King Kong - Film review

Merian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack's King Kong (1933) is an adventure film where Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) is captured by a large ape like monster and is rescued by Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot)

Fig.1

Acceptable at the time, King Kong is rife with sexism and racism that makes viewing it now rather uncomfortable for most people, although more modern remakes of it have removed the worst elements.

It has also managed to spawn many sequels and has had many homages paid to the ending scenes of Kong fighting against the planes atop the Empire State Building.

Fig.2

The film's success was largely due to the special effects they used, most notably the stop motion used to animate Kong and the dinosaurs, but also the painting on layers of glass to create an illusion of a deep jungle. "The movie plunders every trick in the book to create its illusions, using live action, back projection, stop-motion animation, miniatures, models, matte paintings and sleight-of-hand." (Ebert 2002) 

Fig.3

The film portrays a relationship between Darrow and Driscoll, but then shows Kong as though he is in love with Darrow which leads to people sympathising with Kong rather than vilifying him. "While we start out thinking the romance is between Darrow and Driscoll, it ultimately transfers to Kong and Darrow, even if half that relationship is scared to death. Thus, Kong is a tragic lover, who loves someone and may never feel that love in return." (Fraley 2012)

The film was the start of something new for film making, and whilst it was good at the time it was created, the stilted dialog along with the racism and sexism makes it stand rather poorly as a film to watch nowadays.

Bibliography:
Images:
Figure 1, Poster (1933) [poster] At: http://horrorfreaknews.com/king-kong-1933-review (Accessed on 22 October 2017)
Figure 2, Film still (1933) [film still] At: http://bobbyriverstv.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/race-and-king-kong-1933.html (Accessed on 22 October 2017)
Figure 3, Film still (1933) [film still] At: https://www.allmovie.com/movie/king-kong-v27391 (Accessed on 22 October 2017)
Quotes:
Jason Fraley (2012) At: http://thefilmspectrum.com/?p=5407 (Accessed on 22 October 2017)
Roger Ebert (2002) At: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-king-kong-1933 (Accessed on 22 October 2017)