a.k.a. Gojira / Godzilla
Directed by: Ishirô Honda & Terry O. Morse
Finally it's time for the big green dude to make his first appearance on this blog, although he is kinda greyish in this movie. Hard to be all green in a black and white movie, I guess... ;-). If you're a fellow movie nerd you of course know that the year 1956 is wrong when it comes to Godzilla's first appearance on the screen as the first film was released in 1954, but I chose to watch the americanized version with new scenes featuring Raymond Burr that was released in the US in 1956. After having watched the Japanese original many times I felt it was time to finally watch this version - something I had avoided because it just felt weird having new scenes added to an already great movie. Yep, I can be a bit conservative now and then...
Even though Raymond Burr is doing a good job here things feel a little forced now and then to have him in the movie. He manages to attend all the meetings the japanese leading characters are involved in (always sitting in the background watching what happens... just like us!), which feels a bit much at times. And there are some crappy body doubles at times (to make it look like the japanese actors from the original movie are in the same scene as Ray Burr) which mostly doesn't work at all, it just looks strange. But, these are just small things that really doesn't matter in the big picture as this is a great movie, I prefer the original Japanese version though - mostly because I feel that film is darker in tone and has a clearer anti nuclear message that feels kinda obvious considering what happened in Japan 9 years before the original film was made.
To go through the story of a Godzilla movie and make it more than one paragraph can be damn hard as it's usually: Godzilla coming out of the sea, Godzilla stomps on a couple of buildings, Godzilla returns to the sea... and in later movies: weird monster from outer space/egg on an remote island/from within the eart itself comes to life and attacks a city in Japan, Godzilla comes out of the sea, Godzilla and other monster battles, Godzilla wins, Godzilla returns to the sea... They sure found a formula and they stuck with it. But, I'm gonna try and tell the plot of this, first, Godzilla movie...
The movie opens with a destroyed building and a beaten up american reporter, named Steve Martin (Raymond Burr), among the rubble. He's rescued and taken to a nearby hospital where there are many injured people... we don't really know what caused this yet, but as Steve is such a nice guy he starts telling us the story right from the start using the well used flashback form. Steve Martin is an american journalist on his way to Cairo on an assignment, but as he has a lay over in Tokyo he decides to meet up with his old pal Dr. Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata). But before they can meet he is picked up by airport security and questioned about something that apparently happened while he was on the plane above the Sea of Japan. A ship went missing and there was some light flashes and crap like that going on... Steve missed the whole thing, but as he's such a nice guy he offers to help out as much as he can with whatever that caused the ship to go missing.
The body of a man from the missing ship is washed up on the beach of Oto Island and Steve and "friends" immediately take the nearest helicopter cab there to investigate. There they are told by the islanders that they believe it's this horrible monster god that lives under the sea that is responsible for the sinking of the ship and the loss of all those lives... This is what I like, before Godzilla became the champion of kids he was a big bad motherfucker who killed people just because he liked it. And apparently he can cause shitty weather as well as the following night all hell breaks loose with storm winds and a lot of rain - sure, blame poor Godzilla for everything!
Some time later Steve and the japanese cast are out strolling on the island when they hear a loud stomping sound and all of a sudden Godzilla is peeking over the ridge they were walking towards. And here we get the classic scene of screaming japanese actors running for their lives, Godzilla is feeling lazy today though so he doesn't bother with the humans and returns to the sea instead. But, the Japanese military don't wanna leave him alone and they start dropping depth charges on him... not a nice thing to do, and more importantly, not a smart thing to do. Just like the Incredible Hulk you REALLY don't want an upset Godzilla.
Godzilla pays Tokyo a nightly visit, and it's not to hit the stores in the Ginza district to do some shopping, no... he's here to show that you do not throw bombs at him and expect him just to take it. So the stomping of Tokyo begins! You gotta love a man in a rubber suit stomping on cardboard buildings!!!! The thing with Godzilla's attack in this movie is that you see him killing and injuring a lot of people - men, women and children, all die from Godzilla's attack. Just like the people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki which this obviously inspired by.
This is also where Steve's flashback ends as it was during this attack he got injured and ended up in that hospital in the beginning of the movie. Godzilla was driven back though, by tiny little model planes (that you clearly can see are hanging from strings) and this is where we learn that Dr. Serizawa has invented this doomsday weapon called the "Oxygen Destroyer", which he, after some persuading, decides to let loose on Godzilla. The weapon strips any animal that comes in contact with it from it's flesh and just leaves the bare bones.
The gang (the Japanese cast and Raymond Burr) jump on a ship and locate Godzilla on the ocean floor. Dr. Serizawa dons an old school diving suit and takes his weapon with him to destroy Godzilla - but, as he don't want this horrible weapon to be stolen and used by anyone else (he burned all the papers regarding it before going on the ship), he decides to kill himself in the process of eliminating Godzilla. Thus removing all knowledge about the weapon... Godzilla is reduced to a skeleton and even though he is dead we are told that mankind needs to stop with the nuclear testing as another Godzilla could come from that.
Apparently no one bothered to stop with the nuclear testing as Godzilla has appeared in almost 30 movies by now... you can't keep a good man down!
I'm happy I finally watched this version of the film, but even though it's a great flick it has nothing on the Japanese original version. And I'm not saying that to be a damn movie snob now, there is so much darkness that is in the Japanese original that has gotten lost in the americanized version. Not that it's not a bleak movie with the horrors of the nuclear age, but it is toned down in this version. As there are over 30 minutes cut from the Japanese version (there are circa 20 minutes of new material done in the US though), it's easy to understand that there is a lot missing in this version.
But, you get a man in a rubber suit stomping on buildings and that is all I really need in a Godzilla movie to be happy :-). It almost rivals King Kong from 1933 as being the best giant monster movie ever made (this goes for the Japanese original version), and only 6 years after this version was released the two of them would meet in a fierce battle... which I will tell you all about later on...
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