King Kong

Before Peter Jackson figured out how to make a 100 minute movie into a three hour epic, spending $197 million more in the process, there was the original 800 pound gorilla. Literally. Except in reality he was 18 inches. But to audiences Kong was the 8th wonder of the world. Combining a fantastic story with (for the time) ground breaking, wildly innovative special effects, "King Kong" offered screen excitement unlike anything audiences had ever seen before. Spawned from the minds of real life action/adventure seekers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, Kong gave audiences what its creators most wanted in life, something daring, something different, something scary, but ultimately, an amazing ride. Filmmakers to this day are still clearly influenced by this film and its "roller coaster ride" mentality; Peter Jackson is an obvious fan, but directors like Steven Spielberg, whose films "Jaws" and "Jurassic Park" owe much to the monster-on-the-loose ground work laid down by Cooper and Schoedsack. And of course special effects as we know them today would not be the same without the efforts and innovations of Ray Harryhausen, whose stop-motion animation seems crude today, but whose work first inspired Jackson, Spielberg, George Lucas and others to step behind the camera. Why is Ray Harryhausen important? Because "King Kong" is what first inspired him. The line from the work Cooper and Schoedsack were doing in 1933 to what the biggest directors in Hollywood are doing today is clear, "King Kong" is arguably one of the most important Hollywood films ever made.

As "King Kong" begins, movie impressario Carl Denham is planning his most ambitious, and mysterious, picture yet. He assembles a crew, not a film crew, but a hardened crew of sailors, and an arsenal fit for a small army, but does not tell them where they are going or what he hopes to find. Denham also needs a beautiful young woman, who he finds in Ann Darrow, a starving actress. After setting sail, Denham reluctantly reveals that they are searching for Skull Island, somewhere deep in the South Pacific, where he has been told that an ancient race of people live, and who worship some type of primitive god. The captain, crew and Jack Driscoll, the dashing first mate, are all skeptical of the hyperbolic Denham, who swears they will find something the likes of which the world has never seen before. However their skepticism turns to wide eyed belief when they land on the mysterious island, shrouded in a thick fog, and witness what appears to be a tribal ceremony. After the natives steal Ann from the ship, the crew grabs their machine guns and stun grenades, and Denham his camera, and they sail back onto the island to rescue Ann. What they find is what Denham promised: something the world has never seen before. Summoned by a great gong, Kong emerges from the jungle, unleashing a terrifying scream and frightening the crew as well as the natives, who retreat to their huts. Ann, who has been tied to an altar screams (it is surprising Fay Wray did not lose her voice, she spends virtually the entire second half of the movie screaming at the top of her lungs), before being carried off by Kong deep into the jungle. The crew follows, but are attacked by a series of monsters, and finally have their own confrontatioon with Kong, who disposes of many of them by flinging them into a chasm. While Kong is battling the crew however, Ann nearly falls victim to a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and it is here, when Kong comes to her rescure, that we realize there is more to the giant ape than just a bloodthirsty beast.

Kong rescues Ann from the monster, defeating him in a spectacular fight that had to take months to shoot using the painstakingly tedious stop motion technique, but is subsequently saved by Jack. Following Ann back to the beach Kong is knocked cold by one of Denham's stun grenades, and is then brought back to New York. Denham does not need a movie, he has the star attraction in the flesh. Unfortunately Kong is not ready to be a sideshow curiosity, and on his "opening night" he breaks free of his bonds, smashes up the theater and an elevated train, before grabbing Ann and seeking refuge at the summit of the Empire State Building. The ending is the stuff of movie legend, and rightly so. The pathos Cooper, Schoedsack and Willis O'Brien, the model Kong's chief maipulator, evoke is stunning, as we realize Kong is in love with Ann and has taken her to the highest point he can find to escape humanity. Thus we feel iuncredibly sorry for him when biplanes cut him down with their machine guns, peppering him with bullets until he falls to his death. It is to note that before he does, seemingly with the last of his fleeting strength, Kong delicately puts Ann down, making sure she is safe. After crashing onto the street stories below, Denham remarks the film's final irony, "Twas beauty killed the beast." With that immortal line, "King Kong" would be ushered into cinema immortality, and its legacy is one still felt to this day, as Universal is banking big time on the might of "King Kong".