2010 - February 27 (Monster Movie Extravaganza) GOJIRA (Godzilla) 1954

GOJIRA (Godzilla) 1954
Director - Ishiro Honda

I'm not talking about the American version with Raymond Burr...I'm not talking about the Roland Emerich 1998 version. No, I'm talking about the original Japanese version. Check him out before he became the butt of "man in a rubber suit" monster movie jokes. In his original form, he was a terrifying result atomic bomb testing and a warning of repercussions of the nuclear age.

Never did see this one before, it was fun, maybe a bit campy and ofcourse dated (the models aren't really that good).
But i can't help but wonder how it would be to see this movie in theatres in 54'. People must have been in awe.

There is one thing in the movie that really got me tho, its the birdcage scene, where you see Gojira through a birdcage,
great shot.

anotherzen wrote:But i can't help but wonder how it would be to see this movie in theatres in 54'. People must have been in awe.

We were.
The original version never made it to the US until 30 years later. We had the Americanized version, which my parents took me to see in 1956, and it was the scariest thing I'd ever seen at the time. For some reason, American studios didn't think its audiences would go see the original Japanese version, so hired actor Raymond Burr (to play a reporter who happened to be in Tokyo) and a bunch of local Asian extras and filmed 15 to 20 minutes of Burr in a crowd looking like he was witnessing the events. They then spliced these scenes into the original (cutting approx 30 minutes in the process) and had Burr do a voice-over narration. At the time, we thought it was great.

It wasn't until I saw the original that I realized what a good film it really is. Ishiro Honda was respected as an assistant director, having worked with Kurosawa, and having shots like the bird cage one, really add to this movie. I still consider this and the original KING KONG as the best monster movies ever made.

hehe, i never knew they just replaced the original footage with new stuff, i find it almost weird that they where
allowed to, but i guess money talks. Might just try to find that version and watch it to see the difference.

anotherzen said:

Might just try to find that version and watch it to see the difference.

If you're really interested, the official title of the Americas release was GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS, and, like I say, at the time was very well received. Of course we didn't even know there was another version for another 20 years or so. It pales in comparison to the original, but as a stand-alone, for the time, it wasn't bad.

we have a bar/restaurant right next to us that is named Pear-A-Dice, it tries to be kinda 50s,60s,70s style of a place,
but they just don't pull it off very well. They have the poster for the American Version hanging on the wall it got all
sorts of funny stuffs on it, like "It's Alive"

found it here hehe