Hi, to all. I just felt compelled to share my feelings after watching King Kong. I went to the movie theater expecting to simply experience the movie event of the year and to have a blockbuster-watchin', popcorn-chewing, coke-guzzling good time with my fellow audience members. Instead, King Kong left me so unsettled that I left the theater unable to answer my friend's question as to what I thought about the movie.

 

I'll bet that 99% of the audience for King Kong isn't experiencing what I'm experiencing, but I feel that my experience is worth sharing. I feel as if my whole ideology is shattering. My feelings remind me of an episode of the Ozzie show on MTV in which people were competing to be the band to go on tour with OzzFest. In this episode, the competitors were told that they had to bite the head off of a bat. This one girl--I believe she had short black/colored hair--was seriously conflicted b/c, if memory serves me correctly, she was a vegetarian. If memory does not serve me correctly, she at least made it very clear that this went against her morals. She had a serious dilemma b/c she had to either go against her morals and what she seriously stood for or decline to complete the challenge and risk losing the competetion. I feel as if I would have had no problem solving this dilemma. I think I would easily decline to bite the bat's head off if it went against my morals. But this competitor did the exact opposite. She completed the challenge. FYI, the competitors were blindfolded and the live bat head was replaced with hot dogs (I know some of you are saying, "not much of a difference though.") When that girl bit off what she thought was a bat head, I felt this horrible feeling for her. Can you imagine the day when you go against your morals, and to win a competition on MTV at that. I felt as if she didn't know who she was anymore. I bet her identity was badly in need of repair. This feeling is akin to what I feel now, but I bet its tenfold what that girl probably felt, b/c initially after watching King Kong I felt as if my ideology and my moral system regarding a handful of things was shattering, but as time passes this handful of things is creating an unending chain that makes me rethink many thinks about my identity, my morals, my ideology, etc. No movie has ever made me feel like this before, and I'm not your average consumer of movies. I've been to the Cannes Film Festival before; I frequent video stores that rent out more than your usual Hollywood fare. There are only three other movies that have seriously, seriously, seriously, affected me like this before, but in very different and much lesser ways. They are: 1. Magolia - My favorite movie. It's me. It's my home, you know. 2. Signs - I watched it 4 times in 36 hours (I worked at a movie theater). It's message and themes were haunting, but I've gotten over my feelings about this movie. 3. Dogville - I vowed to never watch another Lars von Trier movie. I was upset and said to myself, "How could anybody feel so negatively about humanity and human nature?" I'm not upset anymore, and I did watch another Lars von Trier movie.

 

King Kong is now #4 on this list and has affected me the most by far. It's changing my life. Amazing little sentence that is. To be specific about a few of my feelings--and hesitantly so--I don't hate animals anymore; I'm determined that my fifth attempt to become a vegetarian will be my final and successful one; and "love" is something that I intend on being a much more active verb in my life, & I'm committed to working on adding "forgive." Of course issues concerning capitalism, the destructive tendency of humans and human populations, and the environment are also addressed, but I don't have to resolve anything within myself regarding these. And for the respect of this forum and my privacy, I'm keeping my many other feelings to myself. (Get to know me for about 2 years and then we'll see, you know what I'm saying?)

 

I must leave you with this. And this is very important to me. A few years ago, I started to recognize a pattern in history. Humans tend to do things that humans in future generations think is absolutely wrong, for lack of a better word. These future generations often can't fathom how humans could ever do certain things. For example, today we shake our heads at humans who kill and run other humans off their own land to settle and start lives for themselves; but America was built on doing just that to Native Americans. Today, we shake our heads at slavery, but our country's most famous founding father, George Washington, owned them. We shake our heads at racism, but this country needed a civil rights movement merely 40 years ago. And in 2004, this nation resoundingly voted against gay marriage. Unfortunately, humans in 3004 will look back at that moment in history and shake their heads. I'm determined more than ever that I don't want future generations of humans to look back at me and shake their heads. I don't want to be George Washington. But what will future generations shake their heads at? Capitalism? Killing animals for a bite to eat? Failing to save the environment? Making $20 Million a movie, and then buying $20 Million homes? War? The caffeine in coca-cola? Making a big deal out of a guy wearing a dress to the prom? Ruining 20 years of a committed relationship because you couldn't resist your urge to bust a nut? Dying of cancer too young because you refused to have a cancerous toe cut off because of your religion (Bob Marley)? Or even being willing to shell out $1,000 for a couple of Coldplay tickets instead of being willing to give a small fraction of that amount to end poverty elsewhere in the world? The number of questions is infinite. I challenge you to ask them often. I definitely think it's worth it.

wow what a post. im not sure what to say to that since i havent seen the movie yet, but i think your outlook on life is great and spot-on.

 

even though u walked out, did u sorta like the movie?

Hey, bonabon. I did like it. It's a great blockbuster event.

 

For everybody, excuse my nationalism. When referring to "this country," I forgot that this forum is open to people all over the world. :)

wow! you like writing...

 

anyway, I'm going to watch it next friday. I will post then

:stunned: :stunned: :stunned:

I loved it and if you did walk out, which I must have missed, I am sorry you did.

 

It was probably one of the best films I have ever seen, and I have seen probably over a thousand by now. I'm a little wee bit fanatic about movies, but anyhow...

 

Yes it touched me too, I saw the original Kong many years ago and I couldn't help but cry when he was taken out at the end. I also cried when his child in Son of Kong also died. God did I cry. What a loser eh?

 

I love monster movies, especially monster movies that can make you cry. Why? Because it shows us what monsters we can be ourselves. The new Kong made me cry and I must say it was incredibly sad, the film I mean.

 

I was hoping he would kill everyone he ran into near the end of the film, but even then I don't think it would have been enough, at least in my mind. For a film to make me think like that, to feel for the monster - it was well worth the money.

 

I urge everyone to run out and see this film. This is a film you must see on the big screen. You simply cannot miss it. It might change your life, it might not, but I hope that for at least a few minutes, it will make you think about your life and take stock. I know I did.

 

My two cents. ;)

I saw it, but just didnt like it. We all knew how it was going to end, and it just took way to long to get to that point, and by then I just didnt even care anymore.

I finished watching the movie. I just walked out feeling unsettled after finishing it.

I enjoyed this remake of Kong much better than the original, and not because of the updated special effects either. This new version features better characterisations, and the Ann-Kong relationship is more of a friendship or pet-owner relationship, rather than Kong having some icky sexual fixation on Ann as in the original. ;)