Karl Marx opined that “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” However, when King Kong returned as a Hollywood leading ape in 1976 (after a tangent of Toho-produced tokusatsu appearances in which Kong battled Godzilla, dinosaurs, and a robotic version of himself), our favourite metaphorical creature had reversed that maxim. Although it would be inaccurate to call the Cooper/Schoedsack original a “farce”, I have discussed its hermeneutic subtexts as if they are not largely dominated by its pulpy adventure fantasy elements.
Pauline Kael summed up the crude affect lathered over its rich subtexts with her usual trenchancy in her review of the 1976 remake: “The first Kong was a stunt film that was trying to awe you, and its lewd underlay had a carnival hucksterism that made you feel a little queasy”. As I have begun to elucidate, King Kong’s tale was initially staged as a mass spectacle before gradually shifting towards grand tragedy.