Gojira, not Godzilla
During the first week of September saw another legend being reborn on DVD.
The film “Gojira” from 1954 makes its long and difficult journey to a DVD release that would have many fans, old and new, finding new discoveries with the original version of a more well-known name… Godzilla. The four-hundred foot monstrosity that wrecked havoc throughout Tokyo leaving behind a trial of firey destruction.
There’s no Raymond Burr in this version. And there’s nothing by the name of Godzilla. It’s Gojira. The Japanese spelling.
It’s an interesting piece of movie-making. A bit of history too. Not many people outside of the United States were familiar with the original Japanese version concentrating on the family, the debating scientists, and the statement on nuclear weapons that could eventually see the ruination of mankind someday.
The film by director Inoshiro Honda was a simple one. It tells us to be careful nuclear weapons that may be still outside of our understanding. It shows that we are still children playing with something we shouldn’t be. And there’s a terrible inevitability about it. There is an outcome to the use of nuclear weapons. And results could become very dangerous to our existence.
So the awakening of the bold, massive creature, stemming from the Pacific ocean, walks the earth with a forceful vengeance, a natural, near-cosmic power that destroys everything in its path. The giant lizard, with its high-pitched, ear-shattering shriek, was just a living allegory for nuclear weapons. And something more. Our ability to control what is larger-than-life.
Gojira sets up some interesting questions that are still relevant 54 years after its initial release. The original film, shot in a striking B&W, offers several interesting scenes, with the lovely Japanese culture used as a backdrop, the jungle-like forestry of the islands, adding to the strange, alien look of the film. The best scenes, however, were filmed during night. The moving shadows, the nocturnal shapes, engulfed the scene with a stretch of darkness that still remained convincing, and the walking monster, in its horrible glory, looked like a clambering, frightening figure, cutting against the explosive night skies, ripping into the city with a prehistoric madness.
Yes, some of the model sets are cheap. Yes, a few tanks and buildings remind me of plastic or styofoam waiting to be crushed by a random footstep. There’s a kind of carelessness involved when creating these scenes that were none too convincing. The airplanes looked like they were on strings. Oh wait, they are puppet strings. Ridiculous. Some of the illusion was ruined by the obvious fakery of it. And you’re forced to shout out many times, “Cheap!” I'll live with it.
My only problem with the DVD is the rough cut of the film which looks like they haven't cleaned it much. There are still splices, looking very dirty as if it's been taken out of the garage, and I feel like I'm watching something from T.J. and the Ant back in the 70s.
Such as the images of a demolished Tokyo which causes you to think back to the historical pictures of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With the trees ending up looking like toothpicks and the the buildings were reduced to rubble. Only a monster could do this.
But, on the other hand, there’s a certain charm to it. I don’t know what it is. I’m sure that there’re elements in the film that could attract a huge audience of children and adults alike. Younger kids could get into the big, jolly green lizard blasting the city of Tokyo into junk and the older folks could mull over the tantalizing questions of the human race’s future.
I don’t understand why there was the inclusion of Raymond Burr in the Americanized version. It was unnecessary. But his name was known during the 1950s and it was an anchor to get newer audiences. But even he was overshadowed by the might of the title creature. I was fascinated by the continued rivalry of the two scientists who debated over the Ultimate Weapon that was even more destructive than the atomic bomb.
We haven’t reached that stage yet. Thankfully. But there may be a time in the near future when our willingness to create such a weapon lifts the final the question: do we have the ability to control our own destructive nature?
Ask Gojira. On a good day.
The film “Gojira” from 1954 makes its long and difficult journey to a DVD release that would have many fans, old and new, finding new discoveries with the original version of a more well-known name… Godzilla. The four-hundred foot monstrosity that wrecked havoc throughout Tokyo leaving behind a trial of firey destruction.
There’s no Raymond Burr in this version. And there’s nothing by the name of Godzilla. It’s Gojira. The Japanese spelling.
It’s an interesting piece of movie-making. A bit of history too. Not many people outside of the United States were familiar with the original Japanese version concentrating on the family, the debating scientists, and the statement on nuclear weapons that could eventually see the ruination of mankind someday.
The film by director Inoshiro Honda was a simple one. It tells us to be careful nuclear weapons that may be still outside of our understanding. It shows that we are still children playing with something we shouldn’t be. And there’s a terrible inevitability about it. There is an outcome to the use of nuclear weapons. And results could become very dangerous to our existence.
So the awakening of the bold, massive creature, stemming from the Pacific ocean, walks the earth with a forceful vengeance, a natural, near-cosmic power that destroys everything in its path. The giant lizard, with its high-pitched, ear-shattering shriek, was just a living allegory for nuclear weapons. And something more. Our ability to control what is larger-than-life.
Gojira sets up some interesting questions that are still relevant 54 years after its initial release. The original film, shot in a striking B&W, offers several interesting scenes, with the lovely Japanese culture used as a backdrop, the jungle-like forestry of the islands, adding to the strange, alien look of the film. The best scenes, however, were filmed during night. The moving shadows, the nocturnal shapes, engulfed the scene with a stretch of darkness that still remained convincing, and the walking monster, in its horrible glory, looked like a clambering, frightening figure, cutting against the explosive night skies, ripping into the city with a prehistoric madness.
Yes, some of the model sets are cheap. Yes, a few tanks and buildings remind me of plastic or styofoam waiting to be crushed by a random footstep. There’s a kind of carelessness involved when creating these scenes that were none too convincing. The airplanes looked like they were on strings. Oh wait, they are puppet strings. Ridiculous. Some of the illusion was ruined by the obvious fakery of it. And you’re forced to shout out many times, “Cheap!” I'll live with it.
My only problem with the DVD is the rough cut of the film which looks like they haven't cleaned it much. There are still splices, looking very dirty as if it's been taken out of the garage, and I feel like I'm watching something from T.J. and the Ant back in the 70s.
Such as the images of a demolished Tokyo which causes you to think back to the historical pictures of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With the trees ending up looking like toothpicks and the the buildings were reduced to rubble. Only a monster could do this.
But, on the other hand, there’s a certain charm to it. I don’t know what it is. I’m sure that there’re elements in the film that could attract a huge audience of children and adults alike. Younger kids could get into the big, jolly green lizard blasting the city of Tokyo into junk and the older folks could mull over the tantalizing questions of the human race’s future.
I don’t understand why there was the inclusion of Raymond Burr in the Americanized version. It was unnecessary. But his name was known during the 1950s and it was an anchor to get newer audiences. But even he was overshadowed by the might of the title creature. I was fascinated by the continued rivalry of the two scientists who debated over the Ultimate Weapon that was even more destructive than the atomic bomb.
We haven’t reached that stage yet. Thankfully. But there may be a time in the near future when our willingness to create such a weapon lifts the final the question: do we have the ability to control our own destructive nature?
Ask Gojira. On a good day.
posted by K.M. Paters at 12:11 PM
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