Re: Kong Review: Jaw-droppingly Brilliant

[Patrick Norton <ptnorton@suscom-maine.net>]

>  The beauty, or horror, of Freudian stereotypes and Jungian archetypes, 
> such
> as Kong as "hero" or Anne Darrow as "heroine", is that they can be applied
> EVERYWHERE. For example, Freudian kong is really a homosexual monkey who
> kidnaps Anne, representative of his id as well as the object of 
> destruction
> (she's a woman) who seeks the highest, phallic structure in the sit to 
> mount
> while heroic fighter pilots seek to save her.

The original film certainly has its share of sexual symbolism, but it's 
fundamentally a story based in political philosophy, not psychology.  It's 
right out of Western European romantic and enlightenment philosophies of the 
"noble savage" and the relationship between civilization and the "state of 
nature".  Kong is the archetypical noble savage.  Born in a "state of 
nature", where one's freedom to possess things (like Ann) is limited only 
by the strength of the individual, Kong nevertheless proves to be 
fundamentally good. In moving from a state of nature to civilization (aka, 
NYC), however, he loses the freedom to possess whatever he wants and is 
eventually destroyed by civilization, which Rousseau believed drove men to 
all sorts of bad behavior in the pursuit of commercial interests.



PTN