King Kong
King Kong (1933) produced and directed by Merian C Cooper
and Ernest B Schoedsack is an action fantasy set in the year in which it was
made. This black and white film follows the story of the production of a film
in which the producer wants to capture the story of Kong a giant ape. When the
character Cori Denham takes his film crew to a remote island the islands
natives capture his leading lady, Ann, to offer her as a sacrifice to the giant
ape, Kong. Although offered as a sacrifice Kong protects Ann from anything that
attempts to harm her, including dinosaurs and oversized snakes, as well as
those attempting to rescue her; developing a strong attachment to his
victim. After using gas bombs to knock
Kong out and rescue Ann, they take him back to New York and parade him as the
eighth wonder of world. Kong escapes from Denham, finds Ann and causes destruction across the city ending
up at the top of the Empire State building in what is the most iconic image
from the film.
The variety of special effects, that include live action,
back projection, stop motion, miniature models, glass painting, use of mirrors
and slight of hand were used throughout the film and pioneered by Willis
O’Brien and were considered leading edge film production at the time. However,
compared to the 2005 King Kong remake, these effects are now out dated.
“advances in technology and acting have dated aspects of
the production” Berardinelli (2002)
O’Brien’s use of combinations of specials effects were so
new at the time that Cooper, Schoedsack and O’Brien were reluctant to share how
they had created particular scenes.
“There are many details about the production of King Kong
that are not available at present for publication …for whenever you ask Merian
C Cooper or his associates a question that trespasses on their secret
processes, they invariably reply ‘it was all done with mirrors’” Goldner and Turner (1933)
The ground breaking use of special effects coupled with a
strong story line made the film a success that resulted in remakes in both 1976
and 2005 and paved the way for other film makers.
Image 1 - http://www.filmforlife.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/King-Kong.png
Image 2 - http://walshscifi.pbworks.com/f/1329345312/king-kong-1933-1.jpeg
1- by the Library of Congress
and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
3- King
Kong – How Did They Make It?” -http://cinefex.com/blog/king-kong-or-not/
 produced and directed by Merian C Cooper and Ernest B Schoedsack is an action fantasy set in the year in whi...){kind=link}
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