He was certainly not the real King Kong, because he was not a giant monkey. He was a simple, anonymous chimpanzee, but big, tall.
Nor was he worshiped as a king like the real King Kong. We all remember the story of this legendary movie hero, whom the natives of an island unknown on the map worship as a god. Until a film crew discovers the island and wants to make a movie there. The natives steal the blonde protagonist to offer to King Kong, but the group manages to free Anna and at the same time capture the giant prehistoric gorilla to transport to New York.
No, our chimpanzee was not captured by a film crew on an exotic island, but by some who set up a zoo outside Athens. Nor, of course, did they introduce him to the charming blonde Faye Ray. But his fate with King Kong was the same and unchanged: after catching both of them, the god and the poor devil, they exploited them as a circus attraction. In other words, they were humiliated, both there, in America, and here in Greece.
Until ours, the poor and humble chimpanzee, could not stand it. He was not as strong, prehistoric, legendary as King Kong, but he jumped high, very high, and it exploded. Like a real king, he overdid it and went out of the zoo, on the street.
He did not climb the tallest building in New York (the Empire State Building), but on a pole! Nor did he hold Anna in his arms to sweeten his look. He was not even chased by half the police, the army and the war planes. He died, that is, he was murdered, much more simply, in a banal way. Nor did his heart beat with love, dying to justify the film’s legend that “Oraia killed Tera”. Everything became much simpler, ordinary.
I think about how crucial fantasy cinema always talks about reality through its films. Adding to the true story of a chimpanzee the element of myth and fantasy, he made it timeless. The event, the sad story, will be forgotten. But “King Kong” (1933) will be remembered, as it has been for almost a century. It is the symbol of the battle for freedom in all its forms. Even when it comes to an insignificant chimpanzee who, shortly before he died so ignominiously, jumped high, very high, as high as he could above slavery, occupation, exploitation and everything that strengthens our lives.
* Director, Director of Film Studies BA, MA New York College, Athens, University of Greenwich, UK