King Kong

Year:  1933

Directors:  Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack

Screenplay:  James Creelman and Ruth Rose, from a story by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper

Starring:  Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot

Running Time:  104 minutes

Genre:  Fantasy, horror

Wildlife filmmaker Carl Denham (Armstrong) leads an expedition to a mysterious, remote island.  Among the party is Ann Darrow (Wray), a woman who Denham encountered in New York and convinced to accompany him in order to play the female lead in his film.  Shortly after they arrive on the island, Ann is captured by local villagers who sacrifice her to their god, Kong, a giant gorilla who lives in the thick jungle behind a giant wall which protects the village from the horrors in the jungle.  The rest of the expedition set out to rescue Ann only to find a nightmarish "lost world" is the jungle populated by prehistoric beasts.  Meanwhile Denham decides that instead of bringing film of Kong back to America, it would be a much bigger money-maker to bring back Kong himself.

This is one of the most influential and beloved films ever made, and still possibly the definitive monster movie.  The film has dated somewhat over the past ninety years, it's pretty suspect today in the way that the local indigenous people on the island are treated, and also the male characters are extremely sexist (the film opens with Denham, the ship's first mate (Bruce Cabot), skipper (Frank Reicher) and a theatrical agent (Sam Hardy) discussing how much they do not want a woman on their journey, like a bunch of little boys who don't want to let girls into their club, however Denham reluctantly maintains that they need a woman to make their film more commercial).  Also there are the technical limitations of early sound recording, which required the actors to stand near a microphone to record their voices.  The special effects developed by Willis O'Brien, are notable for their use of "stop motion" animation (basically with stop motion a posable model is put into the required position and a photograph is taken, the model is then moved very slightly and another picture is taken, then it is moved slightly again  and another picture is taken and the process is repeated again and again and again, and eventually when the pictures are run together it should look like the creature is moving, it's very painstaking and time-consuming but can be very effective).  When Kong moves you can see his fur moving in strange ways due to the fingerprints of the animators moving the model.  Kong is a terrifying, savage force of nature.  In his island home he really is "King" Kong, defeating several dinosaur  adversaries, including a memorable battle with a Tyrannosaurus (which took seven weeks to animate).  However, when Kong is captured and taken to New York, where he is put on display in chains, it is hard not to feel sympathy for his rage, bafflement and fear, and you can't really blame him when he breaks out and goes on a rampage.  It is his fascination with Ann, who he treats with surprising tenderness, that brings about his downfall, culminating in one of the most iconic scenes in all of cinema where Kong is at the top of the Empire State Building (the tallest building in the world at the time) being gunned down by planes which he tries to swat like flies.  The film's true villain is the reckless Carl Denham, who at the very least is criminally irresponsible, in the risks he exposes others to in order to make his film, he puts his entire crew at risk, as well as Ann, and happily sacrifices the lives of the villagers on the island, as well as bringing Kong to New York in the first place.  However he is given the film's final line, surveying Kong's body in front of the Empire State Building a character comments "Well, the airplanes got 'im".  Denham replies "No, it wasn't the airplanes.  It was beauty that killed the beast."