Why Kong is Still King

Special effects have advanced so far these days that one would think that a film like KING KONG (1933), with its early stop-motion animation by Willis O'Brien and its liberal use of back-projection screens, would no longer be impressive. But far from being a relic from another time, KING KONG still remains today an exciting and vital motion picture.

KING KONG moves. It doesn't let up. After the inevitably slow exposition of the first half hour, KING KONG hurls sequence upon sequence of superbly animated action at us, with each set-piece almost daring the next one to top it. Kong, the giant ape that inhabits Skull Island (in case you didn't know who he was), battles with wildlife filmmaker Carl Denham's crew, killing most of them, and steals lovely Fay Wray. Placing her in a tree, he then battles what seems to be a Tyrannosaurus while Ray screams in horror from where she is perched. The stop-motion animation in this scene, as in the whole movie, is absolutely compelling. Further fights with a giant water snake and a Pterodactyl are just as stunning.

But it is the movie's final sequence that remains in the mind long after one has seen the film. Denham captures Kong by knocking him out with gas, and brings him to New York, displayed live on Broadway. Kong is not very happy, but as Denham says, "Don't worry - those chains are made of chrome steel!". Moments after this reassurance, Kong breaks his chains and starts pummeling everything in his path in search of Fay Wray, on whom he has developed a crush. In the streets of the Big Apple, he does battle with an oncoming elevated train (the train loses) and eventually finds Fay Wray (he apparently knew exactly what room she was staying in, because he climbs up a building, reaches in the window and grabs her). At this point, he heads for the tallest building in the city, the Empire State Building.

This final scene is heartbreaking, because throughout the film, we have cared about one and only one character - King Kong himself, and now we are forced to watch him be killed. As four airplanes circle the top of the Empire State Building, Kong puts Fay Wray down and swats one of the planes out of the sky. But the machine guns are doing their damage, and little by little, King is losing his strength. The facial animation here is outstanding - Kong's "performance" is as touching as Boris Karloff's in FRANKENSTEIN.

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