Importand Films of the Early 1900’s

If there are two films that have truly endured the every changing diversity of entertainment in this country from the time of their creation all the way to present day, they would have to be King Kong (1933) and The Wizard of Oz (1939). Both films are landmarks in our countries history of motion pictures. They have been highly influential to the movie industry and they deserve recognition for what they have given us.

King Kong’s release delivered more than just a good movie, it was proof of the endless potential that films now had, thanks to the rapidly improving technologies that were sought and funded by the movie industry. The movie’s main character was not an actor, but in fact a fictional beast, a giant gorilla, that could only exist in the movies; this captured the public’s attention because it was the first film that brought to life a mythological creature who exhibited human emotion using stop motion animation. Watching King Kong, you don’t see the lifeless object that was utilized to represent an “alive” King Kong, you see a beast of epic proportion, and you see it alive, with emotion and power.

The Wizard of Oz also had an enormous impact on the movie industry and its fans. The film was one of the first to use color, and also made use of cutting edge technologies such as the terrifying “tornado” (a natural phenomenon never directly experienced by the majority of viewers) that swept Dorothy into the magical Land of Oz. It’s an iconic American Story, where there is drama, emotion, danger, and most importantly, a happy ending. It has all the key ingredients, including an innocent young women on a quest, an adorable small dog, black and white magic representing the Christian battle ground of good and evil, an most satisfactorily, the ultimate triumph of good over evil. The movie, along with its musical score, captured the imagination of a young generation and was carried with them as they grew. Arguable, every member of that generation believed that “Somewhere over the Rainbow” was a better place that they could find, if they tried hard enough.

Both movies were highly successful, but probably for very different reasons, considering that they tell clearly dissimilar stories. One of the reasons that The Wizard of Oz continues to be so imbedded in our culture, is because of the almost astonishing quantity of times it has been shown on TV after the emergence of television in the 1950’s. King Kong did not receive such attention from television, however its