Shots In The Dark: The Politics of Kong, Continued

Wednesday, December 07, 2023

The Politics of Kong, Continued

Some of you doubted my interpretation of the environmental and racial politics of the new King Kong film. It's a "popcorn movie," one of you wrote. In other words: Lighten up.

Balderdash!

In its coverage of the movie premiere, the Times has found at least one person who agrees with me that Kong has a pro-environmental subtext: the director Darren Aronofsky. (Who is, by the way, a very talented guy.)

“It was a very sad movie,” Aronofsky said. “It doesn’t put me in the party mood. I’m going to go give money to the WWF or the Nature Conservancy.”

(Emphasis happily added.)

It is a sad movie, by the way.

Perhaps if there were any African-American people invited to the after-party, they could confirm my concerns about the problem of race in the film.

¶ 8:34 AM

Comments:

How many African-Americans were invited to the advance screening you attended and why didn't you walk out when you saw that there were none?

# posted by Anonymous : 9:27 AM

Good question. Answer: A few, but not that many. But I couldn't very well blog about the politics of the film if I didn't see it, now could I?

I raise the issue partly because I'm often struck by the whiteness of the media, particularly the magazine and publishing businesses, a condition which I think is truly unfortunate, and provides a warped picture of the world.

# posted by richard : 9:32 AM

Kong has bigger problems than race: http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/375339p-318904c.html

21st biggest opening?

Could it really bomb?

# posted by Anonymous : 1:08 PM

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