Film review - King Kong (1933)

Figure 1 - King Kong Movie Poster (1933)

Released in 1933 and directed by Ernest Scheodsack and Merian C. Cooper the original 'King Kong' film has played a huge role in influencing modern horror and adventure based films such as Ridley Scott's 'Alien'. In the time it was created, the movie was seen as jaw dropping do to its use of stop frame animation for creating Kong and matte paintings for the location's backgrounds. Other experimental techniques were also used in the making of the movie in order to 'wow' its audience and make the scenario seem as realistic as possible. 

'King Kong' is a movie that shows a film maker's adventure into an unexplored island that is said to be inhabited by a large ape like creature in which he hopes to film and create a successful movie from with the assistance of a sexualised but beautiful Fay Wray as the leading female and many other male actors helping to explore the island.

Figure 2 - (Fay Wray) Ann Darrow screaming, King Kong (1933)

Throughout the film a lot of sexism is shown between the males characters and the single female (Ann Darrow). Ann is shown as weak in comparison to the men she is surrounded by, as shown when the male natives tie her to a structure in order to sacrifice her as a bride to Kong. Instead of thinking about different ways to escape, Ann is shown to be a stereotypical woman, screaming and waiting for a man to come and save her, showing both her lack of strength and perhaps intelligence. "Fay Wray is the blonde who’s chased by Kong, grabbed twice, but finally saved. It’s a 96-minute screaming session for her, too much for any actress and any audience." (Bigelow, 1933) As the quote explains, a lot of the film shows Ann in troubling situations with Kong where she only hopes of a man to assist her and allow her to escape. 

Figure 3 - (Fay Wray) Ann Darrow during filming scene on boat , King Kong (1933)

Sexism is also shown at the beginning of the film when we are first introduced to the character Ann Darrow. Carl Denham, the film maker, who is played by Robert Armstrong, finds Ann and "uses his name and his great line about adventure and fame and the thrill of a lifetime to dazzle Ann into accepting his offer." (DeMoss, 2011) This shows Ann to be only interested in the fame and attention and suggests that she may not be thinking logically about the situation in which she is putting herself in.

It's not just how Fay Wray acts in her role as Ann Darrow that screams sexism, but also how Ernest Scheodsack and Merian C. Cooper visualised her character. This is as both her costumes and hair colour also suggest this. "During this time period, women were looked at as being inferior to men, so this weakness that Ann displays is what men wanted women to be like in the early 20th century. Ann's blondness, in fact, objectifies her even more........Many women in Hollywood were blonde, as many men found this aspect of them to be very attractive. This attraction left the men to lust after women with light skin and light hair and led them to view women like this as more of objects than other women." (Gumtow et al,. 2017) This shows that both Scheodsack and Cooper wanted Ann to be seen sexualised both on screen and to any males watching the film at the time of its release.

Bibliography:

Bigelow, J. (1933). King Kong (1933). [online] Variety. Available at: http://variety.com/1933/film/reviews/king-kong-2-1200410783/ [Accessed 4 Nov. 2017].

DeMoss, D. (2011). King Kong (1933). [online] And You Thought It Was...Safe(?). Available at: http://aytiws.com/2011/04/king-kong-1933/ [Accessed 4 Nov. 2017].

Gumtow, T., Heerjee, R., Ward, K. and Maenza, J. (2017). Sexism. [online] Available at: http://kingkongkingdom.weebly.com/sexism.html [Accessed 4 Nov. 2017].

Illustration list:

Figure 1 - (1933) King Kong. At: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/370139663094059772/ [Accessed on: 27 Oct. 2017]

Figure 2 - (1933) King Kong. At: http://psychodrivein.com/popcorn-cinema-the-wilhelm-scream/ [Accessed on: 4 Nov. 2017]

Figure 3 - (1933) King Kong. At: https://thegirlsinthekingkongmovies.weebly.com/ [Accessed on: 4 Nov. 2017]