How King Kong Expresses the Fear of a White Nation

The release of the Peter Jackson-directed remake of King Kong opens the door for an examination of an interesting subtextual reading of the original. Like all great art, the original King Kong is open to a multitude of interpretations; there is no single appropriate reading of the text. (You should hear my Marxist version of the tale; that Carl Denham is one disgusting capitalist pig!)

I haven't seen the remake as I write this, but I saw-and appreciate-the Jessica Lange version made in the 70s and it fits the bill of goods I'm selling, so I have little doubt that Jackson's remake will probably be able to fit into this interpretation as well.

What is King Kong? Not the movie, but the character. He's an ape on an island inhabited by black savages. It's an island that, according to the map used in the movie, doesn't appear to be in close promixity to Africa. I'm not sure where Skull Island is, but it's prehistoric. There are dinosaurs and other denizens of our preliterate past. Stuck in this time warp are dark-skinned human beings. And Kong himself is dark. He is their god. He is their Michael Jordan, if you will.

Into this land before time comes a ship filled with far more intelligent-or at least more worldly and educated-white people. They have come with knowledge of modernity. They have cameras! They also have the smarts to outwit the gigantic ape-god after he arrives at his annual-or thereabouts-sacrificial festival.

You see, these people that time forgot, these prehistoric, preliterate black savages toss up one of their womenfolk as a sacrifice to Kong. It's never really made certain what Kong would have done with these sacrifices, but the assumption is that, well, he ate them. I mean it's not like they're around whenever the great white hunter tracks down Ann Darrow to save her. Where are they? Just bones stuck in Kong's teeth, probably.

Anyhoo, this time around, Kong has a new, different kind of sacrifice waiting for him. A blonde, white woman. Not preliterate, not prehistoric, not black. White. Blonde. It's pretty darn apparent that Kong isn't exactly in a hurry to eat the lovely Miss Darrow.