King Kong

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—9. Spiritual Connections
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Albert Einstein once said, “Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.� That thought is at the heart of Peter Jackson’s King Kong, a contemporary adaptation of one of cinema’s greatest monster stories, itself a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast myth.

One cannot avoid the obvious message portrayed through the film’s beautiful imagery: Even a monstrous beast like King Kong can appreciate true beauty – even when beauty leads to love and, ultimately, pain and death. As Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), the object of his affection, says: “If [you] love someone, it’s doomed. Good things never last.�

Yet there is another message interwoven in this film: humans can be downright beastly. While those who love beauty will feel pain, the unscrupulous feel neither pain nor remorse. For them, it’s all about survival.

Carl Denham (Jack Black), a movie producer, is the one beast to rule them all in this monster-filled picture. Denham is seeking to produce his film on a mysterious uncharted island, and to see it through he’s willing to cheat, deceive, lie, steal and even see others killed. It is 1933, the depth of the Great Depression, and he needs to find a leading lady so his cast and crew can set sail before his funding is cut off. Fay Wray (star of 1933’s King Kong) and other stars of the day are booked. So he finds a desperate out-of-work Vaudevillian, Ann Darrow, telling her (in what’s bound to become a classic line), “I’m someone you can trust. I’m a movie producer.�

In a similar manner, he tricks screenwriter Jack Driscoll (Adrian Brody) onto the ship. When they finally land on Skull Island and Ann is taken by natives as an offering to King Kong, Denham is the only one to see her taken but never tells his companions the nature of the creature who took her. “Bring the tripod and all of the film,� he tells his cameraman.

In a year filled with truly awful re-makes, King Kong unquestionably demonstrates that it deserved to be remade. The 1933 RKO version, directed by Merian C. Cooper, is considered one of the greatest monster movies of all time. It generated iconic cinematic images: King Kong fighting a giant pterodactyl, chained to a theater stage, looking in Ann Darrow’s window, fighting planes atop the Empire State Building. Its final line of dialogue is ranked among the most memorable from the silver screen: “Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast.�

Peter Jackson’s vision is rich in beautiful imagery: a stampede of dinosaurs, the former Vaudeville actress doing her shtick for the big ape, Kong and Darrow watching a sunset on Skull Island, their reunion on the streets of New York City, Kong experiencing “ice-skating� in Central Park and finally the pair watching a sunrise from the Empire State Building. For once, King Kong is consistently the same size throughout an entire picture, unlike the way he varied from about 18 feet to 50 feet in the original.

This version also improves on the RKO film through use of motion-capture filming. The emotions of King Kong are powerfully portrayed by actor Andy Serkis and the WETA digital team, repeating the same process they used to create Gollum in The Lord of the Rings films. Thus, some of the film’s most powerful scenes are not the epic-scale confrontations, but the smallest of facial expressions from this gargantuan face.

But there are also plenty of beastly images from Jackson, a director with multiple horror films to his credit. Conflicts with the gruesome island natives are full of carnage and an attack from vast spiders and insect-like creatures in an underground cave (a scene cut from the 1933 original) is too much for the squeamish. Parents of younger children will want to strictly adhere to the PG-13 rating or see those moments as opportune times for breaks from the 3-hour and 7-minute film.

Indeed, the film’s length -- nearly twice the 1-hour-and-40-minute original – and Jackson’s strength as a director point to King Kong’s major flaw. There are some wonderful special effects of monsters on Skull Island, but the number of conflicts gets to be almost comical. When film producer Denham loses his film and decides he wants to bring Kong himself back to New York, viewers are ready to move on as well.

Ultimately, the heart of the movie is the relationship between Watts’ actress and Serkis’ monster. Watts’ character comes across as far more nuanced than a shrieking Fay Wray. Darrow recognizes Kong’s appreciation of beauty. One almost has the sense of her viewing Kong with the respect that renowned primatologist Jane Goodall showed for chimpanzees. This film doesn’t attempt to sexualize the relationship as did the miserable 1976 Dino Delaurentis version starring Jessica Lange. But we see her character grow to trust Kong’s ability to protect her on his turf, and she tries to do the same for him in New York.

Although Darrow recognizes the beauty in King Kong, her world is set on his destruction. While her actions demonstrate the beauty and dignity she sees in his life, her human world is populated with beasts who destroy the creature she has come to love to ensure their own survival. That Carl Denham delivers the climactic line “Twas Beauty killed the Beast� underscores the darker message that the Beast has killed Beauty.

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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

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Amid dark clouds and searchlights, we hear the drone of planes and the wail of air-raid sirens. We find ourselves inside the cockpit of a German bomber and see the shells falling on British neighborhoods during World War II.

The human cost of war is illustrated in the opening sequence of the long-anticipated film adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ beloved, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. As Peter and Edmund Pevensie flee for their backyard bomb shelter with their mother, the younger boy returns, risking his life to save a photograph of his father who is serving in the military.

The scene heightens the emerging conflict between the two brothers and calls greater attention than did the novel to the life-and-death circumstances faced by the children. By effectively placing their ensuing fantastical journey in the context of life and death, the classic tale of love, forgiveness and sacrifice becomes all the more compelling.

Directed by Andrew Adamson (Shrek), The Chronicles of Narnia is an excellent film. Pivotal moments from the tale – the journey through the wardrobe, Aslan at the Stone Table and Lucy’s enchantment by Tumnus the faun – are truly magical. While the film is not without flaws, there is indeed a “deep magic� in a film that is largely faithful to the 1950 novel.

Four children from the Pevensie family are evacuated from war-torn London to the British countryside. Staying in the museum-like home of an old professor, they discover a wardrobe that opens a door into another world. Narnia, a land of talking animals and fairylike creatures, has endured the domination of an evil White Witch. Jadis has cast an icy spell, making it “always winter and never Christmas.� But the children learn “there’s a prophecy that two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve will appear to defeat the White Witch and put an end to this 100-year winter.�

“I think you’ve made a mistake. We’re not heroes,� protests Peter (William Moseley), who slowly evolves into his hero’s journey. The vivid realism of the pre-title sequence also nicely foreshadows the decision by his brother, Edmund (Skandar Keynes), to betray his siblings to the White Witch for all the Turkish Delight candy he can eat.

But just as it was the youngest sister, Lucy, who discovered the wardrobe passage, the portrayal of Lucy by Georgie Henley takes the film into another dimension. She manages to capture Lucy’s tenderness, humor and childlike trust. We experience her wonder with this magical land, her sense of sorrow in viewing Aslan’s plight and her joy when she nuzzles with the lion.

Tilda Swinton is a chilling Jadis the White Witch, capturing both the villainy that inspires fear in other characters as well as her own fear of Aslan, whose power she has faced before. And Liam Neeson provides sufficient gravitas as the voice of Aslan, the great lion who is Narnia’s creator.

Aslan, a word meaning “lion� in a Turkish dialect, is a computer-generated lion two years in the making for this film. The creation is simply outstanding. We see a range of real emotions portrayed in his face. There is an immense sadness in Aslan’s eyes as he journeys toward the Stone Table to settle accounts with the White Witch. When the battle rages between the forces of good and evil, Aslan is on the move and he’s definitely not a tame lion.

The special effects provide an example of the film’s high points and low points. The scenes are breathtaking, especially Cair Paravel, the seat of Narnian government with the four thrones. The mix of live action and CG wolves seems indistinguishable There is great realism to half-human half-animal creatures like the fauns and centaurs. The minotaurs will terrify, as will the creatures the Witch has turned to stone.

Yet there are flaws that mar the film. The CG beavers don’t fit into the film as seamlessly as other creatures. While James McAvoy is a wonderful Mr. Tumnus the faun and his hooves seem quite natural, his prosthetic nose seems to be detaching in several scenes.

Readers of C.S. Lewis’ work will consider this a more faithful adaptation to the screen than either the recent Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings films. (Douglas Gresham, Lewis’ stepson, is a co-producer of the film and contributes his voice as a radio announcer.)

While the film adaptation may not become quite the classic the book has, this Christmas, take your children, or even the child within you, to a world where it’s “always winter and never Christmas,� and watch the spirit of Christmas emerge.

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