It’s the Holiday season (Thanksgiving week to be exact), and that means the 1930’s version of King Kong comes to mind.
When I was a kid, this movie was on every Thanksgiving morning on NY Channel 9. And being a “monster movie” fan, I tuned in every year. And besides the annual Thanksgiving showing, they also seemed to play it lot between Thanksgiving and X-Mas. Plus Godzilla!
Honestly, I love this movie. It’s really well-made for it’s time, and it’s fun from start to finish. Plus the special effects are excellent (again, for it’s time). Old movies really give us a peek into the past.
However, even though I love this movie, it has some massive, Kong-sized plot holes, plus some other silly stuff going on.
I have questions:
- The voyage to Skull Island took over a month. So the voyage back (with Kong) would have taken a month too. What did they feed Kong that month? And whose job was it to clean up after him?
- The “big show” in NY was… what, exactly? Kong chained to the wall? That’s it? That was going to be the big show? Talk about underwhelming. Good thing he escaped – now THAT was a show.
- What did Kong do with the other women who were sacrificed to him? He kept Fay Wray around (good choice). But where were the others? I always envisioned he had a harem back at his cave…
- Kong climbed the Empire State Building. The friggen EMPIRE STATE BUILDING!! But he couldn’t scale that puny 50′wall the natives built?? Really??
- Which leads us to my biggest issue – the natives built a 50′ wall to keep Kong and the other giant monsters out. That’s probably a smart thing to do when you live on an island full of giant monsters. So why on earth did they equip this wall with a 50′ door??? That makes NO SENSE AT ALL. You build a wall to keep Kong out, but you also put in a Kong-sized door?? Why would you do that? If the wall needed a door, why not a regular, native-sized door?
“Oh hi Kong. Didn’t see you there. Come on in through our GIANT DOOR.”
Anyway, it’s a great movie, and if you get a chance this Holiday season, watch it.
Have a nice Thanksgiving.
Note: this post originally appeared on my blog in 2004. My old posts are archived, and there’s some good stuff there. I’ll be editing and reposting some of my favorites here from time to time.