CG Arts & Animation / Year 1 / Unit 2: Space / Film 3 / King Kong Dir Ernest B. Schoedsack / Merian C.

Cooper / 1933

All these years from its original release, King Kong still has a great claim to being the eighth wonder of the world (Unknown N. (date unknown). It is hard to imagine the impact this lm would have had on audiences in 1933. Let us not forget that in 1933 the World was still a big place. Communication was by telegraph, certainly internationally. Politically the world was approaching turmoil and the possibility that there might be, in some remote waters off the coast of Sumatra, a Lost World was a possibility. In a time of great nancial depression, escapism was, very likely, difcult to come by. This is a groundbreaking lm in several respects: The lm invents new lm genres: The disaster movie. And reinvents the horror movie & classic love story, a simple, yet much bigger spin on The Beauty and The Beast. The introduction of special effects and camera trickery to present the moviegoer with the realistic impression that a lm crew have stumbled upon a mysterious island full of creatures, long thought lost to the world. Through multiple exposures, processed shots and a variety of angles of camera wizardry the producers set forth an adequate story and furnish enough thrills for any devotee of such tales Hall M. (date unknown). This is a little harsh. To a modern audience the directors use of a projection screen within a constructed set must seem rather dated. It is, however, a very effective method, that must have thrilled the audience of the time. Special effects have come a long way since 1933, there can be no doubt. Surely the skill of a practiced and imaginative Director (in conjunction with a

CG Arts & Animation / Year 1 / Unit 2: Space / Film 3 / King Kong Dir Ernest B. Schoedsack / Merian C. Cooper / 1933

skilled crew) is that of utilising what tools are available to them to produce the best results. Even, (in the case of directors like James Cameron) introduce new technology into cinema to produce the effects they need. There have been two remakes of this seminal classic. The rst was made in 1976 starring Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange. The second made in 2005 Directed by Peter Jackson. After completing his Lord of the Rings trilogy Jackson chose another well loved project to re-imagine. The original is in fact quite gruesome when the date of the production is considered. One scene which haunts the memory is where King Kong shakes the tree bridge free from Fay Wrays rescuers, causing all but a couple to fall to their deaths in the chasm below. In Jacksons retelling a very similar scene is lmed, but most survive the fall (if only to perish at the claws and teeth of the Islands oversized insects and indigenous creatures. What power can a monster lm possess? None, if the monster in question doesnt enthrall and terrify the audience. Willis OBrien did the stop-action animation for this 1933 feature, which is richer in character than most of the human cast (David Kehr / Chicago Reader). It takes impressive vision to do so. Willis OBrien performs the task of animating Kong and its fellow Skull Island dwellers with great skill. A skill that no doubt set a re in the bellies of contemporary greats like Ray Harryhausen and Nick Parks.

King Kongs legacy is one of creation and innovation. Jackson showed this when he cast Andy Serkis in the roles, both, of King Kong and the ships cook Lumpy. To perform the role of Kong he again found himself in a motion capture studio, much as he had when lming The Two Towers in Jacksons The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The impressive landscapes were re-engineered digitally, the stop-motion is replaced with motion capture, in the case of Kong and the remainder of the islands creatures are expressed in ne digital style. Whether the story will be re-imagined in the future remains to be seen, but certainly, now, King Kong remains the Eighth Wonder of the lmic world. Critical Bibliography Hall M., (date unknown). New York Times, rottentomatoes.com Kehr D., (date unknown). Chicago Reader, rottentomatoes.com Unknown N., (date unknown). Critic, rottentomatoes.com Images Poster Image: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1011615-king_kong/