Those of us who are 82 years old or older might remember the premier of a novel motion picture. While many movies during the Great Depression aimed to provide good feelings and a ray of hopeful sunshine into devastated lives, this particular movie had a somewhat different effect on the audiences. When people got their first glimpse of the giant ape called Kong, pandemonium broke out in the theater. People unintentionally mimicked sacrifice Ann Darrow (played by almost constantly screaming Fay Wray) and panicked. Like Darrow, they screamed, some fainted; others ran to the aisles and out of the theater.

Times certainly were different back then. The War to End All Wars was in the past, alcohol was banned in the United States, people had faith in the government, radio was the electronic medium of entertainment, and you could buy a cup of coffee for a nickel. Producers could also present entertainment that would engender total belief, and get reactions to match. By the same token, even as people learned that King Kong was a small model animated by pioneer Willis OBrien, the apparent reality that electronic media could produce would have a lasting effect. When a young Orson Welles aired his version of War of the Worlds on Halloween night, 1939, people once again reacted as if the events were really happening. They fled their homes, or locked themselves in cellars, armed with rifles and stores of food. Some were hospitalized by hysteria, and a sad few committed suicide.

Some observers argue that by 1939 Americans were in a constant state of fear about possible invasion by Nazis. U.S. ships had already been attacked and sunk by u-boats in the Atlantic, and stories about the blitzkrieg that had conquered Poland two months earlier made reports of anything hostile coming from the sky something to worry about.

How different are we now? In 2005, Hollywood (having been, I suppose, unable to find a single new story or book about which to make a movie) released new versions of both King Kong and War of the Worlds. But reactions have been entirely different, as if the new movies had been presented to creatures from another planet. Today, the war on terror is ominous and ever present, alcohol is exempted from the war on drugs, people loathe government, X-Box rules among electronic entertainment, and a nickel isnt even a tip for a $2.75 cup of java.

What changed? Are we so addicted to excitement that we need more graphic images to feed our craving? Have we become a society of adrenaline junkies? When King Kong emerged on Skull Island in 1933, audiences were exposed to shock after shock. The natives (and Darrow, eventually) were suggestively scantily clad, gorillas were little known and greatly feared, and movie cuss-words included gems like gosh! and golly! As for the 2005 War of the Worlds, lets just say the most news-generating story was about the films overly hyped star when he announced his new love by jumping on Oprahs couch.

How tame that all seems now, when the shocks of Kong are standard fare on our televisionson kids shows. We dont even have to go to a theater to see far more adrenaline-pumping entertainment than Kong can hope to match. On any given day we can tune in for monsters, dismemberments, murders, terrorist acts, car chases that defy physics only thanks to computer-generated effects, nudity, and a whole lexicon of cuss words (in which golly doesnt even appear). Amazingly, we often are left untouched by these images as we merrily talk on the phone or sift through a snack.

Maybe the increased use of coffee and other caffeinated drinks has become so pervasive over the past few decades because we need the chemicals to boost our adrenaline craving. Adrenaline and exciting movies are not enough; we must use other stimulants, try to stay wired as long as possible.

As for me, I was and remain sorry for Kong. Originally, I pitied him because of what the humans in the film did to him. I pity him now because the magic is gone. We are so insensitive to so much that even the idea of a giant rampaging gorilla fails to move us. And that thought makes me wonder if Kong would now feel sorry for us.