Here is a photo from the classic 1933 movie King Kong. Fay Wray, who is is playing the damsal in the possession of this mighty beast, died yesterday in her New York apartment aged 96. Of the beast Fay Wray once said

Although he had tremendous strength and power to destroy, some kind of instinct made him appreciate what he saw as beautiful. Just before he dies, he reaches toward me, but can't quite reach. The movie affects males of all ages. Recently, a 6-year-old boy said to me, `I've been waiting to meet you for half my life.'

I have a copy of this movie on tape, I bought it recently at a chuck-out sale for $5. Obviously it lacks the high tech special effects of recent movies but it has a simplicity and intensity that makes these techniques somewhat superfluous. The movie encapsulates the essence of the genre in that the monster has a degree of humanity, it is a metaphore for human failings. In the end, when it is killed we feel a sense of pity for it.

This is an aspect of the genre that seems to have been lost recently.