|
King Kong (1933 film)
King Kong is a 1933 American pre-Code adventure horror monster film[5] directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, with special effects by Willis H. O'Brien and music by Max Steiner. Produced and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures, it is the first film in the King Kong franchise. The film stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, and Bruce Cabot. The film follows a giant ape dubbed Kong who is offered a beautiful young woman as a sacrifice. King Kong opened in New York City on March 2, 1933, to rave reviews, with praise for its stop-motion animation and score. In 1991, it was deemed "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.[6][7] It is ranked by Rotten Tomatoes as the greatest horror film of all time[8] and the fifty-sixth greatest film of all time.[9] A sequel, Son of Kong, was made the same year as the original film, and several more films have been made, including two remakes in 1976 and 2005. While the characters and story have since entered the public domain, the film's copyright still remains intact and will expire on January 1, 2029.[10] PlotIn New York Harbor, filmmaker Carl Denham, known for wildlife films in remote exotic locations, is chartering Captain Englehorn's ship, the Venture, for his new project. However, he is unable to secure an actress for a female role he has been reluctant to disclose. In the streets of New York City, he finds Ann Darrow and promises her "the thrill of a lifetime". The Venture sets off, during which Denham reveals that their destination is in fact an uncharted island with a mountain the shape of a skull. He alludes to a mysterious entity named Kong, rumored to dwell on the island. The crew arrive and anchor offshore. They encounter a native village, separated from the rest of the island by an enormous stone wall with a large wooden gate. They witness a group of natives preparing to sacrifice a young woman termed the "bride of Kong". The intruders are spotted and the native chief stops the ceremony. When he sees the blonde-haired Ann, he offers to trade six of his tribal women for the "golden woman". They refuse him and return to the ship. That night, after the ship's first mate, Jack Driscoll, admits his love for Ann, the natives kidnap Ann from the ship and take her through the gate and onto an altar, where she is offered to Kong, who is revealed to be a giant gorilla. Kong carries a terrified Ann away as Denham, Jack and some volunteers give chase. The men encounter living dinosaurs; they manage to kill a charging Stegosaurus, but are attacked by an aggressive Brontosaurus and eventually Kong himself, leaving Jack and Denham as the only survivors. After Kong slays a Tyrannosaurus to save Ann, Jack continues to follow them while Denham returns to the village. Upon arriving in Kong's mountain lair, Ann is menaced by a serpent-like Elasmosaurus, which Kong also kills. When a Pteranodon tries to fly away with Ann, and is killed by Kong, Jack saves her and they climb down a vine dangling from a cliff ledge. When Kong starts pulling them back up, the two drop into the water below; they flee through the jungle back to the village, where Denham, Englehorn, and the surviving crewmen await. Kong, following, breaks open the gate and relentlessly rampages through the village. Onshore, Denham, determined to bring Kong back alive, renders him unconscious with a gas bomb. Shackled in chains, Kong is taken to New York City and presented to a Broadway theatre audience as "King Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World!" Ann and Jack join him on stage, surrounded by press photographers. The ensuing flash photography causes Kong to break loose as the audience flees in terror. Ann is whisked away to a hotel room on a high floor, but Kong, scaling the building, reclaims her. He makes his way through the city with Ann in his grasp, wrecking a crowded elevated train and begins climbing the Empire State Building. Jack suggests to police for airplanes to shoot Kong off the building, without hitting Ann. Four biplanes take off; seeing the planes arrive, Jack becomes agitated for Ann's safety and rushes inside with Denham. At the top, Kong is shot at by the planes, as he begins swatting at them. Kong destroys one, but is wounded by the gunfire. After he gazes at Ann, he is shot more, loses his strength and plummets to the streets below; Jack reunites with Ann. Denham heads back down and is allowed through a crowd surrounding Kong's corpse in the street. When a policeman remarks that the planes got him, Denham states, "Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast." Cast
Production
Crew
Personnel taken from King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon From Fay Wray to Peter Jackson.[11] Development King Kong producer Ernest B. Schoedsack had earlier experience filming monkeys while directing Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (1927), also with Merian C. Cooper, and Rango (1931), both of which prominently featured monkeys in authentic jungle settings. Capitalizing on this trend, Congo Pictures released the hoax documentary Ingagi (1930), advertising the film as "an authentic incontestable celluloid document showing the sacrifice of a living woman to mammoth gorillas." Ingagi is now often recognized as a racial exploitation film as it implicitly depicted black women having sex with gorillas and baby offspring that looked more ape than human.[13] The film was an immediate hit, and by some estimates, it was one of the highest-grossing films of the 1930s at over $4 million. Although Cooper never listed Ingagi among his influences for King Kong, it has long been held that RKO greenlighted Kong because of the bottom-line example of Ingagi and the formula that "gorillas plus sexy women in peril equals enormous profits."[14] Since 1929 Cooper had wanted to create a film about gorillas.[15] Inspired by the travels of his friend W. Douglas Burden, Cooper considered filming in the jungles of Komodo.[16] He had read Burden's The Dragon Lizards of Komodo and as a result conceived the idea to film a gorilla fighting giant lizards.[17] Cooper later remarked that this was "the most important influence" on the final film.[18] By the time he joined RKO in 1931, Cooper decided to incorporate a "beauty and the beast" theme into the plot.[19] The "Arabian proverb" at the beginning of the film was created by Cooper: "And lo! The Beast looked upon the face of Beauty, and it stayed its hand from killing. And from that day, it was as one dead."[20] Initially Cooper planned to film in Africa and Komodo Island, but the idea was abandoned when RKO executives decided it would be too expensive.[21] RKO was at risk for bankruptcy because of the Great Depression.[22] Stop-motion animator Willis O'Brien, hearing that Cooper wanted to make a gorilla film, painted a picture depicting a large gorilla carrying a woman and gave it to Cooper. Afterward Cooper requested a test reel, which was approved by Selznick.[23] O'Brien experimented with different scenes in the test reel.[24] These two scenes were incorporated into the final film. They were the scenes where King Kong shakes the men off the log and fights the Tyrannosaurus Rex.[25] The test reel was created concurrently with the production of The Most Dangerous Game.[26] Meanwhile, Cooper hired actors and had sets built for King Kong.[27] For live-action sequences in the jungle, Cooper utilized the set of The Most Dangerous Game.[26] Marcel Delgado developed sample models of King Kong, the dinosaurs, and the people; the models did not have armatures.[28] After about three months the test reel was complete.[29] After studio executives approved the film for production, Cooper developed the story further.[30] O'Brien's ideas also helped with story development. He suggested that King Kong be seen by the characters as a sort of deity.[18] Filming commenced without a complete screenplay.[31] Cooper hired Edgar Wallace to write the screenplay.[32] Wallace had a rough draft ready in January 1932[33] and died a month later.[34] James Creelman picked up work on the screenplay[35] but found it difficult to meet Cooper's plot requests.[36] Though he incorporated the requests, the dialogue proved to be too extensive.[37] Cooper hired Ruth Rose, who had never before written a screenplay, to revise the script.[38] As such, she rewrote the majority of the dialogue.[39] Upon the film's release Wallace was credited with the screenplay, as Cooper had promised to give him the credit. The studio also saw it as an opportunity to gain positive publicity because Wallace was a well-established writer.[40] Special effects
 King Kong is well known for its groundbreaking use of special effects, such as stop-motion animation, matte painting, rear projection, and miniatures, all of which were conceived decades before the digital age.[41] The prehistoric creatures inhabiting Skull Island were brought to life through the use of stop-motion animation by Willis H. O'Brien and his assistant animators, E. B. "Buzz" Gibson, Carroll Shepphird, Marcel Delgado, Orville Goldner, and Fred Reefe.[42][43] The stop-motion animation scenes were painstaking and difficult to achieve and complete. The special effects crew could not leave the studio during the day because the lighting would not be consistent.[44] The jungle scenery was created by layering glass paintings, which were created by Mario Larrinaga and Byron L. Crabbe.[45] They were used when Denham's crew first arrives. The scene was composited with separate bird elements and rear-projected behind the ship and actors.[46] The most difficult task for the special effects crew to achieve was to make live-action footage interact with separately filmed stop-motion animation, making the interaction between the humans and the creatures seem believable. The most simple of these effects were accomplished by exposing part of the frame, then running the same piece of the film through the camera again by exposing the other part of the frame with a different image. This process is called a matte.[47] The most complex shots, where the live-action actors interacted with the stop-motion animation, were achieved via two different techniques, the Dunning process and the Williams process, in order to produce the effect of a traveling matte.[48][49]  Another technique that was used in combining live actors and stop-motion animation was rear-screen projection.[50] The actor would have a translucent screen behind him where a projector would project footage onto the back of the translucent screen.[46] This was the first film for which RKO used the method.[51] It was used in the scene where Kong and the Tyrannosaurus fight while Ann watches from the branches of a nearby tree. The stop-motion animation was filmed first. Afterward Fay Wray spent a 22-hour period sitting in a fake tree acting out her observation of the battle, which was projected onto the translucent screen while the camera filmed her witnessing the projected stop-motion battle.[52] She was sore for days after the shoot. The same process was also used for the scene where sailors from the Venture kill a Stegosaurus.[53] O'Brien and his special effects crew also devised a way to use rear projection in miniature sets.[54] A tiny screen was built into the miniature onto which live-action footage would then be projected.[46] A fan was used to prevent the footage that was projected from melting or catching fire. This miniature rear projection was used in the scene where Kong tries to grab Driscoll, who is hiding in a cave. For the scene in which Kong places Ann in a tree, Wray acted out her sequences as Kong's sequences were projected in the rear.[55] Animation for the film was completed after 55 weeks.[56] Over the years, some media reports have alleged that in certain scenes Kong was played by an actor wearing a gorilla suit.[57][58] However, film historians have generally agreed that all scenes involving Kong were achieved with animated models.[59][60] These models were about 14-18 inches in height.[61][62] They were made of metal armatures padded with cotton, latex, and rabbit fur.[63] The fur moved as the animators handled the models, becoming an unintentional feature of Kong. The models required maintenance after each day of filming.[64] Closeups of Kong's face and upper body were accomplished by filming a full-size mechanical model of Kong's head and shoulders, designed by Delgado.[65] The model, scaled to the dimensions of a fifty-foot creature, was covered with forty bearskins.[66] Six operators were required[66] to manipulate the eyes and mouth to simulate a living monster.[47] A proportionally large arm and paw were also created for closeup shots of Kong holding Ann.[62] Sound effects and scoreMurray Spivack developed the sound effects for the film. Kong's roar was created by mixing the recorded vocals of lions and tigers and slowly playing them backward.[67] Spivak himself provided Kong's "love grunts" by grunting into a megaphone and playing it at a slow speed. For Kong's footsteps, Spivak stomped across a gravel-filled box with plungers attached to his feet and wrapped in foam.[68] The sounds of Kong's chest beats are recordings of Spivak hitting his assistant, who had a microphone held to his back, on the chest with a drumstick.[69] Spivak created the hisses and croaks of the dinosaurs with an air compressor for the former and his own vocals for the latter.[70] The vocalizations of the Tyrannosaurus were additionally mixed in with puma growls[70] while bird squawks were used for the Pteranodon.[citation needed] Spivak also provided the screams of the various sailors.[70] Fay Wray herself provided all of her character's screams in a single recording session.[71][72] Wray explained that afterward she "couldn't speak even in a whisper for days".[39] Her screams have been used in other movies such as Son of Kong and Game of Death.[3] Even though funding for the film was nearly gone, Cooper and Schoedsack decided it needed an original score because they worried that Kong might be too unbelievable as a character and also did not want to use a generic soundtrack.[73] They hired Max Steiner for the job.[74] Steiner began composing the score on December 9, 1932, and completed it after eight weeks.[75] The orchestra comprised 46 members, but upon recording sounded so full it is sometimes described as having 80 members.[76] A 46-member orchestra was large compared to many other film orchestras of the time.[77] According to Steiner, Cooper paid him $50,000 of his own money to pay for the orchestra.[78] Steiner decided to make the music, in his own words, "impressionistic and terrifying".[74] During composition he took inspiration from Debussy and Ravel, specifically for the music that was to play during the ocean scene when Denham and his crew travel to Skull Island.[79] During this scene "Boat in the Fog" begins to play; the harp reflects the waves and the stringed instruments reflect of the fog.[80] Steiner also incorporated dissonance into the score for action scenes, such as when Kong falls to his death.[81] Laurence MacDonald explains that this dissonance is also reflective of Debussy's compositions.[82] The ocean scene is the first instance in which music begins to play. This is because Steiner wanted an association between music and the film's fantasy elements.[83] Music historian Michael Slowik suggests that such an association invokes a sense of the unfamiliar,[84] also pointing out that music is connected to the audience's need to suspend belief.[85] Music does not play during Kong's fight with the T-rex and is replaced by animal sounds, making it the only Skull Island scene without music.[86][87] Music plays in the later New York City scenes except for when the airplanes surround Kong.[88] One of the techniques that Steiner often wrote into the score is called mickey-mousing. MacDonald dubs it "perhaps the single most noteworthy aspect of Steiner's score".[89] According to Slowik, the score includes more mickey-mousing than other film scores of its period.[89] He remarks that its "obsessive mickey-mousing"[90] is reminiscent of the music that would play for a cartoon rather than for a Hollywood production.[91] In one scene the chief of the island people walks toward Denham's group and the music aligns with his steps.[89] The score also reflects actions happening off-screen, such as when Kong walks toward the altar where Ann is to be offered to him. Formerly, this technique had been used for silent films.[91] Slowik identifies three musical themes throughout the score: Kong's theme, Ann's theme, and the jungle theme.[92] Steiner took inspiration from Wagner in creating Kong's theme.[93] Steiner used a method called chromaticism in Kong's theme, which comprises three descending notes.[94] According to Peter Franklin, the other themes stem from the three-note sequence in Kong's theme.[92] "King Kong March", a Broadway-style score played during Denham's show, is an adaptation of Kong's theme, though the notes ascend rather than descend.[95] Ann's theme ("Stolen Love") is a Viennese waltz and begins with notes similar to those in Kong's theme.[96] Steiner eventually combined both themes in one song just before Kong dies.[97] Musician biographer Steven C. Smith identifies what he calls the "danger theme". It is written with four notes and is meant to sound "questioning". It first appears in "The Forgotten Island".[96] Later, it is reworked into a major key when Driscoll confesses his love for Ann. Smith suggests that this points to what he calls "the perils of romance".[96] Later in life Cooper expressed that "much of the reason for [King Kong's success] is because Maxie Steiner was able to create what no other man that I knew of in Hollywood at that time could".[98] Steiner himself remarked that the film "was made for music".[74] Upon the film's release its score received little critical review, being overshadowed by the film's innovations in special effects.[99] However, it received more attention as the movie became more famous in the years that followed.[98] Christopher Palmer wrote that the score "marked the real beginnings of Hollywood music".[100] Mervyn Cooke adds that it "almost single-handedly marked the coming-of-age of nondiegetic film music".[100] In his book After the Silents: Hollywood Film Music in the Early Sound Era, 1926-1934, Slowik argues that King Kong's score did not have the influence on Hollywood film scores that many music scholars think it did. He suggests that, because the movie was unusual, the score was unable to introduce an alternate way to write film scores.[101] He also suggests that Steiner drew upon already-established patterns of Hollywood music.[102] He writes that rather than single-handedly shaping the Golden Age of Hollywood music, King Kong is just one film among others that helped shape it.[103] Slowik explains that the score features both "original and symphonic music", something that was not common in film scores of the time.[104] Portions of the score were reused in Double Harness, The Last Days of Pompeii, and The Last of the Mohicans, among others.[105] The island music appears as an orchestra scene in Jackson's 2005 remake.[106] Over the years, Steiner's score was recorded by multiple record labels and the original motion picture soundtrack has been issued on a compact disc.[107] Release  Censorship and restorationsThe Production Code's stricter rules were put into effect in Hollywood after the film's 1933 premiere and it was progressively censored further, with several scenes being either trimmed or excised altogether for the 1938-1956 rereleases.[108][109] Censors removed the scene of the Brontosaurus mauling crewmen in the water, chasing one up a tree and killing him.[110] They also removed the scenes where Kong undresses Ann Darrow, [1][110] bites and steps on people.[1] The scene where Kong mistakes a sleeping woman for Ann and drops her to her death after realizing his mistake was also removed.[1][110] An additional scene portraying giant insects, spiders, a reptile-like predator and a tentacled creature devouring the crew members shaken off the log by Kong onto the floor of the canyon below was deemed too gruesome by RKO even by pre-Code standards. Cooper thought it "stopped the story", and thus the scene was censored by the studio prior to the original release.[56] Members of the preview audience also left the film early because they were concerned about the scene.[111] The footage is considered lost, with the exception of only a few stills and pre-production drawings.[71][112] There are also claims that it was never filmed and was only in the script and novelization.[113] RKO did not preserve copies of the film's negative or release prints with the excised footage, and the cut scenes were considered lost for many years. In 1969, a 16mm print, including the censored footage, was found in Philadelphia. The cut scenes were added to the film, restoring it to its original theatrical running time of 100 minutes. This version was re-released to art houses by Janus Films in 1970.[71] Over the next two decades, Universal Studios undertook further photochemical restoration of King Kong. This was based on a 1942 release print with missing censor cuts taken from a 1937 print, which "contained heavy vertical scratches from projection."[114] An original release print located in the UK in the 1980s was found to contain the cut scenes in better quality.[108] After a 6-year worldwide search for the best surviving materials, a further, fully digital restoration utilizing 4K resolution scanning was completed by Warner Bros. in 2005. This restoration also had a 4-minute overture added, bringing the overall running time to 104 minutes.[115] The project was funded by The Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.[109] Somewhat controversially, King Kong was colorized for a 1989 Turner Home Entertainment video release.[116][3] TelevisionAfter the 1956 re-release, the film was sold to television and was first broadcast on March 5, 1956.[117] Home mediaKing Kong had numerous VHS and LaserDisc releases of varying quality prior to receiving an official studio release on DVD. In 1984, King Kong was one of the first films to be released on LaserDisc as part of the Criterion Collection, and was the first movie to have an audio commentary track included.[118] Criterion's audio commentary was by film historian Ron Haver.[119] The Haver commentary was available on the FilmStruck streaming service.[120] Image Entertainment released another LaserDisc around 1993.[121] The VHS release from Turner was a 60th-anniversary edition in 1992 featuring a front cover that had the sound effect of Kong roaring when his chest was pressed. It had orders for over 140,000 copies, with the colorized version being preferred. It also included a 25-minute documentary, It Was Beauty Killed the Beast (1992).[122] The documentary is also available on two different UK King Kong DVDs, while the colorized version is available on DVD in the UK and Italy.[123] Warner Home Video re-released the black and white version on VHS in 1998 and again in 1999 under the Warner Bros. Classics label, with this release including the 25-minute 1992 documentary.[citation needed] In 2005, Warner Bros. released its digital restoration of King Kong in a US 2-disc Special Edition DVD, coinciding with the theatrical release of Peter Jackson's remake.[3] The restoration was funded partially by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.[124] The DVD release had numerous extra features, including a new, third audio commentary by visual effects artists Ray Harryhausen and Ken Ralston, with archival excerpts from actress Fay Wray and producer/director Merian C. Cooper. At American Cinematographer, Kenneth Sweeney found the extras on disc 1 lackluster for such an important release. Disc 2 included more in-depth features, with a short biographical film on Cooper, and "RKO Production 601: The Making of King Kong", produced by Peter Jackson. Disc 2 included additional interviews with many relevant people. The DVD was also sold in a limited edition with Son of Kong and Mighty Joe Young[125] Warners issued a US digibook-packaged Blu-ray in 2010. Rudy Behlmer wrote the accompanying 32-page booklet.[126] In 2014, the Blu-ray was repackaged with three unrelated films in a 4 Film Favorites: Colossal Monster Collection. At present, Universal holds worldwide rights to Kong's home video releases outside of North America, Latin America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. All of Universal's releases only contain the earlier, 100-minute, pre-2005 restoration.[citation needed] ReceptionBox officeThe film was a box-office success and during the opening weekend earned an estimated $90,000.[1] Receipts fell by up to 50% during the second week of the film's release because of the national bank holiday declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt just three days after the film's premiere in New York City.[127][128] During the film's first run it made a profit of $650,000.[129] Prior to the 1952 re-release, the film is reported to have worldwide rentals of $2,847,000 including $1,070,000 from the United States and Canada and profits of $1,310,000.[2] After the 1952 re-release, Variety estimated the film had earned an additional $1.6 million in the United States and Canada, bringing its total to $3.9 million in cumulative domestic rentals.[130] Profits from the 1952 re-release were estimated by the studio at $2.5 million.[3] Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97% based on 116 reviews, with an average rating of 9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "King Kong explores the soul of a monster – making audiences scream and cry throughout the film – in large part due to Kong's breakthrough special effects."[131] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 92 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[132] Variety thought the film was a powerful adventure.[133] The New York Times gave readers an enthusiastic account of the plot and thought the film a fascinating adventure.[134] John Mosher of The New Yorker called it "ridiculous," but wrote that there were "many scenes in this picture that are certainly diverting."[135] The New York World-Telegram said it was "one of the very best of all the screen thrillers, done with all the cinema's slickest camera tricks."[136] The Chicago Tribune called it "one of the most original, thrilling and mammoth novelties to emerge from a movie studio."[137] On February 3, 2002, Roger Ebert included King Kong in his "Great Movies" list, writing that "In modern times the movie has aged, as critic James Berardinelli observes, and 'advances in technology and acting have dated aspects of the production.' Yes, but in the very artificiality of some of the special effects, there is a creepiness that isn't there in today's slick, flawless, computer-aided images... Even allowing for its slow start, wooden acting, and wall-to-wall screaming, there is something ageless and primeval about King Kong that still somehow works."[138] Criticism of racism and sexismIn the 19th and early 20th century, people of African descent were commonly represented visually as ape-like, a metaphor that fit racist stereotypes further bolstered by the emergence of scientific racism.[139] Early films frequently mirrored racial tensions. While King Kong is often compared to the story of Beauty and the Beast, many film scholars have argued that the film was a cautionary tale about interracial romance, in which the film's "carrier of blackness is not a human being, but an ape."[140][141] Cooper and Schoedsack rejected any allegorical interpretations, insisting in interviews that the film's story contained no hidden meanings.[142] In an interview, which was published posthumously, Cooper explained the deeper meaning of the film. The inspiration for the climactic scene came when, "as he was leaving his office in Manhattan, he heard the sound of an airplane motor. He reflexively looked up as the sun glinted off the wings of a plane flying extremely close to the tallest building in the city... he realized if he placed the giant gorilla on top of the tallest building in the world and had him shot down by the most modern of weapons, the armed airplane, he would have a story of the primitive doomed by modern civilization."[143] The film was initially banned in Nazi Germany, with the censors describing it as an "attack against the nerves of the German people" and a "violation of German race feeling". However, according to confidant Ernst Hanfstaengl, Adolf Hitler was "fascinated" by the film and saw it several times.[144] Author and historian Bill Niven remarks that there is no confirmation that Hitler watched the film.[145] The film was later criticized for racist stereotyping of the natives and Charlie the Cook, played by Victor Wong, who upon discovering the kidnapping of Ann Darrow, exclaims "Crazy black man been here!".[146] The film has been noted for its depiction of Ann as a damsel in distress. In her autobiography, Wray wrote that Ann's screaming was too much.[147] However, Nick Hilton in The Independent stated that the film "may look a little foolish to us (not to mention racist, sexist and, shall we say, symbolically naive) but it still packs a visceral wallop",[148] while Ryan Britt felt that critics were willing to overlook the film's problematic aspects as "just unattractive byproducts of the era in which the film was made...that the meta-fictional aspects almost excuse some of the cultural insensitivity".[149] In 2013 an article entitled "11 of The Most Racist Movies Ever Made" described the film's natives "as subhuman, or primate... (not) even have a distinct way of communicating..." The article also brought up the racial allegory between Kong and black men, particularly how Kong "meets his demise due to his insatiable desire for a white woman".[150] Legacy The film has since received some significant honors. In 1975, Kong was named one of the 50 best American films by the American Film Institute.[152] In 1981, a video game titled Donkey Kong, starring a character with similarities to Kong, was released. In 1991, the film was deemed "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.[153][154] In 1998, the AFI ranked the film #43 on its list of the 100 greatest movies of all time.[71][155] The film's stop motion effects by Willis H. O'Brien revolutionized special effects, leaving a lasting impact on the film industry worldwide and inspired other genre films such as Mighty Joe Young, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms,[156] Creature from the Black Lagoon,[157] Mothra,[158] and Jurassic Park.[159][160] The film was also one of the biggest inspirations for Godzilla, with Tomoyuki Tanaka stating, "I felt like doing something big. That was my motivation. I thought of different ideas. I like monster movies, and I was influenced by King Kong."[161] Daiei Film, the company which later produced Gamera and Daimajin and other tokusatsu films distributed the 1952 re-released edition of King Kong in 1952, making it the first post-war release of monster movies in Japan. The company also distributed The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms in Japan in 1954, and these distributions presumably influenced productions of both Godzilla and Gamera franchises.[151] It has been suggested by author Daniel Loxton that King Kong inspired the modern day legend of the Loch Ness Monster.[162][163] American Film Institute Lists
Sequel and franchiseThe film and characters inspired imitations and installments. Son of Kong, a sequel was fast-tracked and released the same year of the first film's release.[56] In the 1960s, RKO licensed the King Kong character to Japanese studio Toho which made two films, King Kong vs. Godzilla, the third film in Toho's long-running Godzilla series, and King Kong Escapes, both directed by Ishirō Honda. These films are mostly unrelated to the original and follow a very different style. In 1976, producer Dino De Laurentiis released a modern remake of King Kong, following the same basic plot, but moving the setting to the present day and changing many details. The remake was followed by a 1986 sequel King Kong Lives. In 1998, a loosely-adapted direct-to-video animated version, The Mighty Kong, was distributed by Warner Bros. In 2005, Universal Pictures released another remake of King Kong, co-written and directed by Peter Jackson, which is set in 1933, as in the original film. Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. made Kong: Skull Island (2017), which serves as part of a cinematic universe, MonsterVerse, followed by the sequels Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024). The search for censored scenes inspired a play called "Censored Scenes from King Kong," performed in 1980. A reviewer in The Hollywood Reporter called it the "worst offering" in a bad season.[164] See also
References
Bibliography
External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to King Kong (1933 film).
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![[icon]](File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small}
