Movies - Godzilla

Home > Listing Index > Movies > Godzilla (1954 film)

	Movies - Godzilla

Godzilla (ゴジラ - Gojira) is a 1954 Japanese science fiction film, produced by Toho Film Company Ltd. The film was directed by Ishiro Honda and had special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. It was the first of many "giant monster" movies (known as kaiju) to be produced in Japan, many featuring the title character. Thanks to the magic of said men, this film revolutionized the tokusatsu fantasy film genre as we know it.

Synopsis

Filmed in stark black and white, Godzilla tells the story of a giant, fire-breathing prehistoric monster who is disturbed by American atom bomb testing in the Pacific Ocean. The monster attacks a number of ships and makes a brief land appearance, before coming ashore in Tokyo and destroying the entire city during an unstoppable rampage. The monster is finally defeated when a Japanese scientist named Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata) uses an experimental underwater weapon (the Oxygen Destroyer) to destroy it. The scientist intentionally sacrifices his life while destroying Gojira, because he believes his invention is too terrible to be used by humanity.

Analysis

The monster Gojira is widely seen as an allegory for the atomic bomb: an unstoppable force, powered by radiation, that lays waste to Japan in a manner similar to what occurred in World War II. It could also be an allegory for America as a threatening nuclear power; this movie was made only nine years after Japan's defeat, and only a few months after the Castle Bravo/Daigo Fukuryu Maru nuclear testing accident which had a great psychological impact on Japanese society. Unlike later movies in the "giant monster" genre, Gojira was filmed in a completely serious manner, and it has lost little of its power in the years since. Ishiro Honda, the director, was a second-unit director on several of Akira Kurosawa's films, and his stark black-and-white cinematography seems more realistic, harsh, and terrifying than many of the later color kaiju movies.

Follow up

For a limited time, Gojira was originally released in the United States in a subtitled version confined to theaters catering to Japanese-Americans, this same version was later released in the 80's and now recently in 2004 Railto pictures has released this classic and is now still currently playing. This was called Godzilla
. There it was discovered, however, and its footage reworked and supplemented for general commercial release as Godzilla, King Of The Monsters in 1956, and the giant monster would be known outside Japan by the name "Godzilla" ever after. In 1957, the American version even worked its way back to Japan, where the Godzilla name also took root.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Godzilla (1954 film) ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Godzilla (1954 film); it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Movies - Godzilla

Synopsis

Analysis

Follow up

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay