If you go to any review of this movie (good luck finding any) the review will more then likely tell you that this is the best daikaiju movie ever made.
And they'd be wrong, too.
Made for $650,000 at the height of the great depression King Kong has gained fame as the first of the giant monsters to appear on screen. That, and a not-so-healthy dose of nostalga, have caused this movie to get more credit then it is due.
For those of you living under a rock King Kong is about movie maker Carl Denham. Denham has plans to make the greatest movie of his career, the only missing is a "pretty face" for the masses to drool over. Fishing Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) out of the streets of New York City (New York City?!) Carl highers her on the spot.
Since this is the 1930s Denham still needs one other thing for his movie: an exotic location. No problem for Denham, he's has a secret map to an uncharted, tropical island (just where he got it is never explained. I mean, is they're some sort of store called "Maps to Unmapped Islands R Us!" somewhere that just hands out these things?). He hires a ship and tells the captain to set sail for the uncharted island (which they call Skull island).
Ya know Skull island is the only uncharted island I know of that is
both thoroughly mapped and has a name. Seams kinda strange to me. Apparently I'm
the only person who think so.
On the way to the island the first mate, Jack Driscoll. We know he's the love interest because, like all leading men of the 30's (who don't have the words "Humpry" or "Bogart" in they're names) he has only one facial expression and a really wide chest. Seeing a girl that looks as good as Fay Wray fall for a guy like him just makes me depressed. More on that latter.
Once they get to the island they find the natives in a strange ceremony. The captain (conveniently) knows their language and translates for the native chief. We know he's the chief because his head dress is bigger then everybody else's. The chief offers to triad several of his women for Ann since there are not blondes on skull island and everybody knows that gentlemen prefer blondes. Even 50 foot tall harry gentlemen.
But enough about the governor of Minnesota, back to the plot. The natives wont take "no" for an answer. They kidnap Ann and use her to placate a giant ape they call Kong. Kong, very happy with his prize, carries her off into the jungle. The white men having discovered that Ann is missing (the token ethnic cook runs around the ship yelling, "Crazy blackman been here!") Not wanting they're blow up doll made flesh to go to waste they take chase after Kong.
On the
way the men run into various kinds of dinosaurs. First a stegosaurs, the an brontosaurs,
both of which eat human flesh even though both are herbivores. But hey, its a movie about
a giant ape that likes blonde chicks! Once you get over that hurtle the rest falls into
place right? Right?! Long story short Jack rescues Ann and drags her back
to the village with Kong in pursuit. Denham, who was smart enough to pack boxes of
football size bombs, hits Kong with knockout gas. Constructing a raft they take the big
ape to New York City (New York City?!) and put him on display as "The Eight
Wonder of the World." Predictably, Kong breaks free.
Like I said, this movie does not deserve its reputation as the greatest monster-on-the-lose movie of all time. For some reason it has even been awarded a place in the American Film Institutes Top 100 Greatest Movies. This begs the question: "Huh?"
Friends of mine say that it is awarded this honor strictly on innovation. They might be talking about the SPFX because there sure as hell are no innovations in acting to be found. In fact, there's barely any acting to be found. Kong is not only the best actor in the bunch, but he's also the most thoroughly explored character. All the humans in this movie (with the exception of the natives) are dull, one dimensional, and stupid. Special points go to Bruce Cabot, who plays Jack. Looking a girl like Ann it makes me want to have a 40 inch chest, wide shoulders, and the IQ of an orange too. Why is it that the dumbest people in movies get the best looking chicks?
And make no mistake: Fay Wray is a looker. She's a knockout, a bombshell, a heart stopper. But the second she opens here mouth and says her lines with all the emotional range of a block of wood the illusion of attraction is shattered. For those who can't stand her piercing, glass shattering voice then you can be happy that, after about 20 minuets, she doesn't have a line for the next hour of the movie.
Unfortunatly all she does is scream, and boy can she scream. Her throat must have gone raw thousands of times during production and she must have consumed more water then a whale shark. My favorite scene is where a tyrannosaur catches sight of Ann. She (of course) screams and the Rex actual scratches its ear at the sound! This might have been a coincidence or a joke on the part of animator Willis O'Brien. But if it is unintentional that just makes it even funnier.
Listing all the little (and large) gaps in logic from this movie would consume mores space then I have and might actually require me to watch this movie again. But a big one (besides the above mentioned herbivore/carnivore switch with the two dinos) is Kong's size. In the opening shots I would call him about 18 to 20 feet tall. This would correspond with the size of a T-rex. yet when he gets to New York City (New York City?!) he suddenly gains 30 feet in height and becomes 50 feet tall. Yet his hand still remained the same size.
I normally wouldn't give a crap about these things, but with all the
other gaps in logic, and the total lack of good acting I have nothing else to focus on but
the monsters. Thankfully the stop motion creatures here come across quite well. They
almost never look unreal unless they're in the frame with another human. Personal I think
this is a fine improvement over O'Brian's other work in The Lost World (no not that
The Lost World) The fight between Kong and the
tyrannosaur is probably the best moment in the movie.
I know what your saying. "But it was 1933. Give the movie a break." Well, if I did that would it be fair to more recent movies like, say Armageddon? No. If I am going to judge movies equally I can not, and will not cut them any slack. Besides, even for 1933 the acting is bad.
Yet, despite all that, King Kong still manages to be American's best early giant monster movie. Being Americans only early giant monster movie might have something to do with that.
RATING(OUT OF A POSSIBLE FIVE)
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