Dwan
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
“
|
Sometimes I get too physical. It’s a sign of insecurity. You know, like… like when you knock down trees.
|
„
|
— Dwan talks about herself while in Kong's hand (King Kong (1976)) |
Dwan is a protagonist and the main female character in the 1976 film King Kong. Kidnapped by natives on Skull Island, she was given to Kong as a bride, but escaped. She grew more sympathetic towards him after the Petrox Corporation captured him and brought him to New York City, even trying unsuccessfully to stop helicopter pilots from shooting him down when he broke loose in New York City.
Development
In the first script for the film, the lead female character was a beautiful young photographer accompanying an oil expedition to Skull Island. Lorenzo Semple Jr. used Candice Bergen as a prototype for her. Producer Dino De Laurentiis liked this concept, but Semple himself thought it was too hackneyed, and he suggested that the main female character should be an actress picked up on a drifting raft in the open ocean. In his mind, such a scene would become a transitional stage from the realistic beginning of the film to the more fantastic subsequent events. De Laurentiis didn't like this decision, but John Guillermin preferred Semple's approach and so it became the final version of the script. The photographer's function was taken over by the main male character, Jack Prescott.[1]
Name
As Dwan revealed shortly after being brought aboard the Petrox Explorer, her birth name was Dawn, but she later swapped two letters to make it more memorable.
Personality
- Dwan: “Do you think I need furs?”
- Jack Prescott: “Yes, I think you need furs.”
- ― Dialogue between Dwan and Jack Prescott in a New York restaurant (King Kong, 1976)
Dwan is an aspiring actress with hopes for further fame. Shortly before her trip to Skull Island, she met Hollywood director Harry and was planning to film in Hong Kong. Dwan is easily swayed by tempting offers and loves luxury, but does not want it to come at the cost of someone else's suffering. Dwan is absent-minded and, according to her own words, was often in a senseless hurry before the explosion on the yacht Cynara. At age ten, she got sick while riding in an elevator at the Empire State Building. Ever since, she has been afraid of heights and experienced great shock when Kong carried her on his shoulder and climbed the even taller World Trade Center. In stressful situations, Dwan is capable of causing physical harm, even if the danger comes from a huge monster like Kong. She believes in horoscopes and often reads astrological forecasts for her future. Her own zodiac sign is Libra and she thinks that her ideal match is Aries. Dwan is fond of fishing. Shortly before she was kidnapped by the natives, she was fishing on a platform at the water's edge.
As Dwan herself says, she is a client of the Petrox Corporation, and therefore she believed that she should go to Skull Island with the reconnaissance party. During the journey, Dwan fell in love with Jack Prescott, who helped her return to the civilized world. When she arrived in New York, she read his book about primates.
History
- King Kong (1976)
- King Kong Lives (1986) [stock footage]
King Kong (1976)
Dwan sailed from Singapore on the yacht Cynara with Hollywood director Harry, who wanted to cast her in his new film in Hong Kong. Somewhere near Indonesia, the yacht got caught in a storm. Harry decided to put on the movie Deep Throat, but Dwan didn't want to watch it and went out on deck. This decision saved her life, because the yacht soon exploded and sank, and Dwan was saved by falling into an inflated life raft. The raft was soon spotted by Jack Prescott from the Petrox Explorer, and the unconscious Dwan was brought aboard. When she wake up in her cabin, she learned that the wreckage of Harry's yacht had been found on the coast of Singapore, and that the Explorer was heading to an uncharted island in search of oil. Dwan quickly became friends with the crew, especially Prescott. The sailors and drillers helped her sew new suits, and the voyage went well.
When the ship stopped in front of a fog bank, Dwan asked to go on a boat with the reconnaissance party. Fred Wilson was against it at first, but then agreed to take her with them. The group discovered the legendary Skull Island through the fog and went ashore. Dwan, delighted, immediately ran to the stream, making Prescott nervous. They soon discovered a giant wooden wall and a native settlement near it. The islanders were performing a ceremony that Dwan took for a wedding, and suddenly a witch doctor in an ape mask noticed their presence. He became angry, but when he saw the blonde woman, he offered six women from his tribe in exchange for her. The group refused and, having scared the natives with shots into the air, returned to the ship. Dwan spent the evening without worries and went down to the platform to fish. After talking with Prescott, she began to pack her things to retire with him to the cabin, but from the darkness of the night a pirogue with natives appeared, who quickly grabbed Dwan and took her back to the island. The islanders dressed Dwan in a ceremonial dress and gave her a calming drink. While Dwan was in a trance, the witch doctor performed the necessary rites, and the women carried her through the giant gate to the altar and tied her to two posts. The gates closed and soon Kong, a huge ape who is revered as a god by the natives, emerged from the forest. Kong picked up the frightened Dwan and carried her away with him.
In the morning, Dwan tried to escape from the beast. He did not let her go, but did not cause her any harm as well. Seeing that she was dirty, Kong took her to wash herself at the waterfalls and blew on her to dry her faster. The next night, he briefly left Dwan alone, attracted by strange sounds. After killing four members of the rescue party, he took the screaming Dwan and carried her further into the mountains. A day later, Kong brought her to his lair near a geothermal spring and two high peaks. At that moment, Dwan realized that the beast was experiencing male attraction towards her. Astonished, she barely found the strength to refuse when Kong tried to take off her dress. As soon as he placed her on the ground, a giant snake suddenly crawled up, hissing threateningly. Dwan ran away and unexpectedly met Prescott, who had finally reached her following Kong's tracks. They watched Kong struggle with the giant reptile for a while, and when he tore the snake's head off, they ran away from him through the forest and jumped into the water from a high cliff. Tired, they soon returned to the gate in the wall, where Wilson and his crew were waiting them, but Kong came to the wall too. Dwan watched in fear as Kong broke down the gate, fell into a pit filled with chloroform and fell asleep.
The giant ape was loaded into an empty oil tank on the tanker Susanne Onstad, which sailed to New York City. Dwan, Prescott, and Wilson boarded the tanker. Here, under Prescott's influence, Dwan began to doubt the wisdom of taking Kong off the island. She became despondent, especially because Wilson considered Kong a ferocious monster incapable of good feelings. One night, the wind blew Dwan's scarf off and it accidentally landed on Kong. She ran to calm the raging beast, but when the grate on the lid shook, she fell down onto Kong's palm. Prescott raised the alarm, but Kong had already calmed down and allowed Dwan to go upstairs.
Before the first show in New York, Dwan was upset that Prescott refused to take part in it. He offered to terminate her contract, but she, hesitating, went to the show. In front of a large crowd of spectators, performers dressed as natives lifted Dwan onto a mock altar, and a cage containing Kong emerged from a giant gate. As Dwan was surrounded by numerous reporters, Kong thought she was in danger and broke out of his cage. Panic ensued, and several people, including Wilson, were killed by Kong, but Prescott found Dwan and they ran away together. They boarded the train, but Kong stopped it and almost grabbed Dwan. After riding the abandoned motorcycle far enough, Dwan and Prescott went to a small restaurant near the World Trade Center, but Kong found Dwan and took her again. He climbed the World Trade Center with her, where he had to defend himself first from Marines with flamethrowers, and then from helicopters. Dwan desperately tried to shout to the pilots not to kill Kong, but the wounds from the gunshots exhausted the giant and he fell from the roof of the skyscraper. In tears, Dwan watched as Kong closed his eyes as his heartbeat slowed. She ran desperately through the crowd toward Prescott, but he stopped a few steps away, seeing that Dwan was once again surrounded by reporters.
King Kong Lives
Stock footage of Dwan is shown at the beginning of the film in a recap of Kong's fall from the World Trade Center.
Gallery
Trivia
- Dwan is an adaptation of Ann Darrow from the original King Kong.
- When Dwan and Jack Prescott were drinking at a restaurant after Kong's escape, Dwan proposed a toast to "all the future sons and daughters of King Kong." In King Kong Lives, released ten years later, Kong does in fact have a son, Baby Kong.
- Like several other characters, Dwan was given several additional lines in the German dub of the film. However, in the log scene, her screams are absent.
- The idea of a female photographer joining an expedition on Skull Island was later incorporated into Kong: Skull Island with Mason Weaver, although it is unknown if the latter film's writers were aware of Lorenzo Semple Jr.'s earlier idea.
Related characters
|
|
|
|
References
This is a list of references for Dwan. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
|
Comments
Showing 5 comments. When commenting, please remain respectful of other users, stay on topic, and avoid role-playing and excessive punctuation. Comments which violate these guidelines may be removed by administrators.
|
|
|