|   Film Credits:Gojira (Godzilla)Alternate Titles:
Godzilla
Godzilla, King of the Monsters
Japanese version: 98 minutes, Released November 3, 1954, Released in U.S. in subtitled form as Gojira to Japanese language theaters in 1955 and to selected theaters in 1982U.S. version (Embassy Pictures): 81 minutes, Released theatrically as Godzilla, King of the Monsters on April 27, 1956, Double-billed with Prehistoric Women, released theatrically in Japan as Kaiju O Gojira (Monster King Godzilla)Black and White, Academy Aspect RatioProduced by Tomoyuki Tanaka; directed by Ishiro Honda; screenplay by Takeo Murata and Ishiro Honda; story by Shigeru Kayama; music by Akira Ifukube; cinematography by Masao Tamai; art direction by Satoshi Chuko; special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya; special effects art direction by Akira Watanabe; optical effects by Hiroshi Mukoyama
Starring Takashi Shimura (Dr. Yamane), Akihiko Hirata (Dr. Daisuke Serizawa), Akira Takarada (Hideto Ogata), Momoko Koichi (Emiko Yamane), Sachio Sakai (Hagiwara), Fuyuki Murakami (Dr. Tanabe), Toranosuke Ogawa (President of Nankai Shipping Co.), Ren Yamamoto (Masaji), Toyoaki Suzuki (Shinkichi), Miki Hayashi (Diet Chairman), Seijiro Onda and Kin Sugai (Parliamentarians), Ren Imaaizumi (Nankai Radio Chief), Kuniori Kodo, Keiji Sakakida, Shizuko Higashi, Kiyoshi Kamoto, Takeo Oikawa
U.S. Version Starring Raymond Burr (Steve Martin), Frank Iwanaga (Security Offcer Iwanaga)
GODZILLA portrayed by Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka Synopsis:In the beginning, many Japanese fishing boats are being destroyed by a "wall of fire" in the ocean. No one can explain what kind of phenonema would destroy this, so scientists began to conduct some research. An island called "Odo Island" have claimed to have seen a monster called "Godzilla," which was a part of a legend they had there. Then, Godzilla shows up on the island and creates some damage. The natives are then transferred to a press conference in Japan. All of them claimed that the ship disasters, and the terror caused the night before was by Godzilla. The scientists then go back to the island again and witness Godzilla on top of a hill. Photographs are taken of him, and the main character, Dr. Yamane describes that Godzilla was resurrected from prehistoric times by H-Bomb tests. Dr. Yamane's daughter, Emiko (who will later appear in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah), is engaged to a scientist named Dr. Serizawa. Serizawa shows Emiko a horrible device that destroys all oxygen and surrounding life in water. Emiko promises Serizawa not to reveal his secret. The military, from a boat, shoots depth charges into the ocean hoping to kill Godzilla. Later on though Godzilla pops his head out of the water near a cruise ship in Tokyo Bay. Godzilla then dives back into the water. The next night the Japanese military gather up to try to stop Godzilla. They're unsuccessful and Godzilla crushes a few buildings and destroys a train. Godzilla then returns to the water. Although his attack was brief, there was much damage. The next night, Toko evacuates the people behind a set of high tension wires that the military placed up. Godzilla appears later and easily breaks through the barrier with no pain. Nobody in Tokyo is safe. Godzilla completely destroys the city with his dreaded heat beam. Many people are killed. Military tanks and jets try to stop Godzilla's fury, but neither of them work. The next day at a hospital, where all of the dead and wounded lay from the previous night, Emiko tells Ogata, a coast guard officer and who Emiko wants to marry, about Dr. Serizawa's oxygen destroyer weapon. They both agree that this weapon is Japan's only hope to stop Godzilla. The two visit Serizawa and ask him for the weapon. Serizawa refuses until he sees a television broadcast of the destruction Godzilla brought. Serizawa says that the oxygen destroyer will only be used this one time. He burns the plans of his work. The next day, Serizawa and Ogata place the oxygen destroyer in Tokyo Bay, near Godzilla. Ogata pulls up, but Dr. Serizawa stays underwater and cuts his oxygen tube off so nobody for sure will ever find out about his horrible weapon. Serizawa dies along with Godzilla. Comments:The first and, without a doubt, the best Godzilla movie ever made. This movie was originally released in Japan as Gojira. It was supposed to be a stand-alone film. Godzilla dies at the end and that's that, no sequels. When it was released in Japan on November 3, 1954, the movie became so popular, that Toho decided to make a sequel 5 months later. Ishiro Honda, considered by many Godzilla fans the best Godzilla director, directed this movie. Akira Ifukube, considered to be the best Godzilla composer, wrote the musical score, and came up with Godzilla's roar. He created it by rubbing a contrabass with a resin-coated leather glove. I own a copy of Gojira and I have to say that there is a huge difference between Gojira and Godzilla, King of the Monsters. When Godzilla, King of the Monsters was released in the U.S., the U.S. producers cut out several minutes out of the original Gojira and added in some scenes of Raymond Burr as a reporter who arrives in Japan during Godzilla's first rampage. Many Godzilla fans believe that this spoiled the movie. When I first saw Godzilla, King of the Monsters, I thought that it was a fantastic movie, and that couldn't get any better! After seeing Gojira, I realized that the cut scenes and the Raymond Burr parts did spoil the movie! In the American version, it says that Godzilla was created by H-Bomb tests. In the original version though, Godzilla was created from the atomic bomb dropped on Japan! This movie is not an anti-American movie, it's an anti-nuclear war movie. In Gojira, Godzilla is not only a monster, but also has a symbolic meaning in him. Godzilla sinking any ship that crossed his path, razing any buildings within his reach, exploding the ground with his heat beam, and the casualties that came across from his attack all had reflected the physical and emotional damage of the atomic bomb dropped on Japan during World War II. The scenes that were cut out of the original Gojira left out many important scenes that were, in my opinion, very important to understanding the mesage of the movie. In Godzilla, King of the Monsters, there is only one scene where Dr. Yamane says Godzilla should not be killed. In Gojira, he keeps that opinion throughout the whole movie and even explains his thoughts on why he has this opinion. Dr. Yamane wanted to study Godzilla not because he wanted to find out how to kill him, but because he wanted to find out what keeps him alive. In Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Dr. Serizawa seems to be percieved as a mad scientist that came up with the destructive oxygen destoryer for no reason. In Gojira, he explains that while he was working with oxygen, he came across an unknown form of energy. The energy shocked him when he found out what he could do. While he was working with the energy, he created the oxygen destroyer. Serizawa kept secret of his oxygen destroyer because of the destruction it could bring as a weapon. If used as a weapon the oxygen destroyer would be far worse than any nuclear weapon. Serizawa wanted to work with the oxygen destroyer so he could find a way it could benefit society. The oxygen detroyer was just a stage in his progres. In Gojira, but not Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Serizawa says before diving in the ocean "I never thought I would release this in its present form." Some of the scenes of Godzilla were modified in Godzilla, King of the Monsters. The trademark roar that, in America, wasn't heard until the very end of Godzilla Raids Again, and consitentaly in King Kong vs. Godzilla, was heard a few times in Gojira. Some music in some scenes were added in the American version where there wasn't any music during Godzilla's attack. The parts that didn't have the music in Gojira, in my opinion, made Godzilla's terror more effective. Also, the jet fight at the end of Godzilla's first attack in Gojira lasted a little longer than the attack in Godzilla, King of the Monsters. In my opinion, I believe there will never be a Godzilla movie as good as Gojira. Even though Gojira might not have the best special effects compared to today's standards (it did though, back in 1954), but the symbolic meaning and the deep message made this movie beyond fantastic. The Original, Allegorical Meaning of Godzilla, and the Damage in the Americanization Process During the post World War II era, several science fiction "B-movies" about radioactive monsters "on-the-loose" were consistently being produced around the world. In 1954, the Japanese motion picture company, Toho Company Limited, released their own monster movie, Gojira. This new monster movie contained one of the highest budgets ever given to a Japanese movie with revolutionary special effects. In 1956, Gojira became known among Americans as "Godzilla." The immediate success of Gojira inspired Toho to release several sequels to the originally planned stand-alone film. As the years passed, though, Godzilla movies would gain a reputation as cheap science fiction flicks, containing the hilarious sight of a man in a rubber suit attacking a toy city with crowds of Japanese people running and speaking English out of sync with their mouths (Kalat 1). It seems most Americans today cannot hear the name "Godzilla" without laughing or rolling their eyes, or thinking of the words "cheap" and "cheesy." This evaluation is unfair, and Godzilla should not have the status of a "B-movie" monster because of Godzilla's forgotten original movie, Gojira. The Japanese version of the original Godzilla movie is a dark, allegorical film that provides a reenactment of World War II, addressing concerns of atomic warfare through the eyes of the only country to firsthand experience it.
Director Ishiro Honda purposely made Gojira a reenactment of World War II from the Japanese perspective (Miller, part 3). Honda, a veteran of the Imperial Army, witnessed the worst firebombings of Tokyo and was stunned when he saw the remains of Hiroshima after the Americans dropped the atomic bomb. The devastation scared him, and Honda wanted to reenact World War II in his film Gojira, to show the roots of atomic warfare and express his fear for the future. He also wanted to make it a standalone movie and "... hoped that the end of Godzilla was going to coincide with the end of nuclear testing" (Honda qtd. in Kalat 36).
In the beginning of the film Japanese fishing boats are sunk, representing Japan's naval defeats and merchant marine ships sunk by American submarines, prior to when the U.S. entered the war (Miller, part 3). These scenes also symbolize Japan entering the war with the United States (Roberto, part 2). The Japanese government, in Gojira, hesitates to release information about the sinkings to the public, as did the Japanese government from World War II had not released information about its defeats.
Godzilla first attacks land on Odo Island, which represents the islands lost to the U.S. (Miller, part 3). Dr. Yamane, a paleontologist, discovers that Godzilla was resurrected by a recent Hydrogen bomb test (it was revealed in later Godzilla movies as the test conducted by the U.S. on Bikini Atoll in 1954). Yamane's discovery causes a debate on whether the monster should be either killed or studied. Some people such as Yamane's daughter, Emiko, and her lover, a Coast Guard officer named Hideto Ogata, want Godzilla to be killed, yet Dr. Yamane explains that an attempt is pointless because Godzilla was able to survive an H-Bomb explosion. Yamane believes that Godzilla should be studied for his ability to survive such treacherous conditions instead. This debate can be seen as representing the Japanese's mixed feelings of war in the 1940's (Roberto, part 4).
The military's attempts to defeat Godzilla by using conventional weapons fail. Godzilla moves closer to Japan and attacks the capital, Tokyo. Through all of Godzilla's attacks, the sounds of his footsteps imitate the sounds of the bombs dropped by Americans during the war (Roberto, part 4). When Godzilla arrives on the mainland, an atomic ray fired from its mouth destroys buildings and leaves radioactive fallout, intuitively reflecting the mass destruction caused by atomic weapons (Kalat 15). By this time in the film, the full allegory of Godzilla is revealed. Not only is it an allegory of the war with the U.S., but it is also an allegory of the product of atomic weapons: atomic warfare (Miller, part 1).
After Godzilla's second major attack on Tokyo, a morning landscape scene showing the remains of Tokyo fades in, matching the appearance of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the atomic bomb attacks. A grim hospital scene is then shown displaying the dead and wounded, reflecting what the hospitals were like also after the American atomic bomb attacks (Roberto, part 4). Shots of people shaking their heads and crying show a sense of pessimism that exists not only for Japan, but also to the whole world (Roberto, part 4). From here, Honda began discussing his fears of nuclear war. Even after Godzilla was killed, a feeling of pessimism still exists, as Dr. Yamane thinks aloud, "I can't believe Godzilla was the only surviving member of its species. If we keep on conducting nuclear tests, it's possible that another Godzilla might appear somewhere in the world, again." Honda included this speech not to hint at a sequel but to offer his message of the danger that still existed (Honda qtd. in Kalat 36). Although the threat of atomic warfare ends in the movie (or does it?), it had not ended in the real world.
Honda further discussed his fears and concerns of future warfare through the ill-fated character, Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, and his invention, the Oxygen Destroyer, the weapon used to kill Godzilla. The Oxygen Destroyer is a weapon of mass-destruction that disintegrates oxygen in water and dissolves all living matter. Serizawa, shocked by his discovery, planned to keep it a secret until he found a way to transform the device so it would benefit society. Serizawa reveals his invention to his fiancé, Emiko, who keeps it a secret too until she wanted to find a way to help Japan after seeing the destruction Godzilla brought.
Serizawa's Oxygen Destroyer represents the consequence of atomic warfare (Kalat 20). Since Godzilla was atomic warfare, the latest and most destructive technology, then the only way to defeat it was by using a weapon even more destructive, the Oxygen Destroyer (Kalat 20). Ishiro Honda discussed the debate of whether the atomic bomb should have even been used through a debate with Ogata and Serizawa (Roberto 1). Serizawa argues, "If the Oxygen Destroyer is used even once, politicians from around the world will see it. Of course they'll use it as a weapon. Bombs versus bombs, missiles versus missiles, and now a new super-weapon to throw upon us all. As a scientist, no, as a human being, I cannot allow that to happen." Ogata pushes Serizawa further, but Serizawa further explains, "Humans are weak animals. Even if I burn my notes, the secret will still be in my head. Until I die, how can I be sure I won't be forced by someone to make the device again?"
After watching a somber television broadcast showing the weariness of the war against Godzilla, Serizawa is then convinced to use his awful weapon. The only way to defeat an atomic weapon (Godzilla) was to use a weapon more powerful (the Oxygen Destroyer); otherwise atomic warfare would destroy Japan and possibly the world (Kalat 15). Serizawa burns his notes and insists on planting the device. After he plants the Oxygen Destroyer near Godzilla in Tokyo Bay, Serizawa commits suicide, to ensure that his worst-case scenario would not become a reality.
In 1956, Embassy Pictures released an Americanized version of Gojira in the U.S. called Godzilla, King of the Monsters. This version of Gojira was heavily edited to appease to American audiences, resulting in a film ignoring the messages made in the original. Embassy did not want to release Gojira subtitled because it would only appeal to art-film audiences, which would be unmarketable (Kalat 24). Instead, they released it dubbed, a method infamously known especially in Godzilla movies, to have terrible acting and lips moving out of sync with the dialogue. To make the movie appeal to American audiences even more, scenes were switched around, twenty minutes of the original footage was cut, and ten minutes of scenes featuring Raymond Burr were cleverly imported between shots (Kalat 24). Major scenes, such as the long debate between Ogata and Serizawa, and Dr. Yamane's warning at the end are cut.
Throughout the Americanized version of Gojira, the whole island of Japan seems to depend on the resolve of an arrogant, stodgy, overweight, pedantic American reporter named Steve Martin. Steve Martin's presence takes on a MacArthur-like father figure whose advice is sought out by even the most brilliant scientific and military minds of Japan (including Dr. Yamane). Steve Martin, an American, seems to be the only major character that virtually single-handedly saves the besieged island of Japan from almost certain devastation. For example, Emiko reveals Serizawa's secret to Martin who then convinces Ogata and Emiko to persuade Serizawa to use the Oxygen Destroyer against Godzilla. The superiority factor that existed in the minds of the post-World War II era is clearly shown here.
Godzilla, King of the Monsters also shrinks characterization. For example, Serizawa appears to be the stereotypical cinematic "mad scientist," lowering the meaning of his self-sacrifice at the end of the film, and Godzilla is a giant "on the loose" pest rather thanan allegory of atomic warfare. The ending of Godzilla, King of the Monsters, though, takes the cake when it comes to tarnishing the messages in Gojira. Honda purposely ends Gojira pessimistically to indicate that action must be taken to stop warfare, but the American version ends optimistically as Martin narrates "... the world could wake up and live again."
Gojira is a deep, dark, allegorical movie about the end of the world (Kalat 13). It was not intended to be anti-American but to teach the dangers of atomic warfare through the past mistake the world had made. It was a direct experience shared by the only country to have firsthand experienced atomic warfare. As the years passed, Toho would shift Godzilla's symbolism to address other concerns and issues Japan had (Miller, part 1). Tomoyuki Tanaka, the producer of several Godzilla movies, once stated, "As long as the arrogance of human beings exist, Godzilla will survive" (Tanaka qtd. in Kalat 148). In the U.S., the Americanization process that created Godzilla, King of the Monsters had severely damaged the intent of the original movie (Musolf qtd. in MacKinnon, part 2). As the years passed, Godzilla movies would be arrogantly be passed on as just cheap and cheesy "B-movies." The original Japanese Godzilla movie, though, does not stand in a hokey science-fiction category but in its own genre.
- Essay Originally Written in November 2002, Revised in January 2004 testi estratti dal sito : GODZILLA STOMP 
Edited by GODZILLA - GranMasterZilla - 10/10/2004, 00:59
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