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Cultural Critics Dissect The Racial Implications Of Every Single King Kong Film In case you weren’t already aware, there’s a new King Kong movie out called ‘Kong: Skull Island’ which stars Samuel L. Jackson. With the arrival of this latest version, our friends over at NPR took the time to discuss the racist undertones of the previous Kong films — and whether it’s at all possible for this film to avoid those issues. The first King Kong movie, which was released in 1933, starred Fay Wray as the blonde-haired white woman among explorers in search of Skull Island — geographically somewhere near Indonesia, but whose “natives” are normally depicted as dark-skinned savages who kidnap the blonde to sacrifice her to Kong. In later iterations of the film, the woman is played by Jessica Lange (1976), Naomi Watts (2005) and this time Brie Larson. Regardless of the choice in heroine, the figure of Kong pretty much HAS to be taken as a metaphor for black masculinity and it’s easy also to draw the line from that metaphor to one of the black male threat to white women. Members of the panel point out that this time around Samuel L Jackson — who wants revenge against Kong– is there to help prevent that trope of white men coming to the rescue of a white woman in danger from a big black ape. Have a listen below. Have you seen ‘Kong: Skull Island?’ Do you think the film manages to steer completely clear of racial stereotypes? WENN

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For Discussion: The Latest ‘King Kong’ Stars A Black Man, Does That Make The Story Less Racist?