This month marks the 75^th birthday of the first King Kong movie. Yesterday I watched the Peter Jackson remake for the first time. Oh yes, it is 180 minutes of fine popcorn movie. The scene with the insects was a bit overdone, I think, but what the heck, there is a lot more to this movie, or actually to the story, than you might think. First, Jack Black has to get a thumbs up for making his first movie without a scene where he does the air guitar. I am still waiting for Ben Stiller to make a movie without a penis joke. Different thing, though.

Of course, a lot has been talked about the analogy of the jungle and the city, finely shown in the movie with the canyons in the jungle juxtaposed to the streets of New York. And then also the scene with the gigantic bats juxtaposed to that final scene of Kong fighting against the planes. A lot more has been talked about the relationship between the ape and the woman, the eroticism of it and so on. Though nobody yet has mentioned the term “trans-species erotic” in this context (yes, I have seen Clerks II as well...).

But especially that discourse has covered a more important and pressing metaphor that is evaluated in this movie: the typical male / female relationship. Look-a here: the big ape, unable to articulate, aggressive yet somehow sensible as well, that is your typical westernized male. The girl, dressed to fashion, wrecked by her emotions, unable to come to grips with her irrationalism, that is your typical westernized woman. What comes next is a metaphor for the typical relationship between the two: woman is frightened by the male, while the male wants something to play with. Then they realize that there is more to each other than meets the eye. The guy falls in love with the girl and suddenly is willing to crawl to the end of the world for her, kick everything in the butt that gets in his way and finally fall off a tall building, when the world turns against their love. Well, metaphorically speaking. The woman on the other hand starts to feel nursery-instincts, wants to shelter the male and make of him something which she sees in him. In the meantime everybody on the outside who is not stricken by the irrationality of love sees that this relationship has no future, because after all they are still a big, ugly ape and a dumb blonde. Of course, it ends ugly.

Who hasn’t had the same thing in his own circle of friends? A cute girl suddenly turns up with a stupid macho guy and talks about his sensible side that nobody is able to see and how he will be a great father for the kids. A regular guy gives up all his friends, the sports and the Friday nights in the pub for a goodlooking girl who gives him hard time for not wearing enough suits and tie and to get his act together and get a career. Good friends tell them to watch their steps, but everybody knows that is futile because stories like these always have to go down the pre-casted line to their bitter end.

Imagine how that movie would have gone on if the rescue squad had all been eaten up by the giant bugs, he captain had left the isle and then the ship would have been sunk by Moby Dick and the giant squid. How would everyday live have looked for the blonde and her big ape?

Georg Cracked, March 2008