Saturday 12 December 2015

Film Review - King Kong

King Kong (1933) was directed by Merian. C Cooper and Enerst B. Schoedsak , and it is undoubtedly the most famous monster movie in history ,It could be argued that King Kong founded this genre . It also belongs to the genre of lost worlds though.


King Kong is about a group of people who follow the orders of Carl Denham, an adventurous filmmaker. They go to an island in the middle of the Pacific to make a film recording the natives of the place and the mysterious giant ape called Kong. But the natives of the area discover them and kidnap Ann Darrow, who is the heroine in Denham's film , to offer her as a sacrifice to Kong. The huge monkey kidnaps her and the entire crew of the boat set out to her rescue. John Driscoll rescues Ann and they are both pursued by Kong.  Denham manages to capture the monkey and takes him to New York to make it a show.

Talking about the camara plans, sometimes  there are close-ups of the ape that appear to have been made ​​with a giant model. This means that instead of provoking amazement, it causes laughter, due to its low gesticulation .  At the time the movie was filmed, the director had to use every possible resource on the book and even invent new ones, mostly for the special effects. Matte paintings of trees in the jungle were required, as well as miniature sets, which were put in layers of more miniature model trees. Composite photography was also used along with rear screen projection and an invention for this film, front projection, a technique in which a miniature film can be projected onto a miniature set while doing stop motion work.


King Kong is based on The Beauty and the Beast but in the Beauty and the Beast there is a romance, King Kong doesn't comes from a romance. The only thing there is the obsession Kong has with Ann. Ann is nothing more than a nice toy throughout the movie , which makes the role of the woman a screaming and waiting for rescue one. But it's not only Ann’s character that lacks something, the other characters seem to have no personality either.

But the best thing about this movie is that causes the spectator not to miss a minute . And besides being incredibly innovative , it is also very violent : Kong brutally destroys its victims.

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I would recommend this movie to anyone who is interested in seeing how the genre has changed over the time. King Kong may not be a masterpiece in terms of acting and special effects from today’s perspective, but it certainly is a piece of history in stop motion animation. The special effects have changed a lot but it is incredible how the ones used in King Kong have held up and how today’s viewer gets still engaged with the movie. A definite must see.


Illustration list:
Figure 3: Kong and Tyrannosaurus fighting. At: http://horrorpedia.com/2014/09/16/king-kong-1933/

Bibliography:

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