by eabaker » Tue Mar 05, 2013 1:05 pm
So, I was just thinking about my single favorite scene from King Kong.
It's the "Scream for your life, Ann" scene aboard the boat, Denham directing Ann in her camera test. It builds such anticipation for what's to come, and, at the same time, is this marvelous metatextual comment on the fact that what we're seeing is all a fantasy, that this is all a performance; but then we have Jack and the other sailors watching, and we are reminded that, fantasy or not, we spectators are expected to engage with what we are seeing. It is the scene that gives the rest of the movie a blank check on suspension of disbelief.
Tokyo, a smoldering memorial to the unknown, an unknown which at this very moment still prevails and could at any time lash out with its terrible destruction anywhere else in the world.