Monday 20 October 2014

King Kong Movie Review

King Kong
Meridan C Cooper
1933


King Kong, the eighth wonder of the world. This movie is one that I watched many years ago with my grandfather and spurred my love of monster movies, especially the original Japanese Godzilla movies. The way they are presented and framed fills me with childish enjoyment that I haven't felt since I was much younger, playing with my power rangers.This movie"Arguably the monster movie of all time"(Collins) was essentially the start of that genre and I am incredibly grateful for it. 



"It's unrivaled in its sheer cinematic quality, and one of a kind" (Vasquez Jr).Whilst watching this film as a much older individual I can truly appreciate the cinematics effects and ideas that Cooper has attempted to work into the story and truly bring his version of Kong to life. Many scenes in this film show long dead creatures (dinosaurs) attacking our cast of adventurers. Although at the time this film was made the idea of CGI monsters was deep in the minds of children, waiting to be unlocked. Cooper was able to display these beasts in all their size and glory, although in some gory ways. The shots look like the characters are moving against a green screen with a projection of the beast cast upon it, which would have been the case. This effect really encapsulates the sense of scale and ferocity that these creatures have, making the actors often comical reactions almost look believable.  








Referencing the actors, this movie brings life to the scream queen herself, Fay Wray. Whilst she does little but scream in the entire movie and woes men with her often, glazed over eyes. You really start to see a development between her, the shipmates ans even Kong himself." An icon of pop culture with truly erotic and emotionally touching scenes between Fay Wray and the massive gorrilla"(Levy) Sultry and inappropriate at times (Kong sniffing his fingers and ripping Anne's dress) you believe that he truly feels for the girl. Creating a new rendition of Beauty and the Beast and leaving the audience almost feeling sorry for Kong in the end, being killed for protecting a woman that he really new nothing about, but was drawn to her because of her beauty.








Part of my childhood, its taken me years to fully appreciate the cinematic purity and comedy that his film really is. A film that will be influencing people for years to come, even people who have only seen the newer version's know the iconic scene of Kong on the Empire state building fighting off a small number of fighter planes. A movie that everyone should have the privilege to watch at some point in there lives. Then go on a marathon of classic monster movies beginning with this then Godzilla. 



Bibliography



Andrew Collins, Radio Times, October 5th 2013

http://www.radiotimes.com/film/cfm44/king-kong


Felix Vasquez Jr, Cinema Crazed, October 9th 2013

http://cinema-crazed.com/blog/2013/10/09/king-kong-1933/


Emanuel Levy, Emanuellevy.com, April 5th 2011

http://emanuellevy.com/review/king-kong-1933-masterpieces-of-american-cinema/











2 comments:

  1. You seem to have solved the highlighter issue :)
    A couple of pointers... firstly, don't centralize your text, as it makes it appear as verse, rather than prose. You should either align it to the left, or preferably justify it, which will spread it evenly.
    You have also written this piece pretty much in the first person, which makes it sound very subjective. Try and stick to the third person, which will make your writing sound much more academic. Have a look at the guide in the Unit descriptor, under Essays and Articles, for the guide on writing in 3rd person.
    Don't forget to italicise your quotes, and reference them afterwards with the author's surname and the year in brackets, so for example (Collins, 2013). In the bibliography, you list the author's names with the surname first, then the initial, and the list is organised alphabetically. So your bibliography would be -

    Collins, A
    Levy, E
    Vasquez Jr, F

    Don't forget to label your images - Figure 1 etc. You then need to reference them in an illustrations list after the bibliography.

    Have a good look at the referencing guide here, for details on how to create your bibliography and illustrations list -

    http://community.ucreative.ac.uk/article/27187/Referencing

    ReplyDelete