Evangelicals Now
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King Kong

Planet of the chumps?
KING KONG
Certificate: 12A
Director: Peter Jackson

If you enjoyed The Lord of the Rings trilogy, then you will have been looking forward to Peter Jackson’s new production of King Kong. You will not be disappointed; the sets, the CGI effects and screenplay are all up to the same stunning standards.

The film opens in depression-hit 1930s New York before proceeding via tramp steamer to the mysterious ‘Skull Island’, where Kong is discovered along with a host of dinosaurs, monster insects and other nasties. Finally, there is a return to New York for a dramatic climax at the Empire State Building. This film is definitely a cut above your average adventure movie. Jackson employs all his skills from horror films to produce tense scenes on the island which are a wild ride of everything from dinosaur action to wrestling with monster worms. (Parental discretion definitely required for younger children). Kong is brilliantly and realistically portrayed as a giant ape — the last survivor of his type; of course the actor behind the movement and facial expressions is Andy Serkis (rivalling his Gollum in LOTR). (Serkis also acts the part of an eccentric one-eyed ship’s cook, until he meets a very sticky end.) All in all, highly recommended, although at three hours it is too long (and cuts could surely have been made from the protracted sections at beginning and end).

Heart of darkness

But this is far from being just an action film. There are obvious allusions to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness: the ship’s boy (Jimmy) on the tramp steamer is reading a copy during the voyage. At a crucial point he asks the first mate: ‘Why does Marlow keep going up the river?..... This isn’t an adventure story, is it?’ As in Heart of Darkness, King Kong is not so much about discovering new places or monsters, but discovering the darkness of human nature. We are introduced to the film producer Carl Denham (Jack Black) who is intent on making fame and fortune, even if it means lying, cheating and sacrificing lives in the process. There is deep irony in the line, ‘I’m someone you can trust, Ann. I’m a movie producer’. Then there is the captain and crew of the tramp steamer, with their sordid trade of animal capture. There is the narcissistic film star Bruce Baxter (Kyle Chandler). Arriving at the island a primitive tribe is discovered which is savage in its violence and sinister in its frenzied rituals. And when the heroine is captured by Kong and taken off into the jungle, only one character is willing to persevere with the rescue attempt — because he has fallen in love with her on the voyage. The dialogue is marred by some blasphemy, but this just underlines the dark theme. Even in his crucial closing line (no, I won’t give it away!) Denham seems blind to his own guilty part in the sad conclusion.

The only truly sympathetic character is Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), the actress who has been conned into joining this ill-fated voyage. But it is Kong himself who steals the show, demonstrating more compassion and self-sacrifice than all the human characters put together. (Though his appeal is largely sentimental; there doesn’t seem to be much sympathy for the women he kills in New York for not being Ann.) For the Christian, the critique of selfishness, corruption and greed come as no surprise. But the rather depressing message of the film is that we must just learn lessons from a more noble creature — an ape. Christian hope is focussed on a far more glorious role model, and a better hope of redemption.

Bill James