The 1930's

1930's U.S.A


Why I should feel nostalgic for an era before my time, in a country I have never lived in, is difficult to define but is perhaps explained by the emotions that Motion Pictures can engender. Films and newsreels of the time have painted pictures of an A

merica still dusting itself down from Frontier Days and with the hubris of youth looking up to see what's next up.

What was next was as unexpected as it was unpleasant ---- The Wall St Crash, The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl and just to make sure there was no solace to be found in drink there was Prohibition. It was hardly a glorious time in America's short history but in that mysterious way that she has of turning disaster into triumph a whole host of folk heroes came forth and shone some light into the darkness. Some of them were "good" and some of them were "bad" and most of them were just bit-players but whatever they were and no matter how they did it they were all finding solutions in their own way. And if that way meant a dance marathon or selling booze or toting a machine gun then so be it.

It was a time of Al Capone and Eliot Ness, J.Edgar. Hoover and President Roosevelt, Tom Joad and Tarzan, hobo jungles and welfare lines and riding the rods to find work, Dick Tracy and Superman, Woody Guthrie and Jimmie Rodgers, Amos'n Andy, Fred and Ginger and oh so many others ---- unique products of a unique era. And into the mix, purposefully striding through the gateway called Ellis Island, a relentless stream of immigrants of every shade and every nation.
The result was a glorious mélange of creeds and colours all struggling to make their way in a brave new world. Translated onto film, the whole experience came alive via newsreels and movies so numerous and enduring that they left a vivid imprint which survives to this day.

The version that I retain of 30's America is probably romanticized and possibly a distortion but nevertheless a certain affection will always linger and it's comforting to know that I am not alone. There are plenty of films still available made in the 30's and they have qualities unique to them but occasionally a Producer and Director will make a film right now which is an obvious homage to the era and it is a certainty that they also have an affection for the times. So the following films are not genuine 30's movies at all but ersatz versions of 30's movies made with an affectionate nod to a byegone era------for some reason most of them have sprung up in the last few years .

The Grapes of Wrath {1940}
Director : John Ford
From the novel by John Steinbeck
While the denizens of New York were coping with all that the Depression brought about, thousands of miles to the west and half a continent away the misery of the farmers of the mid-west was compounded tenfold by a series of natural disasters.
John Steinbeck's monolithic opus written in 1939 relates the devastating effect of the Dust Bowl through the trials and tribulations of the Joad family. The Joads are fictional but represent a typical mid-west family whose sole source of sustenance is from the land. Steinbeck's painstaking research on the subject led him to travel the migrant road where he met several migrant families and visited so-called Labor Camps----add the fact that he was writing as the story unfolded and there is an unmistakeable documentary feel to the book.
For a better appreciation of both film and book it's essential to know something of the background to the story which has its origins in 1895, the time of the last great land rush, when thousands of land-seekers raced across the plains to stake out a claim on the best piece of land they could find. The plains consisted of hundreds of species of natural grasses and each of the settlers removed a portion and planted corn and cotton in an effort to become self-sustaining. What they didn't know was that the grasses had been binding the soil to the land for millennia and removing them altered a delicate balance and left the land vulnerable to the forces of nature ---add to this medieval farming methods and the mid-west was a disaster waiting to happen. A scant forty years later that disaster came about and when it arrived the consequences were Biblical in proportion ; a decade of drought was followed by high winds and the soil simply blew away. The effects left thousands facing not only financial ruin but the stark reality of famine and so they walked, drove or rode away from the devastated land and the great trek to California began.
John Ford has faithfully retained the essence of Steinbeck's epic and the movie inevitably also has a documentary edge to it emphasised by the grainy black and white film. The usual humourous asides that Ford injected into most of his films is absent from "Grapes" with a distinct lack of action and no happy ending to the Joad odyssey ---so be warned that you need to be in the mood for some heavy realism or a historian of the Dust Bowl to enjoy this film. John Carradine brings his usual gravitas to the role of Casy and Henry Fonda made the role of Tom Joad his own among the plethora of character actors who make up the migrant families.
Steinbeck never denied that his novel was also an allegory based upon every migrant that ever travelled the continent in search of the American Dream and he went so far as to declare that it could even be seen as an allegory upon the struggles of mankind to reach its destiny. There are many Biblical references such as the vision of California as the Promised Land and there are elements of the same thing throughout the film.
The Dust Bowl days have entered into American folk-lore and are recalled in song and story by Woody Guthrie, Merle Haggard, Nanci Griffith and many others. There is an understandable penchant to romanticize the story and translate the travails of the migrants into a heroic odyssey but the truth is that it was a time of desperate poverty and unimaginable hardship and there is very little dignity in any of that.
The film was lauded to the skies by critics and audiences alike and Oscars were scattered around like confetti ---- the sad thing was that the subjects of the film were unable to afford a ticket to see it.
If you have ever wondered at the origin of the curious title to Steinbeck's novel it was chosen by his wife Carol who extracted the words from a line in The Battle Hymn of The Republic.

The Natural   { 1984 }
Director : Barry Levinson
From the novel by Bernard Malamud
The Natural is the quintessential homage to 1930's America, combining small-town aspirations, a real feel for the period and not least the Golden Age of baseball when it was still the "people's game". When it comes to baseball, Americans have romanticized their national sport to such a degree that it has come to have a mythical quality and in regard to the athletes, their feats are spoken of in awe while they themselves have been almost deified. The excellent Field of Dreams is the perfect example of the mystique and The Natural while not so overt has been invested with a similar mystical quality. Roy Hobbs { played by Robert Redford } is the fictional embodiment of Shoeless Joe, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb and all the other fabled players whose legends grow more Olympian with the passing of each year .
Hobbs plays his baseball in the fields of his home town and carves his bat, Wonderboy, from the wood of a tree struck by lightning which is not quite Excalibur standard but is in the same vein. His first introduction to big-league baseball is via The Whammer, a legendary hitter played by Joe Don Baker in his usual ebullient style who Hobbs meets and defeats while on his way to Chicago to try out for the big league. At this point we could be excused for believing that the film would follow the pleasant but well-worn path of country boy making good in the big city with all the standard clichés ---but not so ; meeting a good-looking girl { Barbara Hershey } on the train, Hobbs accompanies her back to her apartment where she suddenly turns around and shoots him for no reason whatsoever.  The clues were there for both Hobbs and myself to be on guard for such a situation but I don't know who was more shocked when the shot rang out, him or me.  It's at this point that you sit up and take note that this is no conventional sports film.
In one act of random and pointless violence Hobbs has been robbed of his dream and although he recovers he has also been robbed of his youth and the next time we see him he is making the same journey 16 years later.
In the face of almost insurmountable odds, Hobbs then begins where he left off to eventually become the legendary hitter that he always wanted to be and the mystical ethos becomes pervasive as his strikes become awesome to behold as they break clocks, break records and break bats, often to a background of thunder and lightning.
You don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy the film although it does enhance the experience I imagine but The Natural is about lost dreams and ambitions and wasted talent. The triumph of the film and the essence of the story is that Hobbs refuses to let his dreams die and his talent wither, no matter what, and in a glorious finale of fireworks set to a background of thunder and lightning he wins back both his talent and his girl that were taken from him so many years before.
Robert Duvall, Glenn Close and Kim Basinger are worth the price of admission alone to see The Natural which for once is far superior than its source material, Bernard Malamud's rather plodding novel.
There's a nice little touch when the two coaches in the dug out alternate at humming a song and challenging each other to put a name to it.  The director had spotted the pair doing just that between takes and filmed them without their knowledge.

Dick Tracy [ 1990 }
Director : Warren Beatty
Despite the impressive cast list it still took an awesome amount of optimism to produce Dick Tracy, the film. Chester Gould's lantern-jawed detective was born in the 30's as a counterpoint to the crime-wave going on at the time and he was enormously popular in the dailies and later in comic-book format. The first Tracy appeared in 1931 and was a household name throughout the 40's, 50's and even up to the 70's, slowly falling into decline as a more sophisticated audience demanded more 3-dimensional heroes. Today Tracy is not without his hard-core fans but to the greater part of the population if they have heard of him at all it is as an anachronistic cartoon character quietly fading into comic-book history. It was therefore an Olympian leap of faith by Warren Beatty to resurrect a character so virtuous and without blemish in an age of cynicism and so-called sophistication.
Warren Beatty must have called in an awful lot of debts to assemble the impressive cast list --- if you don't blink you can even spot Kathy Bates as a stenographer and James Caan who lasts about 30 seconds. Why Beatty ever needed such big names is a mystery because most of them are unrecognisable beneath the thick layers of make-up required to shape the bizarre characters that inhabit Tracy's universe. Al Pacino is just about recognisable as Big Boy Caprice, Dustin Hoffman incomprehensible as Mumbles, Estelle Parsons and Michael.J.Pollard { both from Bonnie and Clyde } have cameos along with Paul Sorvino and Willam Forsythe and believe it or not even Dick Van Dyke is in there somewhere. Madonna has a great time vamping it up and upsetting Tracy's girlfriend Tess Trueheart { what a great name that is } and she manages to slip in a few numbers here and there ---surprise,surprise.
The sets and backgrounds to the film consist of a surreal city seen mostly at night in which vari-coloured lights blink on and off giving an almost fairyland effect while all of the indoor scenes have garish and glossed furniture in every room. I can only imagine that the idea is a substitute for a cartoon background and in its way it very effective but combined with the musical interludes it makes the experience more theatrical than cinematic.
Warren Beatty takes off Tracy with his usual panache which on this occasion he needs in spades playing the straightest of straight arrows and resisting the wiles of Breathless Mahoney with ease. And he must have had a wry smile whenever he used his wrist radio which was the cutting edge in detection back then.
Dick Tracy is a great tribute to a long-forgotten character in the 30's and is never anything less than enjoyable and whatever it's failings Warren Beatty must be applauded for attempting something completely different but the overall impression is of a film with far more style than substance. There are some who have described its Director in the very same way.

The Rocketeer  { 1991 }
Director: Joe Johnston
When Dave Steven's Rocketeer first went on sale in the late 1980's, comic-book aficionados immediately recognized a new star in the firmament and the first issue sold like hot cakes.  Right from the word go,  Rocketeer built up a solid fan-base and there was every reason to believe that a new super-hero on a par with the all-time greats was about to take off.  Even readers new to comic- books could appreciate that the beautifully drawn lines had been crafted with loving care and an attention to detail.  The stage was set for Rocketeer and Dave Stevens to enter the comic-book Hall of Fame and a breathless audience awaited the second issue with a multitudinous tapping of impatience.  Months went by and the second issue was still to appear on the newsstands with rumours of publishing problems the cause.  There was some truth in the publishing problems but the real reason, as fans were soon to discover, was that Dave Stevens was tortuously slow in producing his work and he was soon to become notorious for his tardiness.  The first series was eventually completed after many months and an event which must be unprecedented in comic-book publishing took place whereby each issue emerged published by a different publisher --- starting with Comico and Pacific through Eclipse and onto Dark Horse.  Even when the film had gone into production Stevens was still finalising sections of the graphic novel which was it's inspiration.
Dave Stevens work can be seen in various publications such as Alien Worlds, Airboy and various pieces of good-girl art but he never seems to stay long with any one theme and he is a collector's nightmare with art and stories scattered here, there and everywhere.  It has to be accepted that Steven's is anything but prolific but at the same time he has never strayed from the excellence that is his hallmark and he will always be identified with the character he created --the Rocketeer.
Joe Johnston is obviously as much a fan of the Rocketeer because he has directed the film with the same loving care and eye for detail that Stevens applied to the comics.  With an eclectic mix of now vintage motor-bikes, Gee Bee planes, Howard Hughes, Nazi spies, Zeppelins, gangsters, handsome heroes and those singular 30's cuties, Johnston has brought Steven's pages to life.
Bill Campbell plays Cliff Secord, more interested in his flying than his beautiful and feisty girl-friend Jenny played by Jennifer Connelly { later to appear in A Beautiful Mind } while Alan Arkin as Cliff's mechanic looks for all the world like Gepeto come to life.  Bringing up the rear as the villains are Paul Sorvino, a mafioso loyal to America, the gigantic Tiny Ron as Lothar and Timothy Dalton as the oily movie-star/ Nazi agent.  
The stubby Gee Bee planes were racing monoplanes in the 1930's and set several speed records ---252 mph was one such.
Although it does not appear in Steven's books, Johnston has Cliff escaping via Howard Hughes Spruce Goose.
Dave Stevens freely acknowledges that his inspiration for Rocketeer was a Saturday-Matinee serial called King of the Rocketmen and Joe Johnston has captured perfectly that unique innocence and escapism which epitomises the era of the Saturday-Matinee serials.

Billy Bathgate { 1991 }
Director : Robert Benton
Novel by : E.L.Doctorow
It could be argued that Billy Bathgate should be in the Gangster page but although the film is undoubtedly about gangsters like all of Doctorow's novels it is more an affectionate nod to the era ---hence it's placing here.  It has to be said from the start that as enjoyable as it is, the movie is more quirky than a classic of the genre but it has a certain eccentric charm all of its own despite all its many faults.
The teenaged Billy Bathgate { Loren Dean } admires Dutch Schultz and his gangster entourage and is flattered when Schultz gives him a small part in the organization.   Billy soon notices that the affable Schultz has a volcanic temper triggered by the slightest setback and behind the amiable facade there is a ruthless and cruel killer.  Dutch Schultz is played by Dustin Hoffman in a performance so over the top that it sometimes teeters on the brink of being comical.  The mood swings that he adopts are so extreme as to paint a picture of someone verging on a total breakdown ---- but on reflection, Hoffman's astonishing performance could be said to be a brilliant portrayal of a homicidal maniac.  So, you pays your money and you takes your choice and one thing's for sure ---it's never boring.
Billy's life is further complicated when he falls for Schultz's moll played by the sultry Nicole Kidman practicing for the even better roles which were to follow.  Steve Buscemi as one of the gangster's henchmen sadly has few lines.  Billy is never suited for the gangster way of life and he stumbles through plots and counterplots and assassinations somehow surviving his strange rite of passage coming out the other side chastened and lucky to be alive.
One of the firmly entrenched staples of the gangster genre has always been the feet-in-cement swim in the East River but I can't recall a single film in which I have seen the performance even hinted at apart from a hilarious Laurel and Hardy when a circular cement bowl has them rocking but not falling over the dockside like life-size Subbuteo men.  So, it's a bit of a surprise when we come across Bruce Willis in his best suit and his feet in a bowl of cement and if you have seen the Laurel and Hardy film then it's difficult to take this quite pivotal part of the film seriously.
Never a great movie and never did well at the box office but certainly not to be dismissed and unusual to say the least.

It goes without saying that the Indiana Jones movies can only be spoken of in superlatives and have been so many times that I have omitted to repeat here what so many have said previously.  They are the supreme homage to the Saturday Matinee and exemplify all the adventure and freshness of the 30’s period and require no introduction whatsoever.

Forever Young  ( 1992 )
Director : Steve Miner
Set initially in the late 30's and onwards into the 40's and 50's, Mel Gibson as Captain Daniel McCormick switches quite easily between carefree, careworn and comic in a film in which he is able to utilise the full repertoire of his acting ability.  The film runs a whole gamut of emotions from romantic comedy which is displaced by tragedy which in its turn is replaced by drama.  One of the most emotive episodes in the whole film is via one of these sudden changes in mood when we are enjoying Daniel and his girlfriend's light-hearted love affair almost as much as they are and tragedy strikes unexpectedly and suddenly as it always does and Daniel is devastated to see his girl run over by a car. 
The cryogenics machine is a marvel of  30's engineering while the idea of a 30's man transplanted several decades into the future is intriguing and even in such a short time-span Daniel has problems adjusting to the technological and social changes.  Typical of many 30's movies there is a nostalgic nod to the aircraft of the times. 
Some of the scenes between Mel Gibson and Elijah Wood ( playing the 10 year old Nat Cooper ) are also touching  while the scene between Nat's Mum, Claire ( Jamie Lee Curtis ) is guaranteed to bring the Kleenex out.  In this scene, Claire insists upon playing Billie Holiday's hauntingly beautiful "The Very Thought of You"  ( which plays throughout the film ) and Daniel breaks down ---a very sensitively done scene.
But throughout it all the film is shot through with a wry and subtle humour and like all good comedy there is an underlying sadness taking in the transience of youth, the bitterness of age and the endurance of love.  It makes you laugh and it makes you cry ---- just like life itself.

  Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow  { 2004 }
Director : Kerry Conran
All the elements of 30’s kitsch are present in Sky Captain ------ mad scientists, Nazi spies, fiendish Orientals, death rays and so on ---- but despite the obvious effort gone into the film it just does not work.  The beginning is quite promising with a beautifully painted art-deco New York and the attack of the giant robots but things go downhill rapidly after that and it never fulfils its initial promise.
It has become almost de rigeur in this type of film to have a laugh-in-the-face-of-danger All-American daredevil and his sexy and cute-but- feisty, girl-next-door  girlfriend but Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow just don’t have the pizzazz to carry it off ----sadly, they are both miscast and do not have that essential chemistry between them.  Also, this type of role is totally unsuitable for British actors and Jude Law in particular delivers his lines with no conviction whatsoever.
Even the appearance of a leather-clad Angelina Jolie can’t jerk Sky Captain out of his inertia and by the time the credits began to role everyone concerned looked relieved that it was all over.
As a parody of the Saturday afternoon Matinee it is a total failure -as a true Saturday Matinee cliffhanger it’s great ------ but in the knowledge that most kids these days can’t even find their way to school never mind the cinema, the only World of Tomorrow that I can envisage for Sky Captain and his pals is endless re-runs every Christmas day until the world grows cold and is ruled by intelligent woodlice.

The Aviator ( 2004 )
Director : Martin Scorsese
Despite a stellar cast and a renowned director The Aviator just doesn't capture the fantastic life of Howard Hughes and his romances with aircraft, women and politics, lacking that certain indefinable 30's ambiance.  It's difficult to pin-point where the film falls down and hardly fair to blame individuals but it has to be said that Leonard de Caprio comes across as an insipid version of Hughes and fails to capture the dynamic and mercurial nature of the man.   Similarly, Jude Law plays Errol Flynn in the same manner and someone should have told Jude that nobody could play Errol except Errol.  Cate Blanchett makes a fist of playing Katherine Hepburn but is hardly enough to carry the whole film.  
Sadly, The Aviator is a missed opportunity to to make the definitive film about a 30's icon and the film is frankly boring which is most unusual for a director of Scorsese's quality and the subject matter.

Cinderella Man  { 2005 }
Director : Ron Howard

Just as you might expect from a Ron Howard movie, Cinderella Man is an old-fashioned, straight-forward tale of a good man finding the strength to face adversity and triumph over it. The man is James.J.Braddock who resurrected a moribund career and literally lifted himself off the canvas to become Heavy Champion of the World. At that time, there was more cachet than cash in holding the title but nevertheless it offered a means of escape from poverty.
Cinderella Man is as much about depression-era New York as it is about boxing and the struggle to get by is underlined throughout the film. As Braddock's boxing career goes into free-fall he is forced to earn money any way that he can in order to feed his family and each morning he faces the humiliation of jostling at the dock gates to be chosen for a day's work { New York docks was not alone in carrying out this humiliating procedure ----Liverpool { U.K.} dock workers were for many years faced with the same ritual and labour negotiations were forever after coloured by memories of those dreadful times }.
The gnawing futility of youth and vigour without employment and the subsequent grinding poverty are explicit throughout and Braddock is no stranger to the bread-line or claiming Poor Relief --- it's difficult to believe that the verdant pastures of Central Park were once a tent city full of refugees.
There is one particular scene which could have been culled straight from a Jack London short story in which Braddock is about to go to a fight and he gives one of his children his meal. Only Ron Howard knows whether he took this from London's short story but the exact same thing is the subject of  London's "For Want of a Steak".
A feature of many Ron Howard movies is the stirring grandstand finish and Cinderella Man is no exception as Braddock slugs it out with Max Baer to emerge as the new Heavyweight Champion against all the odds ----the " underdog" theme never fails to enthrall.
Despite the all-action ending and despite being immensely entertaining Cinderella Man never really makes it as one of the great boxing movies ---there are too many flaws. Not least among these is Renée Zellweger's  pouting and posing which is highly irritating and not in the least appropriate to this particular film ---she comes over as Brigitte Jones, lost in time.
Although it's easy to believe that Braddock claimed Poor Relief what is harder to believe is that he paid it all back when better times came along. This was an unnecessary and superfluous addition to his already flawless character in the film.
Finally, I can never understand why Madison Square Garden always looks far more glamorous in days gone by than the austere façade it presents today and the original 19th century building was even more stunning.

King Kong { 2005 }
Director : Peter Jackson
The second re-make of Kong not only pays a loving homage to 1930's New York but is unusual in that it does so by way of a reworking of one of the most iconic films of the era. The original Kong was made at a time when gorillas were still believed to be fierce and fearsome, there were places still to be explored in the world and the audiences were far less sophisticated in their tastes -----add to that the panning that the Jessica Lange film received and King Kong 2005 was a massive gamble all round.
The opening scenes go a long way to dispelling any fears that Kong will be a flop combining some beautifully realised sets of 30's New York with cutting edge computer graphics recreating faithfully the adverts, cars and population of the city at the time and even going so far as to reproduce not only the multinational crowds but even their mannerisms.
There is then some time spent in introducing each character ---Carl Denham { Jack Black }, the eponymous Ann Darrow 
{ Naomi Watts }, Jack Driscoll { Adrien Brody } etc all leading up to how each of them finds their way onto the tramp steamer which is the beginning of the adventure. It has to be said that the time spent on building up the tension is somewhat slow and once on board the ship it reaches the point of tedium introducing characters who were never part of the original. As an instance, the supposedly scally Jimmy, played by Jamie Bell, has little charisma and there are several others of the crew who are decidedly uninteresting and for the most part are redundant to the plot. If there are any criticisms to be made then it is that this section of the film perhaps makes it overlong but all that changes dramatically when the ship crashes onto the rocks of Skull Island. Stepping onto Skull Island is akin to stepping onto a roller-coaster ride and from now on the action comes thick and fast.
The natives of the island are far more fearsome than the superstitious and stereotyped originals created by Merian C.Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack and there are some lively exchanges between the two groups but the dramatic appearance of the gigantic Kong is a breathtaking piece of cinematic magic and sets the standard for all that follows. If the computerized New York was just awesome then the remainder of the special effects from now on are simply something to behold with Kong himself taking centre stage and reproducing so many nuances of mannerism and sound that it is easy to believe he is real. Closely followed by a host of Tyrannosaurs, Brontosaurs, Velociraptors, giant insects and bats and a lush jungle setting the excitement and action is non-stop in a feast of cinematography allied to state-of-the-art computer graphics. A comparison with Jurassic Park is inevitable at times particularly when the velociraptors are on screen.
Undeniably, the edge-of-the-seat excitement is brilliant but in many ways it is superceded by the intervals in which Ann ceases to be afraid of the monster and begins to understand that he is lonely and afraid. There is one particular stand-out scene which has Kong suffering from his wounds and looking into a glorious sunset ---- artistic in its own right it's made even more poignant when he opens his hand for Ann to climb into. The gigantic skeleton of another such as himself within the cave underlines the revelation that Kong is the last of his species and in some primeval way he is aware of the fact. His protective and possessive stance towards Ann is a cry for help and for some comfort in his isolation which only the female psyche can provide.
The original 1933 film never explored this aspect of the story, preferring to leave Kong's attraction to Ann as some vaguely sexual innuendo.
Apart from the plenitude of new characters Jackson has kept faithfully to the plot but there are some wonderful action scenes on the streets of a wintery New York involving a yellow cab and Kong sliding on the ice. The meeting of Kong and Ann and their subsequent playtime on the frozen lake of Central Park could in the wrong hands have come over as laughable but suspend disbelief { which is the name of the game } and it turns out to be poignant and funny.
The climactic scenes are of course played out upon the top of the Empire State Building and it is not too far fetched to say that it is quite an emotional scene as Ann weeps for the death of Kong. The symbolism is not always apparent in this film but for me, Kong's destruction upon the supreme altar of the civilized world via technology beyond even his strength stated clearly that our treatment of the forces of nature is callous and offhand to say the least. Carl Denham epitomises man's arrogance and ignorance in seeing animals as just a means to an end. Driscoll's ennui at seeing the giant ape chained in the theatre was summed up by his statement ;
"Carl always kills that which he loves most" and is quite perceptive in its summing up.
Seventy-odd years on from Merian C.Cooper's and Edgar Wallace's original conception, film-making has evolved beyond their wildest dreams. Nevertheless, the 1933 film retains its naïve appeal which the 2005 Kong has captured and elaborated upon.Peter Jackson's Kong has achieved the ultimate accolade of the Director's art causing us to feel pity and sadness for what our consciousness tells us is merely a computerized image.
King Kong can be whatever you want it to be ------ an adventure fantasy, Beauty and the Beast or a symbolic morality play and it succeeds on every level.

One of the staples of the Saturday matinee was the girl tied to the railway tracks by the moustachio-twirling villain, still being played many years after they originated in the 20's.  Famed for the number of times she was rescued from railway lines, the name of Pearl White was a byeword for the original damsel in distress.  I was pottering around Passy cemetery in Paris looking for the tomb of Manet when I was intrigued by the black basalt tomb with a single white rose on top.  It was the grave of Pearl White and after watching her silent movies all those years ago here she was back again in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.