Japanese Art

Godzilla is a fiery, stylized, highly charged piece of Japanese art. Unlike many U.S monster movies of the age (which I do love), Godzilla is not just a spectacle of special effects and cheep thrills, but a tender story about love, sacrifice and consequence.
Please I beg you to avoid at all costs the 1956 U.S 'remake' included on this disc. It makes a mockery of the 1954 version by inserting a narrator in the form of American reporter Steve Martin, who was 'there all the time', adding him into scenes from the original by butchering it and inserting pointless and obviously staged attempts at English translations. It even goes so far as to dub over the heroin's voice in one scene when she chats with Martin about the aftermath of Godzilla's rampage on Tokyo. Clearly a scene at a different time and place remembered from the original, and she was definatly not talking to the American reporter Steve Martin at the time! It offended me to do this to such a good movie.

The original, and the best

If you are like most Americans, you have probably never seen the original, unadulterated "Godzilla" (Original title "Gojira." the name being a mix of the Japanese words for "gorilla" and "whale.") More familiar with the campy, badly dubbed and edited version that graced TV screens in the 70s, we have seen Raymond Burr awkwardly inserted into the plot, anti-American political sentiments removed, and a horde of mismatched dialogs and ridiculous translations. Well, we are in for a real treat!

The Japanese "Godzilla" is a serious film, starring Kurosawa veteran Takashi Shimura ("Seven Samurai," "Ikura"). (In fact, two of Shimura's films, "Godzilla" and "Seven Samurai" competed for the 1954 Japanese Academy Award for Best Picture.) Only nine years after the atomic bombs devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the threat of nuclear power was very much in the minds of the average Japanese citizen.Contamination, mutation, radiation...this was far from science fiction. This is the fire from which sprang the King of Monsters.

In a now-familiar plot, American nuclear testing has given rise to a 150-foot tall engine of destruction, breathing atomic fire and hell-bent on destroying Tokyo before taking on the world. Assembling the army, and all of the modern science Japan can muster, they battle the rampaging monster to the inevitable conclusion.

Standing along side the original 1933 "King Kong," "Godzilla" is a classic monster movie, as well as a fine film in its own right. A suspenseful horror-drama, the acting, filming and special effects are all far above other entries in the genre. The black and white filming is used superbly, with the fire-cast shadows making the monster all the more menacing.

What is great about this set, is that not only do you get a restored and beautiful version of the original classic, you get an additional disk with the American edit complete with the stuffy professor Raymond Burr and the additional footage thought necessary for American audiences. It is a rare chance to compare the two versions, and see how politics in the US affected what audiences were allowed to view in the 1950s.

I have been waiting a long time for the original "Godzilla" to get a DVD release, and it is great to see it finally being treated with the respect it deserves.