King Kong: Two Similar but Different Movies

     Currently it is very common for movies to get remakes and, King Kong does not escape from this trend. It tells the story of a giant ape who captures a blonde woman who he feels attracted to and that later, while in New York, gets gunned down by authorities trying to rescue his human possession. The original King Kong movie, created in 1933 and directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack was made into a remake in 2005 by director Peter Jackson. (filmsite) Both movies share the same plot, which could lead people to think they are same; however, the two are different from each other since they show similarities and differences regarding to: the affective relationships portrayed between characters, filming techniques used for making both movies, the use of identical lines of dialogue amid both films and the depiction of particular scenes in exactly the same manner between the two movies.

           One difference between the two movies is that in the 1933 audiovisual, the male lead character demonstrates his love toward the female lead character, who gets captured by the giant ape, “Kong”, early in the film. But in the 2005 production, he shows it gradually as the movie progresses. In the original film, Jack Driscoll, First Mate of a vessel that goes to an uncharted island to film a movie about the experience of searching for a “mysterious creature”, which later turns about to be Kong, falls in love instantly with Ann Darrow, a beautiful woman that is brought to the ship to play the role of  “beauty in distress” in such movie. Nonetheless, in the remake, Jack shows apprehension toward Ann from the very moment that she comes aboard the “S.S Venture” ship. As the movie progresses, his love for the only woman aboard the south pacific bound watercraft grows gradually, until well into the movie, he rescues Ann from Kong for the first time and the feelings for each other become apparent.

     

Another difference present in both films is that in King Kong 1933, Ann does not care for Kong, whereas the ape is even sobbed over in the Peter Jackson production. In the 1933 film, which started an array of King Kong movies (cinemassacre), Miss Darrow does not develop any kind of bond to Kong. Darrow does not care for him, but wants only to set free from his hairy grip, which she is constantly maintained under. Ann fulfills what she was brought onto the ship for: scream for her life in hope to be rescued by her knight, Jack, or by any other member of the crew that came along. She is a beauty in distress, trying to survive the beast throughout the entire film. On the other hand, in Peter Jackson’s remake, Ann is very fond of Kong: she entertains the ape by performing gymnastic-like acrobatics for him, sleeps in the primate’s hiding place covered by its hand and touches his face trying to know him more personally. At the final scene of the movie where they are both on top of the Empire State Building, although the ape constantly puts her back into safety, she relentlessly wants to stay by Kong’s side as he is being attacked. Ann ultimately cries when the attacking planes that fly around them gun down the primate.
    

An aspect that also sets both movies apart is the techniques used for filming them. Stop motion was used for moving Kong and all the other animals present in the uncharted island:
To animate one minute’s worth could have taken 150 hours and to combine the live actors with the stop motion footage, they had to invent all these new techniques: sometimes the actors were performing in front of a rear projection, other times the two pieces of footage were composited together, and other times, the scenes with the real actors were projected into the background frame by frame, while the stop motion creatures were being animated around them. (James Rolfe).

      On the contrary, King Kong 2005 was computer-generated graphics laden (beyondhollywood). The movie has stunning visuals and absolutely demonstrates the acting capabilities of CGI monsters. Kong shows very detailed human-like facial expressions, closely resembling human movements and natural, real animal behaviors. These allow him to deliver a highly credible performance on screen.
       

     In spite of these differences, these two movies show one main similarity: they both develop essentially the same plot by presenting certain identical lines of dialogue and depicting a particular scene exactly the same way in both films. 
First, a certain scene is reproduced identically in the two productions. The scene where Ann is starving, steals an apple from a street standing kiosk, gets attacked by the kiosk’s clerk and is rescued by Carl Denham, is matching in the two movies. Denham is the man who later casts Ann for the film for which the trip to Kong’s island is made.

      Moreover, particular lines of the original Kong movie are used in the 2005 remake, as an obvious remembrance of the black and white original. After Denham rescues Ann from the clerk, they are seen at a scene at a restaurant where he says to her: “I am on the level, no funny business” (Peter Jackson, Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack). Also, at the movie finale when Denham sees the dead ape he utters the line: “It wasn’t the airplanes, it was beauty killed the beast” (Peter Jackson, Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack). Upon hearing those carbon copy lines, first
used when the film industry was still in grayscale and later rescued into an all-special-effects-production of the new millennium, one cannot help but to become misty-eyed.
King Kong, the 1933 original and the 2005 remake: similar, yet different. Although the two films essentially share the same plot and are equal in terms of using identical dialogue lines to connect each other or enacting a particular scene exactly in the same manner in both productions to furthermore relate the two together, they are movies that cannot be seen as the same, for they have crucial elements that set them apart. The groundbreaking special effects pioneered in the first film are object of praising even today, making a movie everyone should see. The CGI laden film of Peter Jackson helps presenting the concept of “Kong” to modern audiences. Filled with mesmerizing visuals, it is a fest for the eyes; but changing elements from the plot of the original such as the relationship that the female lead has with the iconic ape make the film a forgettable production. The movie lover is the one that decides which one to watch.

Works Cited

King Kong. Dir. Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack. Perf. Fay Wray,

Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot. RKO Radio Pictures, 1933. (MLA) 100 min.

King Kong. Dir. Peter Jackson. Perf. Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody.

Big Primate Pictures, 2005. (MLA) 187 min.

King Kong 1933. Dir. James Rolfe. Perf. James Rolfe. The Cinemassacre Productions,

2009. (MLA) 4 min.

Dirks, Tim. “King Kong (1933)” Filmsite. 25 Oct. 2010

<http://www.filmsite.org/kingk.html>

Mackenzie, Andrew. “King Kong (2005) Movie Review” BeyondHollywood. 2006.

25 Oct. 2010 < http://www.beyondhollywood.com/

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