King Kong vs Wise Blood

The similar experience of the cinematic in both King Kong and Wise Blood is most significant given the juxtaposing themes and beliefs exemplar in these texts. The aesthetic and meaning in the two works are so different that the cinema experience becomes a uniting factor and this is the strongest perception of the cinema in these two texts.

In the beginning...

To start with the differences, these films are definitive opposites. King Kong is a story about an expedition whereas Wise Blood is about homecoming. The image of the wold in these works is subsequently very different. King Kong is a worldly film. This is not only seen in the juxtaposing of New York and Skull Island. It is apparent with every reference to other countries which are scattered over the globe. They are western and oriental, big and small. What is most important about these references is that they are fluent. Where Wise Blood is isolated to Southern American culture, a region synonymous with racial distinctions and judgment of neighboring cultures, King Kong is not judgmental but curious about foreign culture.

This is best shown in the scene where the characters first interact with the native population on the island. That the two groups communicate in the native is significant. When I went to Hong Kong with family, they seemed to believe anyone could understand English if it was spoken loud and slow enough. For this reason, I was surprised to see the respect that the Americans in King Kong had for other cultures. They seem to acknowledge the customs of the natives. The initiative to try film the ritual suggests curiosity and want to understand this.

In contrast, Wise Blood is focused on judgment. The characters believe they have knowledge and are not curious about others or the world. This is subsequent to the world experience they believe they have. Belief is an interesting concept in Wise Blood. The nature of religion is belief without knowledge. What faith is there in a church without Christ?

Human vs Divine...

As Wise Blood debates the nature of divinity, King Kong offers question on the nature of humanity. Apes behaving as humans, humans dressing and acting as apes. Humans, perhaps, are trying to capture these primitive instincts. It may suggest that humans are not so progressed from apes. In the film they are driven by desire and not controlled by reason. It exposes the animalistic in the human.

Alternatively, human is all there is for Wise Blood. The very title insinuates reason and knowledge. Furthermore, Blood is aesthetically human and, more importantly, mortal. The absence of ultimate divinity assumes a certain divinity in the human.

After reading/watching these works consecutively we are left with a definitive human experience, between the animalistic and the divine.

And now, the cinema...

The balance which is humanity is dramatized in the cinematic experience. It allows for creation of people through characters, the control of fate within the plot and it creates followers. It also provides for expression of unrestricted desires, as seen in Piccadilly. In the experience, film allows for escape from reason and can expose innate emotions, as seen in Wise Blood. The cinema construction and experience is what unites these two opposing films.