There is nothing to match the wonder and magic and horror of the original King Kong. Whatever was in the brew when they concocted this delightful entertainment so many decades ago, a time when sound was still relatively new to movies and the Empire State Building was brand new proof that man was nigh invincible in his struggle against nature, King Kong sailed into theaters and wowed the crowd then and still does today. There has never been a place like Skull Island save inside the magic of that movie and save in our memories of it, a wild haunted dangerous territory lorded over by a king unlike any in all the rest of the world -- Kong!
The blending of the chutzpah of Merian C. Cooper and his film making partner Earnest Shoedsack with the visual alchemy of Willis O'Brien and his gang of stalwarts gave the world something distinct and wonderful and awe-inspiring and lasting.
There's little convincing modern audiences that what they are seeing is beyond delight, inured as they have become by movies filled with flying men, warlike women, sprawling machines and more and more and more and yet more, but maybe just maybe we can try to leverage a little of this fantastic concoction and insert it into the modern imagination.
King Kong is the finest piece of cinema ever manufactured and spread to the masses. I know others will leap to suggest this one and that one and the other one, but none of them are like the mighty King Kong and they know it.
One feels sorry for Son of Kong, the quickie sequel that dashed into theaters to take advantage of the fuss caused by its daddy. The story picks up and we follow our brave hero this time (the showman who captured Kong the first time), a man made humble (a little) by his collision with Kong and a man looking to for another bite at the apple but not really expecting it. He wants still to be rich, prove he can do what other have not done and instead in this movie he finds a creature who is a pale shadow of his kind and he finds a girl who is looking for a man who is reliable and responsible and who will be with her when times are tough.
The Son of Kong is a love story like what came before, but with a difference in that the changes in the people have already happened before they meet and they are lucky to cast their lot with one another. It's not as good as what came before, but it's still pretty good.
It's been a good countdown to Halloween, and tomorrow we wrap it up with even more Kong. Be here.
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