Retro Review – Gojira

There was a few giant monsters before 1954. And there has been several giant monsters since. But there is only one king of the monsters. Today we look at the one, the only, the original Gojira.

Things start off innocently enough with a boat crew entertaining themselves one night at sea. A light in the ocean grabs their attention and the ship is soon destroyed, going down in flames although an SOS was able to get out. Another ship is sent out but it’s soon destroyed as well. Although this time there are survivors found by a fishing boat. but it disappears before they could be taken to a facility on a nearby island. While people wonder what is going on a raft comes to shore of another island. The inhabitants rescue him as soon as they spot him and realize he is one of their own. he mutters something about a monster that the villagers can’t understand. Meanwhile fishermen moan the fact that the fish seem to be disappearing, with one musing that the “Gojira” must have done it, although the younger generation blows it off as an old fairy tale. A helicopter arrives and one of the people inside starts asking question to the local about the disappearing fish. That night there is a ceremony where the old tells him about Gojira. A storm wakes one family as things start to shake and fall. The house is soon destroyed leaving a young man the sole survivor of the household. Soon more of the village is destroyed.

Representatives from the island are soon interviewed by a governmental committee on what happened and a scienific expedition is soon sent to the island when they kept insisting that something other than a hurricane caused the damage. Here is also where we see a bit of the subplot where the head of the investigation’s daughter and the ship’s captain she is seeing, although there is a scientist in the crowd she knows very well as she’s been betrothed to him as we learn later on in the movie. At the village they survey the destruction and talk to the villagers. One scientist discovers one well is radioactive and warns the villagers to not to use it. The lead investigator studies a particular indentation in the ground, speculating that it was made by a creature of some sort. doing some more investigating on the depression the lead scientist discovers an ancient trilobite that was thought to be extinct. An alarm is sounded with something being spotted on the other side of the mountain. The villagers and the investigators run toward it, with the lead saying he saw a creature from the Jurassic Period. Soon the creature raises up from behind the hill for all to see. Pictures are taken and people run for their lives with the Captain rescuing the daughter after she fell. Although it soon walks into the ocean.

During a meeting sometime later the creature is dubbed Gojira after the island’s legend with speculation that recent atomic testing released it from it’s habitat under the sea, based on the trilobite and the radioactivity found in the area. Although there is some disagreement on if the information about Gojira should be released or not. When more ships are lost it is made known an anti-Gojira task force had been created. The public wonders what to do as plans are made to deal with the creature. But the lead investigator seems dismayed that the plan is to kill the creature. This dismay grows when he’s brought in after another sighting and asked how do they defeat him. He says there is no way to and instead they should focus on why he is still alive instead. While public opinion is divided the lead investigator’s daughter tells the captain that she’s planning on breaking her arranged engagement to the person in the crowd, Dr. Serizawa, in order to be with him. As she goes to tell him she doesn’t get a chance after talking to a reporter that came with her as he shows her a new discovery that he made that terrifies her.

Gojira appears near the shore and naturally nearly everyone panics. The professor tries to tell the soldier keeping him and others at bay not to use lights as it would only anger the creature. The Captain, who apparently lives with him and his daughter, gets him to the top of a nearby hill to watch the creature as it goes into the city and causes destruction briefly before heading back to sea. International experts arrive and propose to build a giant line of electrified barbed wire fences in order to kill it. Preparations are made as evacuation are made and Gojira sightings are reported. Before long the towers are ready. This sends the professor deeper into despair and he gets into a disagreement with the Captain over if they should kill Gojira or not. Gojira appears again and the fence is activated and the Special Forces attacks. The fence is destroyed by Gojira’s atomic breath and it goes into Tokyo. Causing city wide destruction and death, with several scenes depicting the people panicking or huddled with fright. The Special Forces tries to fight back with tanks but they are soon defeated as well. As the rampage goes on the air force tries and seemingly run him off.

Seeing the destruction and death the daughter finally reveals what she saw in Serizawa’s lab, a device that destroys the oxygen in the water dissolving anything caught in it’s wake into nothing. They go to Serizawa and try to convince him to let them use the Oxygen Destroyer on Gojira. He refuse because he is afraid others would use it as a weapon, not until a children’s choir on the television over footage of the devastation and realizing the feelings the Captain and daughter have for each other makes him change his mind. But he proceeds to destroy his notes on the Oxygen Destroyer and the daughter breaks down crying. Locating Gojira’s location Serizawa tries to convince them to let him go down in order to set the Oxygen Destroyer off properly but the Captain won’t let him go alone. Underwater they locate Goira and Serizawa prepares to sets off the Oxygen Destroyer while the Captain gives the command to pull them up. After activating it Serizawa tells the Captain that he wants them to be happy and cut’s his line and air hose intending to die there so no one can force him to make another one. The water churning Gojira makes one last appearance to roar before sinking back beneath the wave to his final demise.

Made as an allegory to the atomic bomb Gojira has a more somber tone than most other giant monster films. And with the bombing still fresh in the Japanese citizen’s mind I’m sure it hit the cords the makers were looking for. The score hits all the right notes to help with the mood of the film.

The effects themselves are well done, with the models often mimicking the live action sections, like a scene in Godzilla walk through Tokyo and a driver turns the wheel too quickly to avoid a crash and the model flips in the same direction. Little detail like that really helps in making what your are seeing believable. Considering the time period the suit itself looks good and Gojira’s look is familar enough I don’t really need to describe it here. Although it was rough on stuntman Harou Nakajima, as it caused heat exhaustion and dyhaydration, and he could only wear it for three minutes at a time since he could barely breath it. They later fixed these problems in later Godzilla movies. His iconic atomic breath appears to be some sort of gases, like someone put a fire extinguisher or something in the mouth. In later films it would be drawn in. Although his dorsal fins do have the familiar drawn “light up” look to them right before he uses it.

All the actor paly there parts well. the professor i feel falls into the usual trope in these movies of wanting to study rather than destroy Gojira. but sometimes I did wonder about him, at one point picking up that trilobite barehanded in a radioactive footprint. And the subplot with his daughter and the Captain, while there doesn’t dominate the film. But it does add a more human element to the film that a lot of these movies in the genre don’t usually have.  These actor have showed up in various godzilla films and other Toho movies so they will seem familiar to people who watch these regular. But three of them have some unique history with the character. Akihiko Hirata who played Dr. Serizawa put on Serizawa’s eye patch one more time to announce the return of Godzilla in 80s right before his death. Momoko Kochi, who played the daughter Emiko reprised that role in Godzilla vs Destroyah. And Akira Takarada who played the Captain Hideto Ogata had filmed a cameo in the 2014 American version of Godzilla, but unfortunately that scene was cut due to time restraints.

Now we can’t do a review of this film without mentioning Godzilla, King of the Monsters. More of a slight reworking than a remake, kind of what Power ranger does to sentai footage but not as severe. Much of the original film is still intact, with footage of actor Raymond Burr, who played reporter Steve Martin, spliced in. A voice over by Burr helped fill in some of the story details. But more important of all he played it straight, often empathizing the direness of the situation where most actors would have taken a slightly more campy approach.

Now is it a perfect film? Not by a long shot, but then again no film truly is. With only a single monster they had to rely more on the human element and wisely kept use of Gojira to minimum, which highlighted the threat, and the destruction of Tokyo, a bit more. While the lack of a monster on monster battle may turn some people off, I do suggest that if you haven’t seen it do try to. As an allegory tale it is well done and it is also a bit of history. 4.5 out of 5 stars.