The Power of Kong

         The cinema has a way of influencing everyone that may come in contact with it. Whether you like it or not, there has been a movie or a show that has affected your life in one-way or another. That is the power of the cinema. With or without words it can change the way you feel in a matter of a few quick seconds. When you go to the theater you rarely think about how the first movie was made, or even what that first movie was. All your worried about is that movie you are going to see at that very instant. Well, have you ever thought about what would happen if we did not have the cinema, and movies like King Kong? How different would our world be with this form of entertainment?

         You do not have to be a film minor to have a passion for the cinema. It is important for students in a variety of disciplines to study the history of the cinema so that they can understand this unique form of entertainment that we as a nation, and world, have grown to favor and use everyday. Without the cinema, history majors would have a hard time displaying the multiple wars that our nation has had, or the heroes of old and new. Without the cinema we would not be as educated as we are today. Sure the cinema is not only used for educational purposes, but more than you know they are. Each movie has a story behind it, and most have to deal with past historical events. So why would it be important for someone who was interested in history to know about the cinema and how it works? Well, you want to be able to review past historical figures and findings and with the cinema you can do this. Not only that, but you can display the fascinating past history that our country has, that cannot be taught through words but must be seen. Though the cinema is useful for a history major, that is not the only group. It is important for all students to learn the history because all students have used the cinema in one point in their life or another. You should want to learn and know how these amazing movies began. Math majors can learn from the history of the cinema by calculating what it takes to put a movie together, the set up and so forth. Communication students should want to learn about the history of the cinema, because they want to know how the earliest movie was made and who worked on it and how that connection came to be. So as you can see, learning the history of the cinema should be something that every student should learn, because it is something that every student has experienced.

         King Kong (1933), directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, was a monumental movie of its time. Not only did this movie first introduce such sophisticated visual effects, but also it left its mark in history as being known as one of the greatest stories told. Several remakes have been done from the original King Kong, but none of them can compare to the original. Now days we have so much technology that movie directors can have amazing visual effects, and everything seems real, but for the time period that the original King Kong was created, the directors did a magnificent job incorporating the intensity of each character. This movie is known world round because it was such a big movie during its time, and now we remember it as a historical piece. King Kong, I feel, can help encourage students to learn about the history of the cinema because it was such a masterpiece at the time it was created. We know this because, if the movie was not such a big deal, then it would not have been mimicked so many times. By learning the history of the cinema, you can learn the history of this fantastic movie and really get a feel of what the directors were trying to capture while making this movie. King Kong is now and will always be a masterpiece that will live on long in history.

Christie Clatterbuck

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