There have been three great revolutions in the history of cinema.

The first was sound, the ability to add not only voices but also music and atmosphere to the movies.

The second was color, the ability to add tone to the flickering images on the screen.

The third was King Kong.

It was King Kong that convinced movie audiences, and studio execs, that the then relatively new medium of film was one of infinite possibilities. It was King Kong that proved that effects could be effective and affecting. It was King Kong that showed the world that, cinematically speaking, an artist was limited only by his or her imagination.

Kong elevated the idea of the movie from a carefully photographed scenario to something more complex, more abstract and more meaningful.

It's also the movie that cemented the science fiction and fantasy genre's spot in the cinematic pantheon. Although there had been monsters and mayhem long before Kong came knocking, they were, for the most part, greeted as oddities, confections whipped up for a generation of young boys reared on the pulp fiction exploits written by the likes of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard.

King Kong wasn't, by any means, considered serious art, but it wasn't marginalized, either. It was marketed and released as a truly populist product, a movie aimed at the greatest common denominator.

Certainly, there were monster movies before Kong. Both Frankenstein and Dracula predate the great ape. Those were films based on established novels, however, and produced with a very different sort of sensibility. They celebrated their literary roots, while Kong embraced its sense of pure cinema.

Now more than 70 years old, the original Kong is not without its problems. The product of another time, it is unapologetic about the stereotypes it embraces, but the measure of a movie cannot depend on how society has changed outside its celluloid vacuum.

The real measure of any movie's influence and importance is found in the films that follow. Without King Kong there is no Godzilla or Alien, no Mighty Joe Young or Jurassic Park. Without King Kong of 1933, there would be no new King Kong today.

And that would be a shame.

Reach Steven Uhles at (706) 823-3626 or steven.uhles@augustachronicle.com.