Godzilla, King of the Monsters

Rating:
Summary: Horribly Butchered Film
Review: The original version of this film, entitled "Gojiro," was a huge hit in Japan, and was even nominated for their Best Film award. However, American distributors apparently thought that it would not play well in the U.S. So they sheared about 20 minutes from the original and added new scenes featuring Raymond Burr, fresh from the success of "Rear Window."

Burr plays Steve Martin, an American reporter visiting Japan. When Burr arrives in Tokyo, he receives news that a giant monster named Godzilla has attacked a ship and is wreaking havoc. His friend, Dr. Kyohei Yamane, is one of the preeminent scientists trying to solve the mystery of Godzilla, giving Burr a front seat view to the proceedings.

Unfortunately, the new scenes with Burr are not well-integrated, with many scenes featuring Burr standing with a few Asian extras. In addition, by deleting scenes, the action becomes rather incomprehensible, and the Japanese stars are reduced to minor characters. In particular, an important love triangle featuring Dr. Yamane's daughter, Emiko, is completely stripped of context. All the tension is drained from this version as the audience doesn't connect with the Japanese stars. Although the original version is now available, this one is what you're likely to catch on TV. A real abomination.


Rating:
Summary: My favorite monster movie
Review: I love Godzilla. I grew up on the old Godzilla cartoons (as cheesy as they were) and the even more cheesier films. My favorite Godzilla movie has to be the original 1956 black and white film. The premise of the film was much more darker and serious than the campier films from the '70s and '80s. Godzilla comes to life due to nuclear radiation. The film is a cautionary tale of the dangers of nuclear weapons and Godzilla (in some bizarre way) is a metaphor for nuclear bombs). The results is pure chaos. No one is safe from the fire breathing monster. Raymond Burr plays an American journalist who witnesses the catastrophic mess that Godzilla leaves in his wake. The 'special effects' are rather limited but that is what film studios were given at the time. Actually I will take the cheesy props and special effects over most CGI used in films today (especially what was in that monstrosity of the Americanize, watered down version of "Godzilla). My only flaw with this dvd is that I wish that this version of the film was the original Japanese version minus Raymond Burr. I don't mind Raymond per say but it would have been nice if there was a dvd that included the original Japanese film.

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: This review is mainly concerned with the original, Japanese version of Gojira (not dubbed). I find that inserting Raymond Burr's character and removing some of the original to do so takes a great deal away from this movie and what it represents.

Godzilla rises from his long sleep due to the effects of the hydrogen bomb. With each attack, the creature becomes more bold until Tokyo suffers a devasting attack, and only a miracle can save the country from another tragic visit by this risen giant.

The love affair plays a secondary but important part in the film. Emiko has been promised in marriage to a brilliant young scientist but has fallen in love with another man. It is the old world traditions clashing with modernity. Her father is a paleontologist who is probably the only person sharing empathy with Godzilla, feeling that destroying the beast will be depriving science of its one and only chance to study a creature from the prehistoric past.

What is often overlooked (and not really stressed in the American version) is the terrible dilemma the young scientist faces when he is begged to use his oxygen destroyer weapon against Godzilla. Only the viewing of the destruction and sadness make him realize there is only one course to take. I feel he is the most crucial and yet saddest character in the entire movie. He actually loses on a number of counts--his life's work (he destroys his formula so it could never fall into the wrong hands), his fiancee has decided to wed another, and in true samurai-like tradition, ends his life nobly. The scene of Godzilla's painful death at the same moment that this brave but troubled researcher ends his own is poignant in the extreme.

This film is not just about humans against an ancient monster awakened from the past. It is about the universal emotions of love, dedication and the dangers to which science can lead us. It is also about sacrifice and triumph over impossible odds.

It is important to remember that the original movie was produced not that many years after the devastation wrought on Japan by the atomic bombs. It does not take much of the imagination to see the same destroyed cities, dying and injured people and the heartache produced by an attack, whether monster or man-made, on such a massive scale. The burning buildings, high levels of radioactivity, the melting metal all conjure up the effects of the atomic bomb, and in many ways this movie is an illustration of what Japan experienced, as well as providing a cathartic effect to a nation that suffered perhaps the greatest horror of this century.

The underlying message here is that, like the oxygen destroyer, atomic weapons are the most destructive device ever invented by man. This movie, besides being a very scary monster film (it gave me nightmares when I was a little girl) is an anti-nuclear weapon vehicle which gets its message across through the characters of a enormous beast, a scientist faced with a moral decision, and a people bent on surviving. Godzilla is more then a movie; it is a social statement against any weapon that has the power to alter our world, and the people in it, forever.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting the old gentleman who was encased within the Godzilla costume. A very short man playing a huge monster (he was about 5 feet tall), he was nevertheless delighted and surprised that his portrayal of the beast has continued to draw audiences even after all these years. It was an honor to meet him.

My advice is the best way to see this movie is in the original, uncut Japanese version without dubbing. I am not a big fan of dubbing anyway, and feel that since people know the story and what is being said, the language barrier disappears and the emotional impact of the film is felt on a much higher scale.

To me, this is one of the best movies produced and has stood the passing of time. It holds many lessons for those who are open to the warnings and human tragedies, both physical and emotional, that we are forced to face in a world that has advanced to the point of self-annihilation.

Rating:
Summary: Where is the original????
Review: I'm really hoping that with the original version of the movie making it's way around the country that it eventually makes it to DVD as I havn't been anywhere near any of the the cities that are showing the original...unAmericanized...version of the movie.

Rating:
Summary: GODZILLA!!!
Review: The one that started it all, and along with King Kong (1933) the best monster movie ever made. Made as a protest against the H-Bomb, its a very touching motion picture. Nothing at all like its sequels. And of course, please see it in its original Japanese language without Burr (KOTM cuts 40 minutes out and changes everything)