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The original movie King Kong is a work of American commercial cinema, but it is far more complex and analytical than a mere recounting of its story line would give out. There is, in fact, implicit in the film a rather daring and comprehensive criticism of the psychosexual and economic neuroses of Western technological civilization.
This study will first describe in order of filmic presentation some of the significant scenes of this movie, and then expound upon the meaning of these scenes from a psychoanalytical point of view. Some recourse will be had to Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents,2 parts of which seem particularly appropriate to this discussion.
King Kong opens with a misty view of a ship in harbor. On board, the famous producer Denham discusses plans for a new movie with some cronies. They tell he needs a woman to sell his films. He resolves to get such a woman despite the danger of his projected, mysterious enterprise.
Denham searches the depression bread lines and finally finds the destitute Ann. He persuades her against her will to be an actress, and they set sail. The all-male crew is at first hostile, but Jack Driscoll falls in love with her.
Finally the ship reaches a remote South Sea island. The first encounter with the natives is rather hostile, so the camera crew retreats. But the natives have seen Ann, the “golden girl,” and conceive of her as a sacrifice to propitiate the denizen of the other half of the island, Kong. Ann is kidnapped off the ship that night by the natives, seemingly in the midst of security.
Kong comes for her and Denham, and a band of men set out through a primeval swamp to rescue her. Only Denham and Driscoll survive. There are battles with gigantic prehistoric saurians, but finally Driscoss rescues Ann from Kong and they return to the more civilized part of the island. Kong follows but is subdued by gas bombs and taken back to civilization by the producer, and now promoter of the exotic, Denham.
While Kong is being exhibit