King Kong (1933)
It’s not much to look at from 2026, but when you think of all that came after it and because of it you can see much more than a giant ape climbing the Empire State Building. From that short phrase you already know I mean King Kong (1933). A simple film about an adventurous director who wants to make a movie with a mythical creature and ends up risking the life of his crew and leading lady, not to mention wrecking New York. It was the beginning of stop motion animation, pioneered by Willis H. O’Brien. It was the fictionalized life story of the directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Shoedsack who met during World War I as fighter pilots. It made Depression era audiences want to go to the movies. This simple movie is much more complex that it first appears.
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