"The Eighth Wonder of the World"

Often times I wonder what it was like to see classics up on the big screen when they were first released. At that point, they had no idea how much of the entire landscape of the medium would be changed within a mere hundred minutes.

Think about how lucky we must be to witness some of our own, soon to be, hopefully, classics. The ones that shape our decade, or create an entirely new means of showcasing the medium. But at these points, we don't know. We have no idea what will go down in film history and what will simply be dust in the wind.

This is not what we get here.

This…

(Criterion Laser Disc Collection)

The original version of one of the greatest monsters in movie history.

Some how I had never seen this movie, and I had a blast watching it with my 6 and 4 year old sons. The beginning did test their patience some with how it slowly it gets going with filmmaker Carl Denham looking for a leading lady to take with him to Skull Island.

But once they make it to the island and Kong shows up they were glued to the screen, loving ever moment of the whirlwind of action that drives the story to its climax with Kong climbing the Empire State Building. I have always heard the special effects in this movie were…

King Kong (1933) is the definitive version of this story, no sequel/remake/re-imagining can come close to the cinematic magic this film contains. 85 years on and this film still holds up as one of the best action adventure films ever made. Which in no small part is due to the fantastic production values and excellent camera work. King Kong is an intense, swashbuckling adventure that lives up to the description and its cinematic reputation. The special effects and imaginative creature designs are immersive and the fabulous set and costume designs add a level of mysticism that helps play into the "stranger in a strange land" concept the film has going throughout the first hour or so.

The film also features…

Fay Wray has a natural screen presence, using facial expressions in subtle ways to communicate everything we need to know about the character. If only she knew how to add the same variety to her line readings. As for the rest of the cast, they all —

Wait, what the fuck am I doing talking about acting in King Kong?

The real star of the movie is Kong himself, simply the greatest special effect in cinema history. (OK, to be honest, the non-stop motion close-ups of the puppet don’t hold up nearly as well, but that’s mayne fifteen total second of the movie.) The way he stops to take one final look at Ann before resigning himself to his death…

It has been the tradition of my wife and I since we married to do a movie marathon on New Yer's Eve. We were going to do some Frankenstein films, but it just didn't feel right, and we had previously talked about going through three of the numerous Kong movies (those from 1933, 2005, and 2017). Thus, we decided that this would be enjoyable for both of us. Nevertheless, life with baby and our general disorganized tiredness made it so that we didn't get things going until quite late... So, we only watched one of the chosen Kong pictures on the Eve--this one. Heidi had not seen it before, so that was a treat! We both enjoyed it. And when…

KING KONG is undeniably a piece of work. I have to admit that I was marvelously entertained throughout, but not without a bitter feeling. The racist and sexist subtext of this movie is disconcerting: white males appear to fear an ultimate "other" taking "their" white women, in this case the ultimate, amplified inflation and caricature of the fear of black male masculinity, a gorilla that the natives had earlier literally aped in their furry ritual costumes. The blondest woman is implied to be more worthy of both life and disturbingly, being toyed with (a precursor to rape given how nonconsensual it is), than the black women who are usually sacrificed to Kong. How is this African menace defeated? By being…

On DVD borrowed from the library 

I have mixed feelings about this movie because I understand its importance to cinematic history, but I didn’t find it particularly enjoyable.  Kong himself didn’t appear until almost an hour into the film, and that first hour was actually the best part, as the characters were established and the tension was being built up.  

Once Kong did appear, it seemed to be him fighting one dinosaur after another.  I can imagine that was awesome back in the 1930s.  Long before cinematic universes brought big franchises together this movie gave us “King Kong” vs. “Jurassic Park” as Kong took on  T. Rex.   

The ending was a little sad for Kong, but in all reality, he…