Godzilla [Gojira] (1954)

[OrlandoEastwood]

*Caution, spoilers*

Ok, I wanted to start a discussion only for the first Godzilla film. To my knowledge, there's five different versions of this film; Japanese, American, German, Italian, and Filipino. The Filipino version is believed to be lost and it was released in 1959 and retitled to Tokyo 1960. The American version is Godzilla, King of the Monsters. I am not familiar with the German edit of the film. I believe it is a rehashing of both the Japanese and the American cuts, but I am not entirely sure.

The Italian cut, released in 1977 by Star Crash director Luigi Cozzi, is called Godzilla but known by fans as Cozzilla. Cozzilla has never had a legal home video release and is only available on a bootleg and even as a bootleg it is very rare. Cozzilla was re-edited off of the American version with added in Italian news footage and if I remember correctly, WWII footage was added in too. The film was colorized using gels in the Spectrorama giving it very 70's vibe to colorization.

The story of the original Japanese film is about a scientist and his soon to be married daughter. His daughter is in a love triangle with a man Ogata; the man she is to marry is Dr. Serizawa who is essentially a mad scientist who will save Japan from the wrath of Godzilla. Godzilla stays mostly in the sea destroying boats whenever they get too close to him. Godzilla arrives on Odo Island which causes Dr. Yamane, Emiko Yamane, and Ogata to investigate the damage. Soon Godzilla reappears on Odo Island and Dr. Yamane gets a snapshot of the creature.

Upon returning to Japan, the cabinet has a meeting to discuss the creature in the photo. They all pretty agree that this monster must die. Godzilla is then spotted destroying a boat in Tokyo Bay. The Japanese Government decides to act fast to try to prevent Godzilla from going on land. They have giant powerlines erected all over the bay to shock him back to the water. He soon arrives and goes through the powerlines like its tissue paper.

Tokyo is completely destroyed and people are dead within the night. Godzilla goes back to the sea and the government goes in to find bodies. While helping out at hospital, Emiko tells Ogata about something Dr. Serizawa showed her; the Oxygen Destroyer. Emiko and Ogata go to Dr. Serizawa to beg him to use the weapon to kill Godzilla. After fighting with Ogata and realizing the Emiko loves him, Serizawa agrees to use the Oxygen Destroyer to kill Godzilla and in doing so, he takes all of his research papers on the Oxygen Destroyer and burns them so it will never fall into the wrong hands.

Everyone meets up on a boat for the last stand. Serizawa has the Oxygen Destroyer and goes under the water with Ogata to activate the weapon. Serizawa activates it and has Ogata pulled up to the surface. Serizawa then pulls out a knife and cuts his line, thus sacrificing himself to kill the monster. His final words to Ogata and Emiko are; "Be happy together."

Godzilla comes up to the surface and is roaring in pain as the Oxygen Destroyer is killing him. Godzilla is then pulled back under and we see him dissolve into nothing but bones. Dr. Yamane is saddened that this one of a kind creature was killed. He states something around the lines that if man keeps playing with nuclear weapons, another Godzilla might reappear one day.

I felt that Ishiro Honda made a very strong monster film with a message about the price we will have to pay for using nuclear weapons. This message was totally removed in the American version. They cut out forty minutes of film and re-shot twenty minutes with Raymond Burr. Raymond Burr stated in an interview before his passing in 1993 that they had shot all of his footage in one day.