At age five, this movie was breathtaking for its story and visuals. At age fifteen, it was laughable for the cheesy acting and the primitive special effects. At twenty-five, it was remarkable in terms of its vision, technical specifications, and musical score. King Kong isn’t a great movie in terms of acting or realism, but rather in terms of technique, story, and scope. The movie is still “charming”, if you can still use that phrase non-ironically; it certainly suffers a little from being over seventy years old, but like an old dame, it still has its majesty. The special effects are dated, but if you play it for a child who still has his or her sense of wonder (and can handle a black and white movie), and watch his eyes light up. The score is particularly good, and is probably the most remarkable thing about the movie today. And the script’s actually better than you’d think, ending with one of the best last lines in cinema history: “It wasn’t the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast.” A little corny, sure, but then again, so’s the whole movie, from a 21st Century perspective. On its own merits, it’s a masterpiece, and one I could watch again over another seventy years, if I live that long.