12 Movies Challenge: 'King Kong'

by Julian Spivey

Photo: RKO Pictures

The O.G. “King Kong,” directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, was one of the American Film Institute selections on my list this year that I honestly wasn’t all that excited to see.

These sorts of action-monster films have never really been high on my list of interests, and I wasn’t sure if a film like this, that was released more than 90 years ago, would hold up.

I came away feeling that “King Kong” is a good movie, though, based on my interests, it will not rank too highly on my list of all-time favorite classics. But I was pretty mesmerized by how well it all worked, and I could imagine that when audiences first saw this thing in 1933, their minds must have been completely blown.

You absolutely can’t watch this film and expect life-like images. What you get is what was innovative at the time, utilizing stop-motion animation for amazing scenes like Kong fighting a T Rex. I do have questions about why most of the animals on Skull Island are of the dinosaur variety, but then we also have this gigantic ape – but probably shouldn’t put that much thought into this.

The search for Kong, a potentially mythical creature that inhabits a secluded island few know about, is set about by a film director, Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), who wants to film something unbelievable. Knowing that pictures sell better if they feature a pretty girl, he rescues the young blonde Ann Darrow, played by original scream queen Fay Wray, from a life of squalor to serve as his leading lady.

When they arrive at the island, they find the native tribe inhabiting it, offering a sacrifice to Kong. However, when the tribe sees the pretty blonde, they believe her to be an even greater offering to their “God.” Who doesn’t love blondes, after all?

I was intrigued by the first 40 or so minutes of the film, even before we see the titular character, as the mystery builds (even if you know what’s coming). But once Kong enters the picture, he action certainly ramps up with the fascinating stop-motion sequences.

It turns out the tribe had the right idea by building then giant wall keep these creatures on the island within and when the ignorant, wealthy white man comes to make money off of these creatures all hell essentially breaks free – and because he’s a rich, white man he seems to get away with it all – even after Kong wreaks havoc on New York City and kills multiple people. I guess some things never change.

“It was beauty killed the beast,” truly is one of the all-time great final lines of a movie. Have to give props to Edgar Wallace or Merian C. Cooper (probably Cooper) for that.

“King Kong” ranked 43rd on the original AFI list in 1998 and somehow moved up two spots on the 2007 list. It’s a film that I wonder if it’ll even be on such a list in the future, and if it is it’ll probably be because of what it meant to cinema history, rather than the actual story and film itself.