A favorite of mine as a small boy, it’s still pretty good viewing decades later. I picked up few new things . I also have some new questions.
1 ) Is Kong a real protector of the natives? Kong is a gorilla, and if he wanted to could quickly scale the wall. So what’s the point of the wall?
Many of the land-based Dinosaurs could not scale the wall. I noticed in Kong’s cave on the mountain, you could see the Wall from a distance. I never saw this before. Kong lives pretty close to the natives and is likely feared by the population of the animals on the island too, save perhaps the T-Rex. So perhaps he is not only their god, but also their protector.
2 ) How often do the natives offer Kong a new bride?
3 ) What language were the natives speaking that the ship captain also knew?
4 ) The distance that Jack and Anne must have dropped from the cliff to escape Kong must have been 200 feet high, yet they land in a river, and make it back to the village okay? The worst roll eyes moment of the film.
5 ) Robert Armstrong’s performance as Carl Denham made the film work beyond the action scenes. While many remember Fay Wray for Screaming, she’s not a good actor. Armstrong is the best supporting actor in this film, next to Kong Himself.
6 ) Being this was the 1930’s, I checked to see if there were some insensitive racial moments. Perhaps, it seems the people on the ship treat the Asian cook with some respect, but he doesn’t socialize much with the crew. When the ship lands on the island, they don’t seem to take cheap shots at the natives either. The racism here could be the director and through the actions of Kong as he appeared to take a bit too much pleasure stopping and biting the natives on the island. While the white guys died from Dinosaurs also, that was shown as horror for ht most part. With Kong attacking the natives, they mixed in humor. Perhaps because Kong was so much smarter than the average dinosaur? I don’t know.
7 ) The climatic Empire State Building scene to me could have been done much better in all of the King Kong Movies. He was too much of a sitting duck vs. the bi-planes. It would have been more exciting if he leaped building to building or even used parts of the building as a thrown weapon to take down a plane or two.
8 ) I’ll root for Kong in the upcoming Godzilla movie, but I can’t see how this is a fair fight. Spears and gun shots hurt Kong, while tanks and missiles do little more than annoy Godzilla, who also has an atomic heat breath, a whip-like tail, and is much bigger.
My question is that if the wall was there to keep Kong out, why does it have a Kong-sized gate? Surely a people-sized gate (or no gate at all) makes more sense.
The natives were portrayed as being quite brave when Kong got through the gate. As hopeless as it seemed the guys stopped and stood their ground to throw their spears at him.
This film was noted for being perhaps the first to fit a soundtrack to motions on the screen. Note how, when the native king goes down several steps, as he approaches the boat’s crew, that the notes thump in time to his feet. You hear this in some other places as well.
Willis O’Brian inspired Ray Harryhausen to make stop motion films.
There’s supposedly a lost scene during the sequence when Kong is shaking the guys off of the log into the gorge. I’ve seen one still shot of a giant spider waiting at the bottom. According to The Book of Lists it was so scary for the time it practically stopped the picture, so it got cut.
Can you tell I love this movie, and all the trivia?
You didn’t see that scene in the movie? I’ve seen that scene multiple times. Or have I? He doesn’t shake them off so much as he rolls them off. One by one. Losing his balance as the log turns back and forth. Grasping wildly and falling to each’s individual doom. I’ve imagined that more than once?:eek:
While they were filming “King Kong” they were using the jungle sets at night to film a version of “The Most Dangerous Game” starring Joel McCrae, Leslie Banks and from “King Kong” Robert Armstrong and Fay Wray. The film is on the public domain so it is easy to find.
Question number 3 is actually answered in the film itself. Captain Englehorn says the natives’ language “sounds something like the language the Nias Islanders speak.” Nias is a real island, in Indonesia. Remember that Skull Island is “west of Sumatra,” so the language makes sense.
They actually did do some logical world-building there.
In those old Godzilla vs Kong Japanese films, they always diagrammed Kong’s brain size vs Godzillas. Apparently, in this movie, Godzilla is an archetypal dinosaur, with a tiny brain, while Kong, like all giant primates has a huge brain.
Can’t remember if Kong did any crafty planning in his fights against Godzilla in those films.
has a huge brain.