Thursday, November 6, 2008

Heroes for Sale and Son of Kong at the Brattle


I started off with Heroes for Sale, a pre-code melodrama by William Wellman that follows war hero Tom Holmes through the turbulent period between World War 1 and the Great Depression. The taboo pre-code stuff is mainly Tom's morphine addiction after the war. He started taking it to curb the pain of his war wounds, but soon becomes addicted. I found the portrayal of drug addiction in Heroes for Sale to be unusually sympathetic for the time. Tom is a good person who tries to do the right thing, but somehow things always turn wrong. When Tom is rebuilding his life and trying to raise a family, the movie lags a little; but thankfully fortune does not favor Tom and he gets wrapped up in a proletariat riot and everything turns sour again. After Heroes for Sale, the Brattle showed the sequel to King Kong, Son of Kong. While Son of Kong does not feature the same scope or sexual subtexts of King Kong, it does deliver some fun monkey models punching things. Starting off a little slow, things really pick up when Carl Denham returns to Skull Island and meets a miniature Kong. After saving the little Kong, Carl earns his trust and friendship. A little more playful and goofy than his father, the tiny Kong takes on an over-sized bear and some sort of enraged dinosaur to protect his new friends. Kiddy Kong kicks both of their asses. At one point he gets the bear in a headlock and just pummels him like Rodney King. The Son of Kong features the same great stop-motion as the original King Kong and is a fairly enjoyable movie in its own right.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Don't F with the Son of Kong!