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A Time of Endings: Godzilla
01/07/2005 . Source: Mark R. Leeper 
With two other science fiction franchises coming to an end, much less notice is being given to a third important series. Currently being released in this country is Godzilla: Final Wars. I have had people look at me strangely when I have said that this is an important science fiction series and lament its passing. Buy Godzilla in the USA - or Buy Godzilla in the UK  Most Americans seem to associate Godzilla with silly man-in- rubber-suit monsters clumsily stepping through miniature sets. Do I seriously respect Godzilla films? In fact I do. Perhaps not as much as "Star Trek" and "Star Wars", but it has been an important force.
I was probably five years old and already a little interested science fiction when TV started showing ads for GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS on television. It was years before I got to see the film, but it was a definite dream of mine to see the film with the nightmarish images I saw in the TV ads. Friends would talk about having seen it and how it did just what the atomic bomb did.
One of the most interesting things that I knew about the film is that it was actually a Japanese film. People in other countries made monster movies! In my young mind there were three cultures in the world. There was our American culture, there was Japan, and there was everything else. Every five years or so from that point on I would pick up something new that fascinated me and came from Japan, the "other" culture. First it was Godzilla, then origami, then the samurai armor in the local art museum. (This was in the 1960s, years before SHOGUN was released in 1980 and suddenly there was a nationwide fascination with Japan's feudal tradition.). Then I discovered sushi, then samurai films, then the little netsuke (pronounced "netski") figures. But it all started with Godzilla. In fact, this country's fascination with Japan started with the very successful release of GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS.
Godzilla is popular. The producers at Toho claim that it is the longest running film franchise of all time. (I do not know how much consideration they have given to Italy's Maciste.) Fifty years of Godzilla films is some an impressive record. But do I actually think Godzilla films are good? Well, I would probably say not in the Ingmar Bergman sense. I would say that the films are a mixed bag. I would certainly say yes to the question asked about the film GOJIRA.
The original Godzilla film that we in the United States saw, GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS and released in 1956 was a re- edited version of the Japanese film GOJIRA. The Americans re- edited and crudely added scenes with Raymond Burr. This gave the film an American hero and somewhat eased backlash from the war that was fought eleven years earlier.
The original 1954 film GOJIRA, produced by Japan's Toho Studio, imitated KING KONG and THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS, but it managed to use its low budget and some real inventiveness to advantage making nightmarish and memorable imagery. For example, the filmmakers realized their waxy props melted under the bright lighting giving a weird effect. So the monster was given fiery breath to take advantage of the newly discovered effect. Most impressively we see the monster (mostly) only at night, lit from below, and shot from a low level. This makes the creature look huge and adds a touch of realism. The monster was played in the only way the budget allowed, with a man in a suit. It was given a feeling of mass by over-cranking the camera, effectively filming the creature in slow motion. The writing also is eerily effective. It opens with a fishing boat seeing a bright flash described by survivors as "the sea exploded." What could be more eerie than something as inert as sea water suddenly exploding?
The popular notion these days is that the American producer of GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS, Joseph E. Levine, re-edited the film to edit out its anti-nuclear and anti-American message. That is the belief I have seen repeated multiple times by different writers. And like many popular notions I think it is false. I have seen both versions, several times each. The essential message that Godzilla was like the atomic bomb and that scientists bear responsibility for how their discoveries are used is very carefully retained. Even the debate was over whether the monster should be studied rather than killed. Only one scene that I felt added substance to the original was excised. This was very probably the most poignant scene I remember ever seeing in a monster film. (I realize it is not a great selection.) There is one scene as Godzilla is rampaging through Tokyo. We see at the base of a building a woman cowering and shielding her two young children and re-assuring them by telling them they will be with their father soon. This is pretty strong stuff and I am not surprised it was eliminated for the American release.
GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS was the first Japanese film that was an international success. And it was a big one. It overcame the Americans' hatred for their defeated enemy to become an indelible part of pop culture. Sequels were a natural consequence. In the series it spawned the films were aimed at younger and younger audiences. Godzilla was turned from a nasty monster to the terrible defender of Japan. (An idea of the terrible defender perhaps had its origin in the Golem of Prague.) The series made one or two entertaining entries before it was turned into a set of light-hearted monster fests and the films were generally rather juvenile. From this point on the most serious message the films would have was that pollution was bad because it creates monsters. The virtues of all the other films in this series (and the later series until the present) are mostly just that they are fun. The films became hopelessly juvenile and wound itself down with stories that pitted monster against monsters and monsters against evil aliens. Then Godzilla went into hiatus.
In the early 1980s Toho apparently realized they had mismanaged their property and decided to look at the monster afresh. They would ignore the fact that they had made sequels in the past. They made a second film that was intended as an immediate sequel to the original and started a new series. In this country the film was called GODZILLA '85. The series made many of the same mistakes as the first series, but it was arguably on a higher level with a story arc of competing government agencies with different ideas as to how to as to what to do about the monster menace. Eventually this series killed off Gojira, only to have him replaced by an offspring.
With the series dead, Toho licensed Tri-Star Pictures to make an American Godzilla film. Toho had retained approval on the look of the monster. When this turned out to be too similar to their concept they vetoed the design and Tri-Star played it safe and designed a Godzilla whose appearance was almost entirely unlike the original. The film was terrible, but it succeeded in raising public awareness of Godzilla.
Toho apparently decided that the most popular films of the last series was a new direct sequel to the original film, why not make more immediate sequels. They had a new "alternate universe" series, each film was a different concept for what could be a second film in a series that started with the original GOJIRA. Some of these were their most creative films since the first 1954 film. However, Toho has reportedly decided to abandon the film altogether after the currently running GODZILLA: FINAL WARS.
Now that series is dead. Supposedly. But the series has been resurrected twice after it had died. Perhaps it will be back. Godzilla is gone but Japanese media and art and film, including anime and samurai films, are still hugely popular in an international market pioneered by a most unlikely cultural ambassador, the man-in-a-rubber-suit dinosaur Godzilla.
Mark R. Leeper
© 2005 Mark R. Leeper
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