1. Techniques

• models of Willis O'Brien and Marcel Delgado
• music of Max Steiner - cues for every action, not just mood - the 3 main themes are the descending 3-note motif for "King Kong," the "Jungle Dance" theme, and the soft tragic "Stolen Love" theme
• optical effects of Linwood Dunn - rocking boat, planes fly, fades, wipes, dissolves

2. Structure

• repetitive - jungle/city, Skull Island/Manhattan Island, snake/subway, bird/planes, 2 abductions/rescues
• In the screen test for Ann on board the ship, Carl teaches her how to look, which is also how she and the audience will later look at Kong
• beauty and the beast romance
• film within a film - self-promotion, energetic, adventure story

3. Themes

• nostalgia - desire for a simpler time, a "lost world" before lost innocence
• depression - helplessness, collapse of the marketplace, "one-ape revolution"
• social darwinism - survival of the fittest, war (WWI gas grenades), struggle, racism, greed, ambition, unrestrained individualism
• horror - the Secret, the Other, the Terrible Place
• Jungian archetypes of the collective subconscious:
  • Mother/Child - maternal figure as temptress, devourer, poisoner (as the Biblical Eve was the mother of original sin, the mother monster in James Cameron's Aliens) - the child is born innocent, gentle, curious, loving but may be orphaned into an evil imperfect world, feeling powerless (as Norman Bates in Psycho)
  • Persona/Shadow - the persona is the mask to hide real face (as in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) - the shadow is our dark self, negative qualities "primarily responsible for man's vitality, creativity, vivacity, and vigor" and "cannot and perhaps should not be repressed" (as in Dracula and The Wolf Man)
  • feminine Anima/masculine Animus] - the Anima may be a helpless victim (as in Halloween) or warrior/hero (as in She-Wolf of London)
  • in King Kong, the monster is thrust from innocent Paradise into a harsh imperfect urban world, becomes an enlarged projection of the dark shadow self
• superhero fantasy - Kong as King, projection of size and strength
• oedipal drive by a rejected son to kill father, possess mother
• repression of sexuality - fear of unleashed sexuality, danger of "going soft"
• Black rage - fear of rape, revolt of the oppressed (as in Richard Wright's 1940 novel Native Son)