Directed by: Ishiro Honda
Written by: Ishiro Honda, Takeo Murata, Shigeru Kayama
Starring: Takashi Shimura, Akihiko Hirata, Akira Takarada
There are many factors that led me to make this the next film that I reviewed. Most importantly I think is the fact that the last film I wrote about was Seven Samurai, which got me thinking about other films I have watched this year that can be considered 'foreign' or 'old', trying to find a more precise rule for why I have difficulty engaging with certain films than just those two very rough criteria. It seems fitting to look at another Japanese film released in 1954, produced by Toho and even containing some of the same actors. I should also mention, however, that this was also somewhat inspired by kaptainkristian's video Godzilla - The Soul of Japan. Kristian thoroughly explores Godzilla's image as it has transformed, both over time and overseas.
In the same way that I have always been a film fan yet never gone out of my way to see many of the films people 'should' see, I have for as long as I can remember been a fan of Godzilla, yet it took me until this year and this goal to actually sit down and watch the film that spawned a legend.
The original Godzilla is so very different from every other Godzilla film that I have seen. It seems to be because of two equally important factors: Godzilla is the only monster on screen, and he's the villain.
In other films like 2001's Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (yes, that's its actual title, and yes, I did mention this film just so that I could point out the title), or 2002's Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla, the giant radioactive dinosaur is the villain, but his threat is a little diminished because there are other kaiju there to fight Godzilla, so there's little time or need to care about the human characters. In GMK they even make a gag out of several character deaths.
Likewise, in films like Legendary's take on Godzilla in 2014, or something like Godzilla: Final Wars, Godzilla is a straight-up saviour of the world, killing monsters in incredible ways and leaving humanity in awe. There's nothing that suggests that Godzilla is an actual threat to humanity, because any damage Godzilla causes is overridden by the good he does.
In this original Godzilla, however, the Big G is nothing but a monster that causes nothing but destruction, with no remorse or regard for human life, and there's no other monster here to bail humanity out, either; Godzilla stomps Japan in to the ground the people have only themselves to rely on. It turns Godzilla in to a truly horrifying creature to behold; even if the effects look dated, it's still very clear that a lot of effort went in to making Godzilla look massive and scary, with many shots taken from below, with dark shadows covering much of his body. 2014's Godzilla uses a lot of similar visual techniques to make Godzilla huge, but as a way of creating awe rather than terror.
What makes the techniques here doubly effective are the humans who experience Godzilla's path of destruction. While much of the film is the Japanese Government spending time trying to figure out what to do, or rather what they can possibly do, about Godzilla, which may get boring for some people, I implore the people who read this to find the movie and at least watch the scene of destruction in the film; unlike most Godzilla movies, which wreak havoc across the course of the film, the original contains most of its chaos in one long scene of pure horrifying mayhem. It is truly something to behold, especially when you consider the context of Godzilla's creation.
For those who don't know, Godzilla was originally created as an allegory for the effect of atomic warfare; it is even stated in the film that Godzilla was created by the radiation caused by atomic warfare. This allegory goes even in to Godzilla's original design; his skin isn't scaly, it's black and charred, in an effort to affect the look of someone burned by atomic fire.
Taking this in to consideration, I found it impossible not to be impressed by the destruction scene. It's tied intrinsically to the experiences of the filmmakers, who have seen what this sort of destruction does to people, and I could feel the intent in their work, an effort to express the pain and loss Japan was feeling. There isn't a lot of personal character development in this film that we can attach ourselves to, but the film does evoke some of our most basic attachments and the ability of people to survive in a time of tragedy. This is summarised best in a scene involving a mother, cowering in a house with her two children, as Godzilla burns and collapses the building they're in, as she comforts her children with a reminder that they'll be with their father soon. We have no idea who this mother or her children are, but it's easy to feel terrible for those people in that moment when you consider that this is a stand-in for genuine horror at a real situation that was so fresh in the minds of the people at the time.
The acting in this movie may be generally average at best, the effects ranging between cheesy and downright terrible, and the plot may have a nonsensical deus ex machina ending, but it's clear that a lot of effort went in to this film to make Godzilla a terrifying realisation of the effects of atomic warfare. There's also no denying the fact that Godzilla had a massive impact on Japan at the time and continues to do so; the 29th film by Toho, Shin Godizlla was released earlier this year, and we'll continue to see more from them as well as from Legendary Pictures, who will produce sequels to their 2014 work in an effort to build a Kaiju Cinematic Universe.
As for whether or not the 'old and foreign' rule applied here, it's a little bit split. While much of the film was relatively mediocre, only maintaining my interest because it's a Godzilla movie, I absolutely engaged with the scenes involving Godzilla's rampage through Japan and the humans dealing with the aftermath.
The Verdict: Godzilla is an imperfect film with an important place in film and Japanese history. It's heavily flawed on its own, but thankfully a film does not exist within vacuum. If you want to find out where cinema's biggest monster started, or learn a little more about Japanese film history, then absolutely give this film a watch.
Rating: 8/10
Published December 6th, 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment