NOTE:I had planned on digging further into the films that influenced Kill Bill, but with Peter Jackson’s King Kong coming out, I really wanted to throw in my two cents on the original film. So without further ado…
It’s really fantastic when you discover that a film can really live up to its reputation. I remember seeing Casablanca for the first time and being mesmerized by how good it was. In recent years, Singin’ in the Rain and The Adventures of Robin Hood have become some of my favorite movies ever. These movies are classics for a reason. They have stood the test of time because of their ingenuity, writing, directing and originality.
With the first viewing of the 1933 version of King Kong it’s easy to expect the worst. Being essentially a special effects film, Kong has the disadvantage of seventy-two years of advancements since it first premiered. With Star Wars and Lord of the Rings giving fans photo-realistic effects, how could a stop motion puppet stand up to modern CGI wizardry? For those that know the magic of Kong, that puppet stands up beautifully.
To really know the story behind King Kong, you need to know the story of the film’s directors, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. Both were men who embodied the word adventurer. Before becoming one of Hollywood’s greatest producers, Cooper had chased after Pancho Villa in 1916. In 1920, Cooper and Schoedsack met each other while volunteering to be fighter pilots in support of the Polish revolt against the Soviet Union. Cooper was actually shot down during the campaign and spent nine months in a Soviet Prisoner of War camp.
After the war, Cooper and Schoedsack decided to try their hand at filmmaking. The two started producing documentaries but with action twists. In actuality, these “documentaries” were really nothing of the sort, as each action sequence was intricately staged. On the other hand, the footage the two produced was amazing. With Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life in 1925 and Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness in 1927 the Cooper/ Schoedsack duo produced films that were as exciting as any audiences had ever seen. The two would tempt fate over and over to get footage of charging elephants and tigers that would go straight into the camera. Each man would take their turns behind the camera as wild animals would try and make them their dinner.
With the success of Grass and Chang, Cooper and Schoedsack tried their hand at fictional material, starting with The Four Feathers in 1929. More success followed and Cooper finally wanted to make his Masterpiece. Reports abound that Cooper had a dream about a giant gorilla that attacked New York City, but alas he had no way to make this dream a reality. Cooper had heard reports of Komodo Dragons that had been discovered in 1912. He had an idea to have real gorillas and Komodo Dragons fight to the death within a miniaturized set. Fortunately, this idea was stopped cold.
Cooper finally found the way to realize his vision with stop motion animator Willis O’Brien. The animator had shocked audiences with his film The Lost World in 1925, with his battling dinosaurs, but was having little success with his new film Creation. The film would eventually fall through, but much of the work that had already been done would contribute to his new project, King Kong. With the creative influences of Cooper, Schoedsack, and O’Brien, King Kong would go from what started as a “B” Picture on paper to one of the most influential movies of all time.
King Kong Starring Far Wray, Robert Armstrong, and Bruce Cabot. Directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack.
One of the best aspects of Kong comes from the simplicity of its script. A movie director named Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) has found a map to a mysterious island where he has heard the legend of Kong, a giant ape that he can make his next “documentary” around. Denham has a crew waiting to go, but hits a snag when the actress scheduled to appear in the movie is forced to drop out.
Fortune smiles on Denham when he finds a beautiful young girl on the streets of New York. Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) is wary of Denham’s offer to come away with him and his crew to the strange island, but she is hungry and out of work. Finally she agrees to appear in the film, and captivates all the men around her.
Now this early portion of the film is easily the worst section of King Kong. The dialogue and acting are hammy. The early sets and costumes are B grade, and most of the characters are little more than clichés. The love story between Ann and the ship’s first mate, Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot), feels rushed, but inoffensive. The most dated element of the film comes when the ship reaches its destination. Just as Roger Ebert noted in his review of King Kong, “Modern viewers will shift uneasily in their seats during the stereotyping of the islanders in a scene where a bride is to be sacrificed to Kong”. The islanders are the type of clichéd portrayal that would easily be deemed racist today. Imagine a tribe of islanders similar to the cannibals in old Popeye and Bugs Bunny shorts that Cartoon Network won’t even show late at night.
The film’s best human character is Carl Denham. Its crazy to think about it, but in many ways King Kong is an autobiographical look at the lives of Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. Just as Cooper and Schoedsack went looking for adventure and incredible sights to film; Denham goes to find his fortune by looking for the legendary creature of Skull Island.
To the delight of audiences for the last three quarters of a century, Denham finds perhaps the greatest monster in the history of cinema. In fact, once Kong shows up to steal away Ann, the action barely lets up. This is where Willis O’Brien and his crew go to work and gives us nearly a thrill a minute for the rest of King Kong’s running time.
To keep the audience riveted, film makers employed a huge checklist of smoke and mirror tricks.
The poor sailors that work on the USS Venture wander through Skull Island to face a host of awesome (and gruesome) creatures. First a charging Stegosaurus falls victim to the crews itchy trigger fingers. A smoke grenade thrown at him eventually puts down the Stegosaurus. The shot was achieved by choreographing the actors and the pre-shot sequence of the stop motion dinosaurs dying by the crew’s hands. The following shot of Jack Driscoll and his mates walking past the dinosaur used a back screen projection.
The amazing thing is, after the crew fights off a man eating Brontosaurus and tons of other dangers, the world starts to really seem real. Skull Island’s stop motion creatures seem to take on a life of their own, Kong most of all. Of course being the title character in the film probably gives you a choice amount of screen time, allowing you to really become a beloved character, and shoving all the other wondrous creatures to the background.
At its premiere audiences had no idea that Kong was actually just an 18-inch puppet. Thanks to Willis O’Brien, Kong becomes the best character in the movie by far. To tell you the truth, Kong outdoes any other monster in his class. Through O’Brien’s expert work, Kong is imbued with a variety of emotions. While rage is the predominant mannerism, Kong displays wonder at Ann Darrow’s dress as he playfully takes it off a piece at a time. An amazing moment happens after Kong battles a Tyrannosaurus Rex to protect Ann. After dispatching his deadly foe, Kong sits there and plays with the creature’s jaw. In that simple moment, Kong goes from triumphant to having a child like curiosity towards the dinosaurs. As a character, Kong completely trumps Godzilla, any of his rogues gallery, or even the T-Rex from Jurassic Park.
O’Brien does so much to make you believe in Kong from giving him beautiful facial expressions to having him interact with other members of the cast as much as possible. In one scene Kong fights off an aquatic monster while Jack Driscoll tries to save Ann from Kong’s sanctum. The scene features so many visual effects at the same time that its mind-boggling. Its awe inspiring later on as Kong knocks off islanders from a huge structure and then steps on them in the mud.
The brute actually becomes the most sympathetic character in the entire film as he valiantly defends Ann from the T-Rex, a Pterodactyl, and a giant snake. We feel even more for the ape after he is captured and brought back to New York City and made a spectacle. When Kong breaks looks, it’s easy to root for him over the greedy mob. While innocents die because of Denham’s greed, Kong simply wants to find his love and be alone.
The final sequence above the Empire State Building has to be one of the top five most famous ever filmed. The sequence is a bravo moment for O’Brien as he combined photography of the real Empire State Building, the stop motion Kong and real WWI airplanes. The moment becomes this timeless cinematic experience.
Even though the film cost only $600,000 to make, Kong has the look of the most expensive films that were out at the time. Film makers borrowed costumes and sets from other films. There is some conjecture from where the huge wall that holds Kong back on Skull Island came from originally. Roger Ebert claims in his look at Kong that is was part of the set for Cecil B. DeMille’s King of Kings, imdb.com states it was part of the Babylonian section of D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance. Even jungle scenes shared the same sets as the Cooper/Schoedsack production The Most Dangerous Game.
King Kong’s legacy is immeasurable. Kong is the forefather of every huge monster that has ever graced a Hollywood screen including Ray Harryhausen’s Kraken in Clash of the Titans, George Lucas’ Rancor in Return of the Jedi and of course, Spielberg’s Tyrannosaurus in Jurassic Park. Though King Kong has had sequels, remakes, and sequels to remakes, it has never been eclipsed. Hopefully, Peter Jackson’s film will come closer to the mark, but nothing it could do could make his Kong a greater achievement than that of Cooper, Schoedsack and O’Brien. King Kong was the first special effects extravaganza. Even after all this time later, it still belongs with the best Effects films from Star Wars, 2001, Lord of the Rings and Jurassic Park.
Picture Credits: Allposters.com, www2.netdoor.com, dvdbeaver.com
