The King of Monsters (American version) In 1956, Americans added a visiting Steve Martin, a friend of Professor Serizawa, who witnessed all these terrible events. The Japanese, of course, wanted to outdo the monster in scope and size, so the Americans had no choice but to manage to become part of such a project. By the way, despite the fact that the most modern blueries of both versions released the same office – the American version is much “lighter” in scale – there is not even clear that the episode with fishermen occurs at night!
The American version retains the main motives and meanings of the original source, although many phrases and scenes are not in their places. And from the scenes of the monster’s attack on the city, like, nothing much is cut, but it is still better to watch the original version of Ishiro Honda. In Italy, in 1977, the film was also tried to remodel (based on the American version, the sequel and several more films) and even paint with color, a terrible copy that survived to this day is named after its author Luigi Cozzi – “Cozzilla”.
Godzilla appears in the American version in the twenty-ninth minute, so it is not very long in coming. The King of Monsters, of which by that time there were not so many in the cinema - all the main brethren like Motra, Varana and others followed much later, appeared to the world from the water depths and was the result of an atomic explosion. Despite all this secondary plot and continuity, for Japan the film turned out to be very significant and powerful.
Ishiro Honda’s Godzilla is a metaphor for war, nuclear testing, innocent victims, and the “monster” that humanity uses in times of conflict. The monster is like the weapons we make. An ugly mutant wreaking havoc and nothing can stop him. The heat of passions, the seriously raised topic of radiation, the ruins of the city to the song-prayer of Japanese schoolgirls - the very first film personified the invasion of a monster with a real tragedy and natural disaster.
Radiation, dying ships, irradiated sailors and a giant creature that cannot stop the entire military power of the country and scientists from all over the world. Slow but inevitable death, a colossal devil of unimaginable grandeur, turning Tokyo into ruins district by district.
In general, the destruction here is in order. If you remember how Brontosaurus, Kong and Redosaurus crushed their metropolises, then Godzilla clearly outperformed them all combined. And the film itself demonstrates such a variety and abundance of filming of real military equipment of the Japanese that few shots can be blamed for the unrealistic miniatures in the frame.
A terrible creature capable of simultaneously emitting "atomic breath" - steam or smoke, turning everything around into a sea of fire, bringing Godzilla even to a kind of image of a "sea dragon" from various myths and legends - it is not for nothing that dragons were attributed the ability to breathe with fire.
There is a bit of trouble with aviation. The only shots that can cause reproaches are a completely plastic helicopter broken by a storm and the strings of aircraft firing at Godzilla from the air that have not been removed to this day.
The monster itself is beautifully made. The image of Godzilla went back centuries and spread to all sorts of memes, quotes, references and parodies. Even the internet browser I'm typing this in is called Mozilla, which kind of hints. The image was regularly exploited in various spheres of life from symbolism to commercials. Everyone who watched the TV series “Alph” as a child will certainly remember the miniature “Godzilla Week” (although the screen there showed a brontosaurus from “The Lost World” 1925).
“Godzilla” in addition to its special effects and magnificently executed monster is able to be remembered and various other things. Here, for example, just divine music – composer Akira Ifukube created a real masterpiece! The title theme of the film to this day accompanies the Monster King in cinema. In general, the entire technical part here is high. And military equipment, and scenery, and various effects of explosions, melting, electricity. And, of course, the overall direction of Ishiro Honda is just wonderful!
The film is full of interesting finds and memorable scenes, such as Godzilla’s reaction to a tower clock, a cult episode with a train (clearly inspired by a similar scene from King Kong), or a news report straight from the falling tower before the death of all the brave journalists who dared to give the best footage of the destruction of Tokyo. All the shots together look very good, and the serious tone and general panic mood of the picture reminds of those times when the genre of “giant monsters” directly related to horror and was the direction of horror films.
And although the overall culmination of the picture here falls not at all on the underwater ending, but on the main triumphal procession of Godzilla around Tokyo after coming to the shore, where the monster will finally be shown to us in all its glory, and not only parts and close-ups of the limbs, the emotional intensity and its symbolic significance of the finale here also turned out quite spectacular.
Nowadays, everyone remembers the very touching scene from Michael Bay’s Armageddon, when Bruce Willis decides to stay and blow up an asteroid instead of the boy who fell into this fate and who was having an affair with his daughter. Here, many, many years before, the love triangle is resolved by an equally strong and emotional scene, when the professor lets Ogata take care of Emiko, and himself remains underwater, cutting the hose.
Godzilla is not just a high-quality spectacle by the standards of its years, as well as not just an archaic retro classic of cinema, but also a deep intelligent film filled with meaning, brilliantly staged and talentedly played, which is not such a frequent phenomenon for most Kaiju films, including sequels about Godzilla.
A terrifying mutant dinosaur, the fruit of human weapons tests, a symbol of the most brutality and animal essence of people, conflicts and war, he still personifies all this horror, continuing to appear in films, books, comics, computer games, fan shorts, on various art and brands, on boxes with children's breakfasts and in commercials.
Is it still capable of scaring someone as it was originally intended? In the 2016 film, the Japanese tried to answer this question, again shooting a real horror film about a mutating monster of a giant size, using the most serious and not only moral anti-war message, but also political sentiment in their new film. Massive unkillable creature lives in the hearts and does not cease to inspire. And his rich heritage is flourishing!
9 out of 10
Original