their native habitat. It could be that Denham’s own ego wanted to replicate that but include the giant ape.
2. Groundbreaking
The word groundbreaking can’t be used in the lightest of terms when describing just how King Kong changed everything for special effects. Other than the fact that the creature and the other dinosaur inhabitants of Skull Island were in stop motion, the whole film was dynamic enough to have it be playing concurrent with our human characters. Looking more into it, when the crew are walking by a dead Stegosaurus, that footage is being projected to give the illusion that the characters are walking by it. This method comes before anybody decided to use green screen or blue screen. Even now, the method is being updated with a new setting called StageCraft.
More so, when the special effects are playing, the characters are being projected into the scenery. Frame by frame is the footage for the actors moving going alongside the movements of Kong and the other creatures. A little detail is that when Kong picks up a human, they are even in stop motion as well. Directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack were pioneers of putting regular characters in an exotic landscape that wouldn’t be perfected until Star Wars came out roughly 40 years later. Aside from that, Kong’s hands and face were controlled as well since we have closeups of him grabbing Ann and having humans in his mouth. I will say, Kong’s face up close looks goofy, but I’ll give it a pass.
I might as well talk about the stop motion more. Most of it is quaint since it’s a privilege to watch any creature be made in a computer. Watching Kong move without seeing any moves in his muscle has to be one of the most intricate and time-consuming method any artist has to do. Seeing both Kong and the T-Rex fight is the highlight of the movie. That whole sequence must’ve been a months long job to get right. I read that director Peter Jackson wanted to do a deleted scene of the film for the DVD release. Him and his film crew copied the same method that Cooper’s crew used and noted that it’s very time consuming. Just to put it out there, that deleted scene is only in the special features.
3. Beauty and The Beast
Another way to view the story is through the tale of “Beauty and The Beast”. Hell, Denham even says that his whole approach to having Kong in New York is just that. Having the creature be defensive about Ann is interesting since out of all the women that was used as a sacrifice, he is captivated by Ann. In one moment, he fends off a Pteranodon from swiping the woman off the cliff.
Kong is probably the only monster to have his own credit in any film as far as I know. Despite the animators creating a pain staking representation of him as an ape, he has a personality. He’s not just a brute by any means. It’s even interpreted that he’s the last of his kind. When he’s in New York, he’s not just some monster running amok, he’s a lost animal that’s out of his element. He kidnaps Ann since he thinks that Jack will do something bad to her. Him climbing on top of the Empire State Building is poetic since it reminds him of being on his cliff and just banging on his chest to declare that he is king.
4. A King’s Legacy
When you talk about what this film has done going forward, nobody could’ve anticipated what would come after. Little do people know that this film has a sequel. Son of Kong was released the same year as this one, with a smaller budget and small time to film, the movie was considered a disappointment. 30 years later, Japanese studio Toho released King Kong vs. Godzilla, which marked the first time both monsters appeared together and in color. A sequel was released which featured a new monster called Mechani-Kong. 50 years later, they would appear again in Godzilla vs. Kong.
Back in the United States, Kong was remade in 1976. It pales in comparison with the original since the film takes place in its time. A sequel was made and it sucked. Peter Jackson remade the film in 2005. It’s been hailed as a great remake of the classic. The film has the same 30s setting and giving Kong more personality. Yet another Kong movie was released but is connected with the Warner Bros.’ Monsterverse film series. Kong: Skull Island is a great monster movie that leads up to him fighting against Godzilla.
Aside from numerous Kong films, his first movie started an influx of monster movies that will follow. Some were tied due to the atomic age much like his Japanese counterpart. It would be years later where computer generated imagery made stop motion be extinct when Jurassic Park came out in the early 90s. Just one more thing, Donkey Kong was partly inspired by the popular ape and created a video game franchise for Nintendo.
5. Overall
Bottom line I love this movie, this is the oldest movie I have reviewed in this blog. Although, that mold will soon be broken don’t you worry. This film is a gamechanger by every meaning of the word for cinema. Watching it will give everyone an appreciation of just how far the medium has come in terms of special effects.
King Kong gets a five out of five.
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