DVDFile

Criterion / 98 Minutes / 1954 / Unrated / Street Date: January 24, 2012

It’s difficult to dislike Godzilla. Sure, some of his movies are warmed-over and incomprehensibly dull, but even though that giant lizard stomps through the world, demolishing everything at his big feet, I nevertheless love the darned guy. He doesn’t say much and when he does, it’s pretty easy to comprehend (read: “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”). He only comes out of his ocean home when somebody’s bugging him, and, well, he’s just cool.

But, like most Americans who have become enraptured with the screeching wonders of Godzilla, I never knew the real Godzilla True Hollywood Story. I’m used to Mothra and Godzilla duking it out on a desolate island while a pair of miniature twins from Mothra’s island sing bizarre songs to lure themselves back home (if you haven’t seen Godzilla vs. Mothra, you’re in for a treat). Until Gojira - the original version of the film - came along a few years ago, I didn’t know what was really going on.

Unfortunately, this writer’s tendency toward the solace of camp leaves the original, more serious Gojira (referred to on this Criterion edition as Godzilla) a solid step below most of Godzilla’s other fare. What can I say? I like a silly Godzilla movie. But as a primer course for the historical imperative of Godzilla, a Blu-ray set like this one - that comes with both the original and the "Americanized" Godzilla, King of the Monsters - is an endlessly intriguing resource.

Critic upon critic has mentioned the allegory of the original Godzilla (and subsequent Godzilla movies) to the coming of the nuclear age in an increasingly vulnerable Japan, so I won’t bore anyone by treading through the same waters twice. I will mention that this, Ishiro Honda’s initial ‘giant monster’ film, is the most apparent and astute manifestation of this symbolic correlation. Godzilla is a menace and a monster, to be sure, but no one knows why he does anything nor what capabilities he possesses to do what he chooses to do - he might as well be the North American nuclear forces. He instills fear, but people are far more scared in Godzilla than they should be. It’s as if Godzilla is the symptom and not the cause of a larger, more formidable evil.

So for anyone with Godzilla movies on their shelf, this Criterion Blu-ray edition of Gojira is an absolute must-have. Yes, this writer had a bit more fun with Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the 1956 remake of the film also included on this set, but that’s beside the point. For Yankee neophytes like myself who never knew the true roots of the Godzilla legend, this packed-to-the-gills high-def edition provides a fantastic history lesson.

Say it with me, folks: “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”