OUIL401 - Study Task 3

Poster for King Kong, the 1933 film.

Both the movie King Kong itself, and the poster for it has a lot of symbolism within. Firstly, the story behind King Kong is of an ape who is forcibly taken from his home island, and put on display as an attraction in the US, however he breaks free and goes on a rampage throughout the city, taking a woman as hostage. This parallels quite clearly to the shipping of black slaves to America. King Kong, who is the focal point in the centre of the image denotes what everyone recognizes as an ape and the connotations are something that is wild and powerful, something that should be feared. This links to the fears that many people held about the black slaves that were brought over, that they would rise up and fight back against the native people, taking the white American women and challenging the societys idea of completely "American" culture The image of King Kong represents the attitudes that people of 1930s American people had towards blacks, that they were something that existed for entertainment purposes, to be ridiculed and laughed at but should also be feared. The image of an ape may also have connotations of an animalistic sexual desire, we see that King Kong is staring directly at the female character, who is also central in the image, this again represents the fear that the slaves would try and "take" their women and violate them. The female in the image, is shown to be wearing white which connotates vulnerability and pureness, which contrasts to the dark and menacing image of King Kong, who is highlighted with the red of the fire, signifying evil and danger. The fact that the woman is chained could have connotations of women's suppressed sexuality at that time, which King Kong is about to break when he takes her away, this again could symbolise the fear that blacks would encourage sexual promiscuity in women and corrupt their pure and virginal ways. The crowds of people holding burning torches, at the bottom of the page, could have connotations of linking to the KKK, the men in the crowds would have been white because of the context of the poster and the time it was produced, and the way they are shown holding the torches being aggresive towards King Kong, is similar to images of crowds of KKK members. At the time this poster was produced (1933) the numbers of KKK members had began rising since the mid 1920s and society was scared of blacks alienating their culture, so the imagery shown in the poster would have appealed to the average american, appealing to their patriotic side and their fears. The text at the bottom of the image is very bold and captures the attention of the viewer, it reflects the colour palette of the rest of the image, the colours are very bright towards the centre of the image where the woman is chained, and get darker as the go upwards towards King Kong, these colours symbolise the connotations that the poster is trying to put across through the imagery of the woman and King Kong.