Monday, December 05, 2005
The new King Kong movie is out soon by Peter Jackson.
After seeing still pictures from the newest version of Kong it looks like it would be a big oversite not to view the story in terms of race. A simple search turned up some thoughtful websites on the topic.
King Kong & race
This essay from ejumpcut looks at the 1933 version.
And the depiction of the black male monster is detailed in
King Kong and the White Woman
"Theorists such as Wiegman (1993) and Snead (1994) have traced the beginnings of the image of the black man as sexual monster back to the late nineteenth century, as the product of a white supremacist ideology which saw the end of slavery as bringing about an unleashing of animalistic, brute violence inherent in African-American men. D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915), was, without question, the first major mass circulation of this image in film and was to become the blueprint for how contemporary mass media depicts black males.
The notion of the black male as sexual monster has been linked to the economic vulnerability that white working-class men feel in the face of a capitalist economy over which they have little power."
The official website has a production picture of the Kong quest party getting set to cross the fatal log ... the search party is lead by a black character. We all know who is going to fall off the log into the abyss and who is not. Jackson seems to make a bigger insult out of an action scene devoid of some of the racist undertones of other Skull Island shots.
King Kong
Comments:
I think due to the realism of the new Kong, and the lack of a sexual interest by Kong (highlighted in the Jessica Lange version), the movie can not really be viewed in terms of black/white relations. Instead, it is actually about pets, and how pets develop strong bonds with humans to the extent that they will protect their owners' with their lives.
While others may see a pet as a threat and create a societal backlash(the recent illogical CA legislation against bull terriers for example), owners see the pet as a companion and guardian with a pure heart, and utter devotion. This is exactly the message of King Kong because Kong is a gorilla, not a large black man.
While others may see a pet as a threat and create a societal backlash(the recent illogical CA legislation against bull terriers for example), owners see the pet as a companion and guardian with a pure heart, and utter devotion. This is exactly the message of King Kong because Kong is a gorilla, not a large black man.
# posted by 
: 12:38 AM
: 12:38 AM
That's a good observation.
The white/black blog posting was in ref. to the 1930's Kong which was made in the midst of the great depression when white men took their anxieties out on black men. There was a surge of racist lynchings and firebombings etc. and the obsession with inter-racial marraige was no small matter. The FBI was built on that anxiety. Their first arrest was of Papa Jack Johnson (famous boxer) for marrying a white woman.
I agree, the new Kong is made in a different climate. Watts just as blonde as ever though.
[sorry for delay in posting! my bad!]
Post a Comment
The white/black blog posting was in ref. to the 1930's Kong which was made in the midst of the great depression when white men took their anxieties out on black men. There was a surge of racist lynchings and firebombings etc. and the obsession with inter-racial marraige was no small matter. The FBI was built on that anxiety. Their first arrest was of Papa Jack Johnson (famous boxer) for marrying a white woman.
I agree, the new Kong is made in a different climate. Watts just as blonde as ever though.
[sorry for delay in posting! my bad!]
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