Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with some happy memories for you Godzilla geeks out there... In this age of special editions, this is probably the coolest I've heard of in a while. I'm very interested in catching this remastered special edition of the one and only original GODZILLA... So, grab your King Ghidrah and your MechaGodzilla toys and read on... If you got the kind that roar, then hey! You got yourself a soundtrack to the below review!!!
Hi Harry. I know you're a big fan of Godzilla, particularly the man-in-suit variety, so I thought you might be interested in hearing about my recent viewing of the uncut, undubbed, Raymond Burr-less version of the original Godzilla that just finished a two-week run here at the Film Forum in New York. This version includes 40 minutes of footage apparently never seen in the U.S., where of course the original was chopped up to better appeal to the U.S. market -- primarily by toning down or eliminating all of the direct or indirect references to the U.S using nuclear bombs on Japan in WWII.
I can't remember the last time I saw the first Godzilla, so my memory going in was pretty hazy -- blurred also by the many sequels (and many lame ones at that) that I had ingested over the years, but what I can say for sure is that this version packs a much stronger anti-nuclear punch than anything I remember seeing. There are some surprisingly powerful and unsettling moments in this version -- children getting scanned with geiger counters in the aftermath of a Godzilla rampage (Godzilla leaves a radioactive trail in his path -- can't remember if that was part of U.S. version); a mother telling her daughter as they are about to get crushed by Godzilla that "they're going to be with Daddy very soon." And there are some darkly humorous moments as well, for instance, Japanese commuters jadedly complaining about "tainted tuna, black rain, and now this," as if Godzilla is yet another annoyance they have to deal with in the wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This is apparently a restored print and it looks great. The black and white imagery of Godzilla setting Tokyo ablaze is really amazing, as are the scenes of the aftermath of Godzilla's attack, which of course vividly recall the images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One thing that I particularly enjoyed (and something that definitely got lost in my memory amidst the sequels) is the way Godzilla is simply a force of mindless destruction in this film, with none of the "personality" injected into him in later films.
Plot-wise, the film slowly builds up a nice sense of mystery about what's causing ships to disappear at sea before Godzilla finally appears. There's also an interesting subplot involving a Japanese scientist (scarred and missing an eye as a result of WWII) struggling over whether to allow the "Oxygen Destroyer" he has created to be used against Godzilla, for fear of the destruction of humanity it could cause if used for other purposes (obvious parallels there).
In any case, when it came to monster movies, I was always a King Kong person as opposed to a Godzilla person (sort of the Ginger vs. Mary Ann debate of monster movies I suppose), but I have to say, after seeing this version of Godzilla, the gap has narrowed a fair bit for me. I don't know if the film's going to hit theaters outside of NY, but it's a must-see if it does. I would assume that at least a nice DVD release is on the way.
Henry Krinkle
