King Kong

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

King Kong, a gendered reading.

If King Kong is to be read as analogous to Frankenstein, Denham is attempting to usurp the power of Nature by capturing Kong. This view becomes problematic when it is made clear that Nature is not considered a Female force, as in Frankenstein, but rather a Male force. When Kong is brought to New York, he is robbed of his power. As when Samson's hair was cut, Kong is trapped by his lust and his Male vitality is stripped.
Is Kong a tragic hero? When Bruce Baxter says heroes don't look like movie stars, rather, they have pot bellies and bad teeth (as does Kong;) the movie seems to say that Kong is meant to be read as a hero. This becomes problematic, though, because Kong doesn't die sacrificing himself for any cause or belief; rather, he dies because he has been emasculated.
Does this, then, mean that King Kong is a misogynist movie? If, as Denham puts it, "It was beauty killed the beast," that may be the case. Maybe the answer lies in Heart of Darkness. I wouldn't know, I haven't read it.
Also, are the mindless evil natives of Skull Island to indicate an ethnocentrism on the part of the filmmakers? I'd argue no, owing to the awareness of this sort of stereotyping demonstrated by the actors in blackface in the theatre scene at the end.

That's right, bitches, a pseudo-scholarly analysis of King Kong.

Paul Belbusti	jack black is funny. Posted by Paul Belbusti on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 12:57 PM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	King David	Is he really funny, or is it a post-ironic reclaiming of the sincere? Posted by King David on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 1:13 PM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	Paul Belbusti	know what else is funny? the word "fart." Posted by Paul Belbusti on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 1:54 PM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	Selective Memory	Nice write up I'll have to give my full reply when I get a chance to see the movie. I did that type of write-up for frankenstein when I was reading it in rossos class I thought the paper came out great, rosso said it was too complex and tried to state ocham's razor of all things. I mean ochams razor works well for science but in a literature and philosophic perspective ochams razor appears foolish. Kant or hegel would hardly agree that the simplist answer tends to be correct. Posted by Selective Memory on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 6:13 PM [Remove] [Reply to this]

	Snakes on a Plane	Well Kong was definitely the most sympathetic character, along with Anne that is. I sort of read it as Kongs demise as the death of the "old world". They kept talking about the mysteries of the unexplored world and how there really isnt much left to see that we haven't seen, caught, packaged and put on the shelf (and this was in the 30's). I was kind of disappointed that denham got to say the last famous line. I think it would have been more appropriate if Driscoll said it. And who says Kong isn't a hero? His cause and his belief is all in Anne. Weird as it seems to say he dies for her. Maybe in a caveman clubbing his wife and protecting her like chattel kind of way, but love none the less. Is the movie misogynistic? There are hints at it, it seems to say that love will make you do dumb things and get you killed, but what do you want from a movie that originated from the 30's. Though both story wise and visual wise its a great leap from the film back in the day. Posted by Snakes on a Plane on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 8:09 PM [Remove] [Reply to this]

Renaissance Man

two words: graduate school. Posted by Renaissance Man on Friday, December 23, 2005 at 11:12 PM