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"King Kong," directed by Peter Jackson.
Universal Studios, 2005, 187 minutes.
'Twas Beauty Killed the
Beast by Jo Ann Skousen
Director Peter Jackson was just 9 years old when he saw
Merian Cooper's 1933 "King Kong" on television in his native New Zealand.
Fascinated by the mystery, adventure, and magic of filmmaking, he immediately
began making clay models of his own and filming them with his parents' 8mm movie
camera, vowing someday to remake "King Kong" with better technology and a greater
emphasis on the love story of Kong and Ann Darrow. Along the way he made "The
Lord of the Rings," earning several Oscars — enough Hollywood clout to make,
finally, the film of his dreams.
| | Jo Ann
Skousen is a writer and critic living in New York.
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Jackson's remake is true to the original story, down to the repetition of
certain key lines. Filmmaker Carl Denham (Jack Black) is one step ahead of his
creditors as he charters a ship and heads for the mysterious Skull Island, where
he and the ship's crew will encounter ferocious dinosaurs, giant man-eating bugs,
and a weird voodoo civilization making human sacrifices to a 50-foot ape. Before
Denham and the crew leave for the island, he shanghais a screenwriter, Jack
Driscoll (Adrien Brody), to complete a script for his movie en route. He also
engages a beautiful out-of-work actress, Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), to play the
romantic lead. When Ann is captured by the villagers and sacrificed to Kong,
Driscoll and Denham rescue her, capture Kong, and take him back to New York to
display as the "eighth wonder of the world." Jackson's new version expands
the themes Cooper only hints at. For example, Cooper waits until the end to
suggest the love angle between King Kong and Ann Darrow, giving the audience an
"aha" moment when the beast's motivation becomes clear; only then do we feel
chagrin for having been afraid of this beast who was merely trying to protect his
woman and go back home. Jackson, however, develops the love story as it happens:
Ann falls for Kong, the strong, macho hero who literally sweeps her off her feet
in a thrilling scene as he battles three attacking T-rexes to protect her;
meanwhile, Kong falls for the delicate beauty with a seductive sense of humor,
who woos him with her vaudeville act. It may sound implausible, but who
wouldn't fall for a big lug who watches a whole sunset without reaching for the
remote, and knows it's his job to kill the giant bugs that hang around the cave?
Later, in New York, Jackson adds a scene of Kong and Ann frolicking on the ice
pond at Central Park, a carefree romp reminiscent of romantic comedies of the
'40s and '50s. For Jackson's King Kong, the relationship with Ann is no
unrequited afterthought but a developing, two-way emotion based on humor,
respect, and yes, animal magnetism. That emotion is developed brilliantly
by Andy Serkis (Gollum in Jackson's "Lord of the Rings"), who brings life to the
computerized Kong, and by Naomi Watts as Ann. Although Watts receives top
billing, she has very little dialogue, mostly reacting with animal emotion —
hunger, survival, terror, sexuality. Hauntingly beautiful, with expressive eyes,
Watts carries the role without becoming melodramatic. Her Ann is as animalistic
and primitive as Serkis' Kong is human and thoughtful. |
| Who wouldn't fall for a
big lug who watches a whole sunset without reaching for the remote, and knows
it's his job to kill the giant bugs that hang around the cave?
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Ann, in this depiction, is drawn in by the primal urge for storytelling. Early
in the film, as Denham describes his obsession to make his movie, her eyes tell
us that she is captivated by the story. She already knows the story: she is the
story. She anticipates its ending when she says, "Good things never last."
If this film has a flaw, it is that it lasts too long. At three hours and seven
minutes, it needs trimming. I wouldn't remove any scenes, but each scene could be
shorter. Trim ten seconds here, 30 seconds there, a minute or two from somewhere
else, and the film could come in at a reasonable two hours and 20 minutes. But
when you've asked the studio for an extra $20 million for computer graphics, and
coughed up an additional $30 million of your own, it must be hard to say, "Sorry,
I changed my mind." Nevertheless, this "King Kong" delivers. Jackson has written
an intelligent, literary script to go with his tensely drawn action sequences. He
inserts multiple references to other literary works. A mysterious cabin boy reads
Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," suggesting that the film will explore
Conrad's themes of obsession, imperialism, and what it means to be human.
Denham's obsession to press forward, his need to uncover the mysteries, echoes
the doomed Oedipus. Jackson recalls Heming-way's "The Sun Also Rises" with a
stampede of dinosaurs reminiscent of the running of the bulls at Pamplona. He
subtly pays homage to the original Ann Darrow by having Denham refer to actress
Fay Wray. And Kong's now iconic climb is no longer an escape to a rocky tower
that he remembers from his island; it's a doomed lovers' rendezvous. Evidently,
even before "An Affair to Remember" spawned "Sleepless in Seattle," Kong and Ann
had headed for the most romantic spot in New York City — the top of the
Empire State Building. Perhaps the most significant, and the most subtle,
literary echo is that of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." When writer Driscoll is
tricked into sailing with the ship to Skull Island, there aren't enough cabins
for him, so he beds down in an animal cage in the hold. Several scenes show him
writing behind bars, while director Denham dictates what to write. Ann falls
simultaneously for the writer inside the cage, who attracts her with words, and
for the beast in the jungle, who attracts her with his unspoken manliness. Both
Kong and Driscoll entertain her, rescue her, and seduce her, yet they never fight
each other for her. When Kong dies, Driscoll is there to comfort her. Did Kong
really exist, or is he merely the writer's alter ego? In this new context,
Denham's closing line, "'Twas Beauty killed the Beast," seems to suggest that the
magnetic beastliness that attracts a woman to a man is, ironically, tamed out of
existence through love. Although she feels safe in Driscoll's cerebral embrace, a
part of her will always yearn for the beast. But the cerebral writer has been
changed by the experience too — he has run with the bulls, faced down a
giant gorilla, and proved that no mountain is high enough to keep him from
getting to the woman he loves. Kong lives, after all.
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