King Kong (1933)

My nine year old son and I watched the original King Kong on our big screen last night. I had never watched this classic before and enjoyed it quite a bit. Sure, it was stylized and the animation wasn't terrific by today's standards, but for 1933, the marriage of animation and live action was pretty impressive.

I was suprised by three things.
1) Fay Wray didn't act as much as scream through the majority of the film. Every scene from about forty minutes in until the end of the movie consisted of her screaming pretty much non-stop.
2) Watching the film was an interesting exposition in the societal take on human dominance and violence. When, on the island, the white men first come across a rare dinosaur, their first instinct is to kill it. When they capture Kong, they talk about teaching it fear to control it. And, even though Kong was never at fault for any of the events that transpired, the movie crew responsible for being the catalyst never once took responsibility or held remorse for how things turned out and the people impacted.
3) Kong actively kills quite a few people, chomping them, stomping them, etc.

Peter Jackson, director of Lord of the Rings trilogy and the new King Kong, saw this movie as a child and it changed his life. After he scored with Rings, he used that power to create his favorite movie of all time. I look forward to his take on the subject matter.