Review of King Kong (1933) by Jason V — 27 Jun 2012

The original King Kong is certainly something the theater had not seen in 1933...but that does not necessarily mean it is flawless. While the first half is almost nothing but the human characters talking to one another, the second half is almost exclusively an amalgamation of stop motion animation and Fay Wray screaming as loud as she can.

The characters seem to get lose on Skull Island and later in New York in favor of what the animation wizards could pull off. Witness creature after creature attacking the humans and Kong on the island, for example.

Almost all the scenes in the film run a bit too long, especially the action pieces. The unintended consequence of not cutting the film judiciously is King Kong feels like a work out to get through, a film running 100 minutes when it should run about 90-or less.

(I also wonder what happened to the native women Kong was given. Did they die immediately or did he take a liking to them as well? And what does that say about Kong-perhaps a stand in for a black man-choosing a blond white woman to take a liking to instead of them? Someone should write a paper on that.

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