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Uppercut

by Ryan N. Wilcox

It All Started Here Imagine a beautiful damsel in distress completely out of her element. She is pursued by both a handsome man who is in love with her and a wild ferocious gigantic monster whom has never had anything taken from him. Imagine some of the best special effects created in cinema. Imagine the lines people would have to wait in to see this huge movie. Yes, I am thinking of the movie King Kong, but it's the original summer blockbuster, 1933 version. 1933's King Kong, directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernist B. Schoedsack was the first movie to be made for the big screen. The movies up until this time were based on novels, adapted from plays, or something of that sort. Kong was made to be a hit. When I saw this movie again a couple of years ago, in preparation for Peter Jackson's version, I realized that very little has changed in motion picture production between 1933 and today. Peter Jackson chose this movie because of how wonderful a movie it was and to introduce it to a new audience. He made a good choice. He chose it for a reason. Go and watch the original version of this movie. The things you will see are the very same things you see in big budget summer blockbusters today. You see the attractive female lead put into a dangerous situation and a handsome male there to rescue her. Incredible special effects that are/were state of the art. You see the techniques of film making that haven't changed one bit since 1933, and lastly, you see a political/ sociological/ environmental statement showing that if humans behaved differently, things may have turned out differently. I'll take a minute and discuss some of the finer points. Special effects have changed very little since 1933. Yes, we use computers now, and the effects are more realistic. However, the computer is still creating stop motion animations. The animator takes a frame of film and changes it a little bit 24 times a second to make it appear to be moving. Just like the animators did with the models of the great ape. In order to place the animations in the same frame as real actors, one has to create a matte, where actors stand in front of a large screen. The screen is then replaced with the animation sequence and combined to make it look like the two images are standing next to each other. What really defines the quality of these two effects is when the two separate camera shots interact with each other. All of these techniques were used in Kong. The movie was animated and placed on a matte to create the effect of Kong looking for, grabbing, or tossing off a log, the human actors in the same shot. This was not the first time these ideas had been used, but they were done incredibly well, even by today's standards. Yes, we know it's fake, but we also know the effects in Peter Jackson's King Kong are fake. Besides, the effects are done so well, it's amazing to watch with a fresh eye and enjoy how well they were done. Plus we should all have a healthy suspension of disbelief when watching a fantastical movie. All the elements that one sees today in motion pictures are there in King Kong. This was the movie that made Peter Jackson want to make movies, and it was considered an old film when he was a kid too. It's one of those wonderful movies that holds all of its creativity even by today's standards. As a historical movie, it's a fantastic lesson in what makes a summer blockbuster great. Nothing has changed in what we look for in movies. Yes the way we make the effects changes, but the process is virtually the same, and it's how well the effect is pulled off that counts, not necessarily the realism, but the effect. Peter Jackson made many, many references to the original King Kong in his 2005 version. I think it makes the newer one more entertaining to catch these little things along the way. It's like he and I share a moment because we both got it. Take some weekend and watch the 1933 version. You will be amazed at how little things have changed over the years, and you will be entertained at how well Jackson captured all of the techniques that used then and made a version that shows us how much the movie meant to him. Just like in 1933 when we first saw a huge Gorilla climb the Empire State Building, we believe it could happen.