I should mention I love the Godzilla films. There is an element
of kitsch in the later ones (as in clip-o-rama fest with a cute kid story as the glue holding them together,
All Monsters Attack), but several
of them, especially the Ishiro Honda films, are legitimately fun masterpieces
of kaiju action! Beautiful sets, great wrestling in rubber suits, cute girls and fantastic music by Akira Ifukube. What more could you ask from cinema, at times?
And the first
Godzilla is absolutely harrowing with it's low lighting and painful burning, unending destruction
of Japan where it's left as badly charred and flat as post-bomb Hiroshima or Nagasaki. The country is vulnerable enough in the post-war years, but efforts
of nuclear energy and war perpetrates a creature
of unbenevolent violence without an ounce
of compassion or sense
of what Godzilla does to innocent people. Plus the great Takashi Shimura shines as brightly as he ever does. It's done with grave seriousness and the concept
of Godzilla as a loveable character does not exist. But this came out in an era
of Japanese cinema where adults were the majority going to see movies and by the mid-sixties, it became stuff aimed toward kids when they became the new audience. Either way, both types
of films are not
without it's charm.
And if Criterion has been on their streak
of putting second features on a disc in great 1080p transfers (
Killer's Kiss and
Murder a la Mod), I can easily see the Raymond Burr edition getting a fantastic transfer as well. It has its followers as well, too.
And Criterion, if you are reading this now, please, please get David Kalat for the commentary!
Now let's end this with the cutest image
of all time, Godzilla with his/her (depending on what film) co-star Momoko Kochi
