King Kong (1933) is a classic, if I need to go into why, then you need to stop reading this and go watch it now. It's a movie I rewatch on a fairly regular basis. It does not fail to amaze me on each viewing. I'd love to watch this with an audience in 1933. Movies were still a fairly new narrative medium, and sound was even newer when King Kong debuted, dominating the medium with its sophisticated use of music and sound design, and its still stunning special effects which impress even more when you realize that they were inventing how to do these shots as they went and completely pulling them off in the process. The scene in Kong's lair for example is a miniature set occupied by two stop motion animated characters, along with flying birds. There is also a live actor in the scene, behind the stop motion characters, a live actor in front of them, and live steam, and bubbling liquid incorporated into the scene. This is cinematic magic in its purest form, setting the bar for every fantasy film to follow, and inspiring innumerable careers.
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