RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES
By Raymond Benson
The
original 1954 Japanese Kaiju (it means “strange beastâ€) film, Gojira, is not only a classic monster
movie, it’s one of those significant game-changers that is important to pop
culture and cinema history. Gojira,
known as “Godzilla†in the west, was the first of an onslaught of “strange
beasts,†spawning a Kaiju franchise that is still popular today. In fact, Hollywood is remaking Gojira as a reboot at the time of this
writing.
The
’54 film, directed by Ishiro Honda and produced by Toho Studios (it’s ironic
that it was being made at the same time as Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai from the same studio), was little seen in the West
until recent DVD releases appeared. Instead, for over fifty years we’ve had Godzilla, King of the Monsters, an abominably bastardized,
re-edited import of Gojira. Joseph E. Levine had bought the rights but
had additional footage shot in Hollywood featuring Raymond Burr as an American
reporter caught in the Tokyo chaos—and throwing out much of Honda’s film except
the Godzilla sequences—thus, creating an entirely different storyline and
movie. It was released in 1956.
Why
was this an egregious thing to do? Honda’s artistic statement was jettisoned. Gojira was
a Japanese reaction to and a social comment about the atomic bomb. It’s quite obvious, actually, that Godzilla
is a metaphor for nuclear destruction. Part of the plot also involves a scientist who has unwittingly invented
a new weapon of mass destruction and threatens to destroy his research so that
no country can get its hands on it. Of
course, it’s the only thing that can stop Godzilla, so he has to use it
once. In the end, he sacrifices himself,
and the weapon, to do his duty for Japan; but the message is clear—get rid of the bombs.
On
the other hand, the American version, directed by Terry Morse (and using
Honda’s footage), is seen in the West as just another giant monster romp in a
decade when Hollywood was churning out giant monster romps by the dozens. The cliché of giant beasts destroying Tokyo
arose from this release. The real
message behind the Gojira is totally
lost.
Criterion
has done a terrific job with its new high-definition digital restoration of
both versions of the picture in this wonderful two-disk set. The commentary on the two pictures is by film
historian David Kalat. You also get
interviews with Akira Takarada and Haruo Nakajima, two of the stars, and
several of the special effects team. Film critic Tadao Sato provides an insightful interview, as does one
with composer Akira Ifukube. The clever
packaging contains a pop-up of the “strange beast†in question along with an informative collector's booklet.
If
you’ve never seen the original, it’s time to check it out. Sure, the monster scenes are crude—it is a guy inside a suit—but that’s part
of the appeal.
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