#195: King Kong
A monster of a movie — but the effects aged better than its racial politics
This movie was originally posted to Twitter on December 25, 2019.
Initial release: March 2, 1933
Director: Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack
Giant monster movies are perhaps the most iconic genre of 1950s sci-fi and horror. Giant ants, giant lizards, giant whatever — but they all have roots in King Kong, a dumb, poorly-acted, kinda-racist movie from the early 1930s about a giant gorilla obsessed with a white woman. Vanity Fair calls it an “imperialist fever dream” and that’s not too far off. Inspired by a long line of “jungle movies” (and the men’s adventure pulps that inspired those,) King Kong is the culmination of a genre of film where science is triumphed over by the jungle.
A renegade filmmaker talks a homeless girl into going with him to an unspecified island near Indonesia to shoot a movie. (This already sounds pretty suspect, huh?) He’s heard stories of what might be there, and once they arrive, they discover a heretofore uncontacted tribe of indeterminate ethnicity in the midst of a ritual. It seems the native people built a wall long ago to protect them from the horrors of the island, which aside from dinosaurs, giant snakes, and who knows what else, also includes Kong, a giant gorilla that the natives seem to worship as a god and occasionally feed women to as offerings.
The tribe kidnaps the white girl to sacrifice to Kong, who immediately grabs her and makes off with her. Several of the crew, including the first mate who has fallen in love with her, fight their way through the village and into the jungle in pursuit of the ape. Along the way they meet several dinosaurs and other horrible things, and after a confrontation, most of them are killed save for the first mate and the filmmaker. The first mate manages to rescue her and bring her back, and they capture the pursuing Kong using gas grenades. They take him back to New York, the filmmaker intending to show him off for $20 a ticket (equivalent to $453.13 today — it was $383.56 when I originally wrote this review in 2019!) The presentation starts off fine until the reporters’ flash photography pisses off Kong, he grabs the white girl again and climbs the Empire State building. Finally, they send armed biplanes after him to shoot him full of holes until he falls off the building and goes splat on the ground. The end. There, I just saved you the trouble of watching this nonsense. While this film does have some things to offer, it’s aged like fine milk.
I’m mean to films like this because they deserve it.
Okay real talk though: for 1933, the special effects are truly special. We take things like stop motion animation (and the many camera tricks the film uses) for being hopelessly outdated techniques today, but for 1933 this was truly groundbreaking stuff. You’ve got it all here: Kong is articulated pretty well, he gets into fights with almost every giant lizard he comes across (the T-Rex fight is especially entertaining and seems like an early anticipation of 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla.) Getting the stop motion to play nice with live-action (such as characters watching Kong do his thing, or a bit where they encounter — and kill — a stegosaurus) is a particularly grand achievement by 1933 standards, as they didn’t have the equipment that we do now. And I’ll admit i have a soft spot for metafiction in film, particularly films about filmmaking. Denham, our shady movie director, is exactly as daring, unconventional — and unethical — as you’d expect from someone who wants to chase down a rumor of a giant ape.
But the racial politics of this film are incredibly dated. While the tribe aren’t complete caricatures, they’re not exactly real characters either, serving only as a sinister backdrop for the first to middle act of the movie. To make things even worse, Kong, much like the tribe, is so taken by the sight of Fay Wray’s golden-haired heroine that rather than eat her, he spirits her away to make her his bride… or something. Whatever’s going on in that scene where he tears her clothes off it ain’t good. In fact, a racialized sexuality is a major element in this film. Fay Wray’s Ann has all the innocence and sweetness of a silent film star (similar to the heroine in White Zombie) and makes the gruff, woman-hating first mate — only slightly less ape-like than Kong — fall in love with her.
This film is the natural conclusion of decades of colonialist narratives regarding the global south and nature itself as something mysterious to be conquered. Impressive special effects don’t really make up for what’s ultimately an imperialist horror story. Even if you want to interpret it the other way — Kong is a king and a god, captured by a bunch of sneering imperialists to be shown off like a pet for a bunch of rich bougie bastards — the fact that his obsession with the pure white girl gets him killed ain’t it either.
If you’re interested in the history of filmmaking, special effects, or the monster movie genre, it’s worth seeing this movie at least once. But if you’re just here for a giant monster, go watch Godzilla instead.
-june❤
