King Kong (1933)

Directed by

Ernest B. Schoedsack, Merian C. Cooper

Genre

drama film, fantasy film, adventure film, horror film, science fiction film, kaiju

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 40m

Rated

6

Rating

7.6 of 10 from 1,627 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A giant ape is captured on a remote island and brought to New York City. He develops a protective bond with the young woman who was offered as his sacrifice.

suspensefultragicawe-inspiringfreneticfantasticalmythicvisceralescapist

What happens

King Kong is a 1933 American pre-Code adventure horror monster film 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, King Kong is the first film in the self-titled franchise, combining live-action sequences with stop-motion animation using rear-screen projection. The idea for the film came when Cooper decided to create a motion picture about a giant gorilla struggling against modern civilization. The film stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, and Bruce Cabot. The story follows said gorilla dubbed Kong who feels affection for a beautiful young woman offered to him as a sacrifice. King Kong premiered in New York City on March 2, 1933, to many rave reviews, with praise for its stop-motion animation and musical score. During its initial run, the film earned a profit of $650,000, which increased to $2,847,000 by the time of its re-release in 1952. Various scenes were deleted by censors, but they were restored in 1970. Later, in 1991, the film was deemed "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 2010, the film was ranked by Rotten Tomatoes as the greatest horror film of all time and the fifty-sixth greatest film of all time. Various new editions of the film have also been released. A sequel, entitled 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. The film's novelization, published prior to its release, entered the public domain through a failure to include a copyright notice, making the characters and story public domain; the film's copyright is set to expire in 2029 in the US. Analysis of the film has included such topics as racial stereotypes, Ann's relationship with the other characters, and the struggle between nature and civilization. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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