GOJIRA (GODZILLA)
(1954)With Akira Takarada, Momoko Kochi, Akihiko Hirata, Takashi Shimura (and Haruo Nakajima as Gojira)
Directed by Ishiro Honda
Black and White
Reviewed by JB
Unlike
many of the fun
but childish sequels
of the 1960s, the original GOJIRA (aka GODZILLA) is a serious-minded
sci-fi/horror movie that presents the monster not as the folk hero he
was later to become but as a nasty, destructive fire-breathing
harbinger of death, in essence, a walking atomic bomb. Unlike
KING KONG, there is no long wait for the monster's first appearance
but, unfortunately, when The Big Guy does show up, he initially looks
more like an early Jim Henson muppet experiment gone horribly awry than
he does the above-mentioned "harbinger of death". However,
most
of the monster's footage later takes place at night, which, along with
the stark black and white photography, helps disguise his true nature.
Although inspired by KING KONG and THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS, the
effects team had neither the time nor money to use stop motion
photography to create their beast, and instead used an actor in a
rubber monster suit stomping around on miniature sets.
Sometimes
this is thoroughly convincing, especially in the long shots, but other
times it looks likes an actor in a rubber suit stomping around on
miniature sets. In closeups, it is obviously a
handpuppet.
No matter - the sheer effort put into recreating Tokyo in miniature and
then demolishing it completely for our entertainment and education is
massively impressive, quelling any doubt about the veracity of Godzilla
himself. Also helping to put over the creature are the echoed
footsteps that always signal his arrival, the freaky roar (created by
abusing the strings of a double bass) and the ominous music played
during the attacks that owes a little bit to the mood, if not the
melodies, of Max Steiner's original KING KONG score.
Honda keeps the film
moving at a quick pace
by compressing some of the timeline into montages, complete with the
kind of transitionial wipes that were the trademark of his close
friend, Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa fans will instantly
recognize
Takashi Shimura, the star of IKIRU and SEVEN SAMURAI, as resident
Godzilla expert Professor Yamane, as well as Kokuten Kodo, who played
the wise old farmer in SEVEN SAMURAI and plays a wise old fisherman in
this film. Apparently, Kodo was the go-to guy in Japan when a
director needed a wise old man and Takashi Shimura was already cast as
someone else.
GOJIRA is one of the earliest
anti-nuke films
and, along with DR. STRANGELOVE, still the most famous. The
dramatic depictions of the utter devestation left behind by Godzilla's
attacks on Tokyo have an almost documentary feel to them and are
clearly meant to invoke the destruction of the two atomic bombs dropped
on Japan at the end of World War Two. According to Professor
Yamane (who seems trustworthy even though he places the Jurassic Period
as being only two million years ago), Godzilla was created by the
testing of atomic weapons and now is an unstoppable radiological force
himself. Honda unflinchingly shows us the horrors of not only
Godzilla's rage but also the radiation he leaves in his wake.
During the major attack, Honda zeroes in on a mother in the streets of
Tokyo, cradling her children and telling them not to worry, they will
all be with Daddy very soon. After the attack, Honda takes us
to
a hospital where children are revealed to be suffering from deadly
radiation poisoning. You won't find too many moments like
these
in later Godzilla films.
In the final moments of GOJIRA, the
Professor warns
us that if we keep playing around with nuclear energy, there will be
another Godzilla appearing soon. He should have added "at a
theater near you!", as GOJIRA was followed by a direct sequel the
following year, and then dozens more through the next few
decades. In the wake of the success of GOJIRA, Honda and
company
created a whole slew of other prehistoric beasties such as pteradon
Rodan, three-headed flying thingy Ghidrah and the silk-spewing Mothra,
while rival film studio Daiei created the memorable giant flying turtle
Gamera, though perhaps in the case of a giant flying turtle, the word
"memorable" is an unnecessary qualifier.
In 1956 GOJIRA was
released in the United
States as GODZILLA: KING OF ALL MONSTERS, a re-edited version with new
footage directed by Terry Morse. Raymond Burr now "starred"
in
the film as pipe-smoking reporter Steve Martin, a generic name in the
fifties that these days brings giggles every time it is
mentioned. Burr essentially narrates the film as a series of
dictated news reports and editiorials ("I'm saying a prayer, George, a
prayer for the whole world,"), and through the magic of doubles and
vocal dubbing, he interacts with several of the film's
characters. But it is still extremely obvious that he is in
one
film, and the original GOJIRA actors are in another.
GODZILLA:
KING OF ALL MONSTERS is a decent movie, thanks mostly to Honda's
footage, and it is certainly much beloved by many fans today for whom
it will may always be the real Godzilla story. But Honda's
original, untouched GOJIRA is a much better film.
And let's just all be thankful
that nobody
ever edited Raymond Burr into SEVEN SAMURAI. ("I can see the
bandits now, George, they are just coming over the hill...") ½ - JB 
½ - JB
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