GODZILLA
(Original Title: "Gojira")
November 3, 1954
Turns out I watching the wrong movie. What I viewed as a kid was the American re-cut of the original film called "Godzilla, King of the Monsters!" It wasn't until 2004 that I got to see the original, uncut Japanese version of Godzilla. It got a very limited release, but luckily a theater in Dallas was showing it. The experience of not only getting to see the movie that started the series that I am such a huge fan of, but also on a gigantic theater screen was AMAZING. It really felt like watching a completely different movie.
As far as monster movies go, I feel Godzilla succeeds in one area where others at the time didn't: A real sense of fear. Many monsters had been woken up or created by nuclear blasts and proceeded to lay waste to the nearest city while people ran away screaming. In the case of Godzilla however, it was much more personal.
World War II came to an end after 2 Atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, causing massive damage and the loss of over hundreds of thousands of lives. Over the decade more Atomic weapon tests had been conducted. On March 1, 1954, a Japanese fishing ship known as the Daigo Fukuryū Maru (Lucky Dragon 5) sailed towards the Bikini Atoll of the Marshall Islands. Ships had been warned to stay away from that area, but not told why. The crew went in unaware of what went on and only thought about the large haul of fish. Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of light. In the distance a large ball of fire could be seen, this was the explosion of the Hydrogen bomb, a weapon over a thousand times more powerful then the bomb used at Hiroshima. Soon after flakes of ash, fallout from the H-bomb, began to fall upon the 23 crew members, contaminating them and causing them to fall sick. Later when they returned home and started to receive treatment, one of them would die from the radiation poisoning.
As the fear of radiation haunted the world, it also made an impact on the screen. Films like 'Them', 'The Amazing Colossal Man' and 'The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms' all featured monsters affected by radiation and taking out their frustrations on the nearest city. Not long after the Lucky Dragon incident, Tomoyuki Tanaka, a producer at Toho Studios in Japan was on a plane in need of an idea for a film. He thought of the Lucky Dragon and had the thought of a nuclear explosion waking a giant monster from it's slumber and venting it's rage on humanity.
Tanaka would produce the film, teaming himself with special effects artist Eiji Tsuburaya, composer Akira Ifukube and director Ishiro Honda on board. With the director's vision of the monster as a metaphor for the Atomic bomb and the destruction it wrought, special effects work inspired by the original King Kong, and a hauntingly beautiful musical score from Ifukube, the team set out to bring their giant monster to life. Wheather they new it or not, a legend was about to be born. A legend named Gojira.
From the first moments of the film, its atomic allegory is crystal clear. Several ships experience events echoing the Lucky Dragon 5 incident, a blinding flash of light fills the sky and the ocean around it bursts into flame, killing most of the crew leaving little survivors. These attacks are caused by a large dinosaur like animal believed to have lived for millions of years and surviving in a deep underwater cave where it would sleep for a long time. It is hypothesized that Godzilla had to have been woken up by a Hydrogen bomb test where it was then mutated by the radiation. Seeing it as a threat, the military uses depth charges to try and kill it, but all that does is enrage Godzilla. Tanks and Planes are powerless to stop Godzilla as he lays waste to Tokyo, destroying everything in his path. His rampage is slow and methodical, perhaps worse then the quick death of the H-bomb.
As a film made by people from a country who had witnessed the destruction of 2 atomic bombings, it really captures the feeling of the aftermath of such a devastating attack. Not a lot of monster movies show people in a hospital dead and dying. This film shows a monster attacking a city and killing humans, but the intent is not to entertain. And while those movies can be entertaining, they don't really show the cost of what that would be like in real life. Godzilla is a living force of nature, a threat to the earth, the punishment against mankind for playing with fire and hurting the planet. And the fact that the film is in black and white gives it a grittier feel.
In between all of this is a compelling story in which characters have to make difficult choices that would decide the fate of the world. Our main heroine Emiko Yamane (Momoko Kochi) is caught in a love triangle between the man she loves, Ogata (Akira Takarada) and the man she is already arranged to be married to, Dr. Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata). And when she goes to tell Serizawa, he chooses to share with her another secret, something that scares Emiko, which is later revealed to be the Oxygen Destroyer, a device that consumes all oxygen and disintegrates all living things in the area. And THEN, after Godzilla's rampage, Emiko is forced to reveal the secret to Ogata and beg Serizawa to use the weapon against Godzilla. But Serizawa is mortified by this discovery and doesn't want it used out of fear that it will be appropriated by the world and used as a new weapon of mass destruction. And then there's the character of Kyohei Yamane (Takashi Shimura) a paleontologist who makes the hypothesis that Godzilla was reawakened due to repeated H-Bomb testing. The Governments and Special Defense Forces all ask him how they should go about killing Godzilla, but Yamane would rather see Godzilla alive and studied.
It's all pretty heavy.
Of course the highlight of the movie is the special effects. The art of miniaturizing cities and destroying them has been something that the crew at Toho had already excelled at, especially Eiji Tsuburaya. In 1942, he worked on a propaganda film called "Hawai Mare oki kaisen" (The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malay), which included a recreation of the bombing of Pearl Harbor using models and miniatures that was mistaken for actual footage from the attack. And he brings his A-game here. They may look primitive to some, but it still looks amazingly real and the destruction of buildings looks spot on.
As for Godzilla himself, he is undeniably the star of the film and if he didn't work out, the entire movie would have collapsed. Stop-motion was going to be used, but due to time and money constraints, another approach had to be used. That's where the world famous method of Suitmation came in.
Godzilla was played by the legendary Haruo Nakajima, and it was not an easy time. He suffered burns, could barley see through the holes in the neck and sweated so much it would fill an entire cup. The suit was incredibly hot on the inside and weighed almost 200 pounds. But he handled it like a champ and made Godzilla look like he was a real creature. What also really sells Godzilla's appearance is the way he was shot. By using low camera angles and shooting at a distance, it made him look massive and imposing. This practice would again be used by another film maker for his monster movie, but we'll get to that later.
While I do agree that the original Japanese version is the superior film, I don't think that the American re-cut should be completely brushed aside. In fact, a lot of Godzilla and science fiction fans owe their love of the character to that version, bad dubbing and all.
If you want to check out the original Godzilla, I would highly suggest picking up the Blu-ray released by The Criterion Collection. Not only does it come with a beautifully restored versions of both films, but it's packed with several special features detailing the behind the scenes details and other trivia you may not have known. Especially listen to the Audio Commentary tracks by David Kalat.
For over 60 years, Godzilla has proven to be one of the biggest pop culture icons of all time and his reign shows no signs of stopping. It spawned a whole series of films featuring monsters that he would fight both against and beside as well as new interpretations and ideas that took the series to even greater heights. And we owe it all to this masterpiece of a film. Long Live the King!
Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon
Thanks for reading!
https://www.facebook.com/TheGryphonsLair/
(Original Title: "Gojira")
November 3, 1954
Like most Godzilla fans, we probably saw the films in the wrong order. It's not surprising, especially in America it was very difficult to find all the movies on VHS or happen to catch them on television. Thankfully my local Blockbuster had plenty of them. But it would be a while before I would get to see the actual beginning of the series.
Or so I thought...
I was gifted the first Godzilla movie as well as 'Godzilla vs Biollante' on VHS by one of my Mother's friends who knew I was just getting into series. And I loved it as much as I did the other films I watched. As the years passed, I saw more of the films and learned more about Godzilla. It was then I discovered that Godzilla was more than just a monster, but a metaphor for a real life tragedy. But when I watched the movie again, it didn't seem that way...
Turns out I watching the wrong movie. What I viewed as a kid was the American re-cut of the original film called "Godzilla, King of the Monsters!" It wasn't until 2004 that I got to see the original, uncut Japanese version of Godzilla. It got a very limited release, but luckily a theater in Dallas was showing it. The experience of not only getting to see the movie that started the series that I am such a huge fan of, but also on a gigantic theater screen was AMAZING. It really felt like watching a completely different movie.
As far as monster movies go, I feel Godzilla succeeds in one area where others at the time didn't: A real sense of fear. Many monsters had been woken up or created by nuclear blasts and proceeded to lay waste to the nearest city while people ran away screaming. In the case of Godzilla however, it was much more personal.
World War II came to an end after 2 Atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, causing massive damage and the loss of over hundreds of thousands of lives. Over the decade more Atomic weapon tests had been conducted. On March 1, 1954, a Japanese fishing ship known as the Daigo Fukuryū Maru (Lucky Dragon 5) sailed towards the Bikini Atoll of the Marshall Islands. Ships had been warned to stay away from that area, but not told why. The crew went in unaware of what went on and only thought about the large haul of fish. Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of light. In the distance a large ball of fire could be seen, this was the explosion of the Hydrogen bomb, a weapon over a thousand times more powerful then the bomb used at Hiroshima. Soon after flakes of ash, fallout from the H-bomb, began to fall upon the 23 crew members, contaminating them and causing them to fall sick. Later when they returned home and started to receive treatment, one of them would die from the radiation poisoning.
As the fear of radiation haunted the world, it also made an impact on the screen. Films like 'Them', 'The Amazing Colossal Man' and 'The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms' all featured monsters affected by radiation and taking out their frustrations on the nearest city. Not long after the Lucky Dragon incident, Tomoyuki Tanaka, a producer at Toho Studios in Japan was on a plane in need of an idea for a film. He thought of the Lucky Dragon and had the thought of a nuclear explosion waking a giant monster from it's slumber and venting it's rage on humanity.
Tanaka would produce the film, teaming himself with special effects artist Eiji Tsuburaya, composer Akira Ifukube and director Ishiro Honda on board. With the director's vision of the monster as a metaphor for the Atomic bomb and the destruction it wrought, special effects work inspired by the original King Kong, and a hauntingly beautiful musical score from Ifukube, the team set out to bring their giant monster to life. Wheather they new it or not, a legend was about to be born. A legend named Gojira.
From the first moments of the film, its atomic allegory is crystal clear. Several ships experience events echoing the Lucky Dragon 5 incident, a blinding flash of light fills the sky and the ocean around it bursts into flame, killing most of the crew leaving little survivors. These attacks are caused by a large dinosaur like animal believed to have lived for millions of years and surviving in a deep underwater cave where it would sleep for a long time. It is hypothesized that Godzilla had to have been woken up by a Hydrogen bomb test where it was then mutated by the radiation. Seeing it as a threat, the military uses depth charges to try and kill it, but all that does is enrage Godzilla. Tanks and Planes are powerless to stop Godzilla as he lays waste to Tokyo, destroying everything in his path. His rampage is slow and methodical, perhaps worse then the quick death of the H-bomb.
 |
| Left to Right: Akira Takarada as Ogata, Momoko Kochi as Emiko & Akihiko Hirata as Serizawa. |
As a film made by people from a country who had witnessed the destruction of 2 atomic bombings, it really captures the feeling of the aftermath of such a devastating attack. Not a lot of monster movies show people in a hospital dead and dying. This film shows a monster attacking a city and killing humans, but the intent is not to entertain. And while those movies can be entertaining, they don't really show the cost of what that would be like in real life. Godzilla is a living force of nature, a threat to the earth, the punishment against mankind for playing with fire and hurting the planet. And the fact that the film is in black and white gives it a grittier feel.
In between all of this is a compelling story in which characters have to make difficult choices that would decide the fate of the world. Our main heroine Emiko Yamane (Momoko Kochi) is caught in a love triangle between the man she loves, Ogata (Akira Takarada) and the man she is already arranged to be married to, Dr. Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata). And when she goes to tell Serizawa, he chooses to share with her another secret, something that scares Emiko, which is later revealed to be the Oxygen Destroyer, a device that consumes all oxygen and disintegrates all living things in the area. And THEN, after Godzilla's rampage, Emiko is forced to reveal the secret to Ogata and beg Serizawa to use the weapon against Godzilla. But Serizawa is mortified by this discovery and doesn't want it used out of fear that it will be appropriated by the world and used as a new weapon of mass destruction. And then there's the character of Kyohei Yamane (Takashi Shimura) a paleontologist who makes the hypothesis that Godzilla was reawakened due to repeated H-Bomb testing. The Governments and Special Defense Forces all ask him how they should go about killing Godzilla, but Yamane would rather see Godzilla alive and studied.
It's all pretty heavy.
Of course the highlight of the movie is the special effects. The art of miniaturizing cities and destroying them has been something that the crew at Toho had already excelled at, especially Eiji Tsuburaya. In 1942, he worked on a propaganda film called "Hawai Mare oki kaisen" (The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malay), which included a recreation of the bombing of Pearl Harbor using models and miniatures that was mistaken for actual footage from the attack. And he brings his A-game here. They may look primitive to some, but it still looks amazingly real and the destruction of buildings looks spot on.
As for Godzilla himself, he is undeniably the star of the film and if he didn't work out, the entire movie would have collapsed. Stop-motion was going to be used, but due to time and money constraints, another approach had to be used. That's where the world famous method of Suitmation came in.
Godzilla was played by the legendary Haruo Nakajima, and it was not an easy time. He suffered burns, could barley see through the holes in the neck and sweated so much it would fill an entire cup. The suit was incredibly hot on the inside and weighed almost 200 pounds. But he handled it like a champ and made Godzilla look like he was a real creature. What also really sells Godzilla's appearance is the way he was shot. By using low camera angles and shooting at a distance, it made him look massive and imposing. This practice would again be used by another film maker for his monster movie, but we'll get to that later.
 |
| My original ticket stub from when I saw Godzilla in theaters |
While I do agree that the original Japanese version is the superior film, I don't think that the American re-cut should be completely brushed aside. In fact, a lot of Godzilla and science fiction fans owe their love of the character to that version, bad dubbing and all.
If you want to check out the original Godzilla, I would highly suggest picking up the Blu-ray released by The Criterion Collection. Not only does it come with a beautifully restored versions of both films, but it's packed with several special features detailing the behind the scenes details and other trivia you may not have known. Especially listen to the Audio Commentary tracks by David Kalat.
For over 60 years, Godzilla has proven to be one of the biggest pop culture icons of all time and his reign shows no signs of stopping. It spawned a whole series of films featuring monsters that he would fight both against and beside as well as new interpretations and ideas that took the series to even greater heights. And we owe it all to this masterpiece of a film. Long Live the King!
Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon
and thank you for joining me here in my lair.
So long...
I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. Thanks for reading!
https://www.facebook.com/TheGryphonsLair/
No comments:
Post a Comment