King Kong Merian C.

Cooper (1933)
King Kong is a 1933 film directed by Merian C. Cooper about an independent film director in New York who has a fascination with filming to amaze his audience. The film opens with Carl Denham who has put together a crew of strong seamen to film his next movie, which is not yet revealed to the audience. However, he cant find an actress to be in the film as he has been refused by agents because of the danger his voyages entail. He meets an unemployed starving girl, Anne Darrow, and convinces her to join him. As they set sail for Indonesia, Jack Driscoll the first mate, who is against having Ann on board, starts to become attracted to her. Denham, after weeks of secrecy and avoiding the crew, finally tells them that they are looking for an island thought to be myth, and the inhabitants on this island have built a wall to ward away the great Kong. Figure. 01 They soon find the island, with the help of the natives rhythmic drumming. Denham, Driscoll and Darrow and a handful of crew members disembark and follow the sound to a ritual where the natives are preparing a sacrifice. The natives spot Denham with his camera secretly filming them, and the chief spots Darrow and wants to trade to women for her, Denham refuses and says he will return the next day to become more acquainted. Late, as the crew are sleeping, some of the natives sneak onto the shop and kidnap Darrow and take her back as a sacrifice, and Denham, Driscoll and the some of the crew go to save her. They see Kong rip her from her binds and take her into the jungle; half of the crew follow him and the other half stay to ward off the natives. The half of the crew in the jungle discovers that along with Kong, there are dinosaurs that have survived extinction and evolved. When the crew encounter Kong he kills most of the crew, leaving Driscoll and Denham. Driscoll goes back to warn the rest of the crew while Denham stays to save Anne. Denham follows Kong to a cave where he has Anne hostage, and as a Pterodactyl tries to take Anne Kong intervenes and while preoccupied Denham rescues Anne and the run back to the village and lock the gates. Kong, noticing Darrow missing follows and breaks down the gates and rampages against the village killing many of the natives and crew members. Denham throws gas bombs at Kong and he falters and finally becomes unconscious. One of the most famous lines in film history is then uttered as Denham says to the crew, were millionaires boys, Ill share it with all of you! His name will be up in lightsKong! The Eighth Wonder of the World! This scene is followed by those words in lights, on Broadway. Thousands of people are coming to see Kong and during the show Kong, who sees Darrow, gets angry and slashes his chains and rampages the city looking for her.

The final scene is one of the most iconic and most re-created. It follows Kong as he climbs the tallest building in New York and is being attacked by planes. However, we see a different side to him; while he is being attacked he is constantly trying to move Anne out the harms way. Kong finally falls to his death and the final tagline from Denham is it was Beauty that killed the beast implying that it was his love for Anne and for safety that he sacrificed himself. Figure. 02 The film was deemed simple but believable (Haflidason, 2001) as the plot, although imaginative, it was simple and the audience can connect to both characters; they can connect with Anne and her fear with Kong wondering if he will inevitably kill her, but they also have an unfounded connection with Kong with his obvious love of Anne. It taps into the enduring themes of the primitive world versus civilization (Boeder) this was an amazing milestone in 1933 as although much of the world was discovered, not much was known about the different cultures. This film, although with its iconic nature, has racist and sexist elements, albeit not a malicious manner. The times were different, and the natives were very reminiscent of Africans and showing them performing odd rituals and sacrifices in grass skirts. It also portrays women as weak and not up to going on voyages, this is most prominent when Driscoll says to Darrow that women are a Figure. 03 nuisance.

Illustrations: Figure 01. King Kong. (c. 1933) [Film Poster] http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vUY7V--wJVM/TYGzmKcfDI/AAAAAAAAAVE/b5oZjCPoeBQ/s1600/King+Kong+Poster.jpg Figure 02. King Kong. Empire State Building. Directed by: Merian C. Cooper (1933) [Film Still] http://ricochetmonkey.com/images/figure%204%20king%20kong.jpg Figure 03. King Kong. Kong vs. T Rex. Directed by: Merian C. Cooper (1933) [Film Still] http://www.dinosaurcentral.com/protosite/images/bestscenes/King_Kong_1933.jpg

Bibliography: Haflidason, A (BBC, 2001) [Online] http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/01/30/king_kong_1933_review.shtml Boeder, L (Classic Film, date unknown) [Online] http://classicfilm.about.com/od/earlysciencefiction/fr/King_Kong.htm