Scene Analysis (King Kong 1933 Sacrifice Scene)

Part 1: The film King Kong begins by introducing us to documentary filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), who sails to unknown places in order to film his latest classic with leading lady Darrow on board. Arriving at Skull Island, they come across a ceremony in which the native dancers circle around a frantic young girl, chanting, "Kong! Kong!" The chief (Noble Johnson) and witch doctor (Steve Clemente) spot Denham and company and order them to leave. But after taking a close look at Ann, the chief offers to buy the "golden woman" to serve as the "bride of Kong." Denham declines, and he and the others return to their ship. Later that night a group of native warriors creep on board the ship and kidnap Ann. They strap her to a huge sacrificial altar just outside the gate, then summon King Kong, who winds up saving Ann instead of devouring her. Kong is then taken back to New York, where he breaks loose on the night of his first performance, assuming that his beloved Ann is being hurt by the reporters' flash bulbs. Now at large in New York, King Kong hunts high and low for Ann. After demonstrating his fidelity by destroying an elevated train, King Kong ends up at the top of the Empire State Building, facing off against a fleet of World War I fighter planes.

The connection between King Kong and Ann Darrow is the critical scene leading to the turning point. The reason being, this is when King Kong seems to fall in love with Ann, when she is presented to him as a “bride”. I believe that the film officially took off from there leading King Kong to be kidnapped and ultimately taken to New York.

Part 2: If you notice, the beginning of the film begins with an Arabic inscription about beauty killing the beast. "Beauty" (Ann Darrow), is firstly presented to King Kong as a sacrificial bride. Conversely, King Kong ends up falling hard, literally and metaphorically, causing him to lose judgment, his royal thrown, and in due course his life. Hence the beauty that kills the beast falls entirely within the ancient Western practice of demonizing the supremacy of female sexuality.

Part 3: (King Kong - Sacrifice Scene) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmixe-Dii0Y&feature=youtu.be) -- (I have had issues viewing the link & video on Internet Explorer however, it works on Google Chrome)

 

This scene begins with a medium long shot of a native drummer. This group shot has key and small amounts of fill lighting. Even though the drummer is scene beating the drum with his hand the dietetic music plays over the scene and no drum effects can be heard. A cut transitions to the following segment where we see natives climbing ladders to get to the top of the gate. The first is an extreme long shot followed by a long shot. The lighting then switches from key to fill. This causes large shadows across the climbing characters. This method is effective because it establishes a look that they are climbing by the light of the big fire torches at the side of the gate. This shot ends with a cut and brings us back to the first extreme long shot of the gate.

We now see new men standing on top of the gate and wall and are presented with a long one shot of the native chief. Although the shot does not give much detail the formerly presented new establishing shot tells us that he is standing atop the wall. Like the men climbing the wall, the native chief is shown in fill light in order to show the existence of the torches. The fill light helps create a crazed look on the native chief’s face by using shadows as he used his long staff to indicate the opening of the gate. The native chief’s shot concludes in a cut and takes us back to the bottom of the wall where a group medium shot shows natives dancing in the mean time the bar is being removed from the gate. This is the first time that a high back light is used to show the depth of the wooden bar being removed.

When the gate finally opens we are focused on Ann with a one person medium long shot. The key light is high in order to illuminate her. The reason for presenting Ann right after the gate opens is to indicate that she will be passing through the gate to face whatever is on the other side. From Ann we cut to a medium long shot of the native chief at the top of the wall. We then see the native chief give signal to bring Ann to the gate. The next shots are essential in building the tension of the film. We then come back to a long shot of the establishing scene, this time using stronger key lighting where Ann can be seen being taken to the gate. Instead of cutting to the next scene the camera is mounted on a track in order to follow Ann towards the gate. The shot remains a long shot as Ann is walking away from the camera. The action then cuts to the opposing side of Ann. The camera is no longer on a track as Ann beings to walk towards the camera for a long shot. Key lighting elucidates Ann as she come within reach of the camera leaving great amounts of shadow all around her. The angle then goes back to a long shot from behind. Once more the camera is motionless. This allows the narrative to move along as we watch Ann getting farther from us. 

Once Ann is inside of the gate we have a shot-return shot sequence of her front and back. The medium long shot from front and back is of Ann and two natives. On her face the light toggles from key lighting to the fill lighting coming from the fire torches. The fact that there is no back light causes vague darkness behind her. This shot concludes with a medium long shot from the front of Ann's arms being tied to two trees. The concluding shot of the sequence is a medium shot of Ann tied up. This is the closest shot in the sequence. Key, fill and back lighting is all present as we see Ann's face but also the characters in the background with intense perception. 

Even though there are no conversations occurring in the scene the extra dietetic music that plays throughout the scene is considered as audio. The gloomy tones used in the musical piece signify that Denham and his men will not make it to Ann before she is offered to King Kong. 

The video clip I presented above does not show exactly what I want it to show. There should be more to the beginning and less of the end however, I could not find the exact video clip.