Fig1 movie poster

King Kong was released in 1933, directed by Merian.C. Cooper and

Ernest Scheodsack. The film used many techniques such as live
action, stop motion, animation, miniature sets and models to create
the atmosphere and affects in the film. The story is about a movie
director (Robert Armstrong) who hires a ship and happens to find his
leading lady (Ann Darrow) on the streets of New York.
They sail to an unknown pacific island which is thought to have a
giant ape which he wants to be in the movie. On their journey to the
island the sailor (Cabot) falls in love with her and tries to save her
from King Kong
In December 1984 Ronald Haver, a film historian released Criterion
Collection, which was the first audio commentary on king Kong.
Ronald worked with Cooper many times and talks about how Cooper
had always been fascinated by primates. Cooper told him that when
he was 6 years old his uncle bought him a book called “adventures
and explorations in equatorial Africa” by Paul Cu Chaillu.

“Paul du Chaillu (1831-1903) was the son of a French trader who was
stationed on the West African cost. In 1855 he was sent by the
Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia to explore Africa
because of his knowledge of the local languages and customs. In two
expeditions into the interior, he observed numerous gorillas, brought
back dead specimens, and also confirmed the existence of African
pygmies, becoming the first European to observe them in real life.
Du Chaillu sold his hunted gorillas to the Natural History Museum in
London and his cannibal skulls to other European collections. Later
he specialized in the prehistory of Scandinavia, and died while doing
research in St Petersburg, Russia.” (Book overview)
 Fig 2, cover of Cooper’s childhood book

Cooper told Haver that “the thing that fascinated him was the
description of the tribes of giant apes that lived somewhere in Africa
that sometimes raided the native villages and carried off screaming
native women into the jungle.” This was something that stayed with
him for the rest of his life and influenced the story for king Kong.

In Ronald Havers audio he talks about an amusing piece of trivia in

which “some of the live-action scenes were miniaturized to make the
Kong model look larger; searching for the right screen to project
them on, the filmmakers had a screen made of condoms, to the
horror of the local druggist who could not understand why they were
ordering so many”
Haver also talks about king Kong’s fur that seems to crawl during
several scenes; the model was covered with rabbit fur and the stop-
motion animators moved it with their fingers between every stop-
action shot.
Stereotypes, sexism and racism are a big factor in king Kong from
quotes in the film such as “they’re up to some of their heathen
tricks”, “blondes are scarce around here” and “I hear its some kind of
gorilla. Gee, ain’t we got enough of them in New York”.
America at the time the film was made was going through an influx
of immigration from around the world. One of the main nationalities
that were coming over were the Chinese which were attracted to the
gold rush happening in California, and the explosion of low wage
agricultural work and factory work. With the influx of Chinese
workers American and euro-Americans begun to resent Chinese
workers as they were willing to work for lower wages.
American started to belittle the Chinese people by starting rumours
and nasty stereotypes, such as that Chinese food is cheap and
horrible thus in the film the cook is a Chinese man.
The next is king Kong himself, he’s presented as a dark, brutal,
vicious beast from a mysterious otherworldly realm. A beast that
attacks American adventures, New Yorkers and New York itself. It’s
hard not to see the correlations to the racist views of pre-civil rights
America.

Fig 3, jack comforting Ann

Overall king Kong is a film that has a lot of different meanings and
metaphors that the audience can come up with when watching the
film. The film has also influenced lots of techniques and music in
modern cinema and continues to show us a past view of what society
was like back in 1930s America.

bibliography
http://www.museumoutlets.com/classic-horror-movie-posters/king-kong-1933-framed-wall-art

fig1- presses universitariers de France (1933)

http://cuebycue.blogspot.com/2016/02/king-kong-steiner-1933.html
unknown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S42pO3yz2ec
King Kong, Criterion Commentary by Ronald Haver (1984)

https://www.bing.com/search?q=adventures+and+explorations+in+equitorial+africa+by+paul
&form=EDGNB3&mkt=en-
gb&httpsmsn=1&refig=237774667c5d433bfcd9c221f38d0ede&sp=1&qs=HS&sc=6-
0&cvid=237774667c5d433bfcd9c221f38d0ede&cc=GB&setlang=en-GB
fig2

http://www.thepotemkin.com/what-are-you-doing-here-the-odd-romance-of-king-kong/

fig3