This is the first post in a new feature I'm going to call "They Didn't Nominate WHAT!?!" This is a feature where I look at a culturally significant film that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences didn't nominate that year. I'm going to start as early as I can, but let's face it: In the early years of the award there are few films that have held up, so those years will be skipped. Thankfully I found such a film released in 1933 that has had lasting impact throughout the years. And that film is...
..."King Kong." Yes, this is one of the most popular films ever made. So popular is this film that even in an age of digital effects, video games, and even a Peter Jackson remake, you can walk up to any person of any age, and most 0f them will have seen this film. So why is this film still so popular after all these years. After all, compare King Kong in 1933...
...to 1976...
...to 2005...
...and it seems that this film's popularity should have died many years ago. Well, it's still alive and just as entertaining today as it was over seventy years ago. Have the effects changed? Yes. Have the times changed? Yes. Have audiences lost their taste in good movies? No. Oh sure, once in awhile you meet a stoner who only watches movies because he likes the purdy graphics, but most people watch movies to be entertained and moved. "King Kong" is a movie that entertains. It entertains with thrills and exciting action sequences that manage to feel fresh so many years later. People who watch this movie for the first time are amazed to find that despite the polish of the remakes, this classic film seems just as convincing now as it did many years ago.
Plus, I don't care who you are, but the sequence where airplanes circle Kong (who is climbing the Empire State Building) is still one of the most emotional and tense scenes in movie history. By this point you've come to like Kong, and the humans greedy attempts to capitalize on him have sicked us by now. The movie concludes with one of the most memorable lines in movie history. Considering how much people were impressed by this movie when it first came out I'm shocked that this movie didn't get a Best Picture nomination. The Academy has nominated
worse action films before. But maybe I should cut them a break here. After all, the Academy WAS new, and their nominations have certainly improved since! It's just a shame they overlooked this gem of a film that continues to entertain so many years later.
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