Godzilla Month: Godzilla (1954) movie review

Here's what you need to know; the nation of Japan is thrown into panic when ships start mysteriously disappearing in its waters, but it is not prepared for the truth. Godzilla; a beast of mythological stature, a living dinosaur is not only very real, but very upset that its slumber has been disturbed by the actions of Man. As panic further grips the nation, it becomes a race against time to understand this creature, and to find a way to stop it from reopening Japan's historic wounds, or worse, a Pandora's box of nightmares that could forever change our world.

I find it odd that I've never reviewed this film, in the four years of this blog's existence, I've never written a proper review, but if there was ever a time to do that, it's now, Godzilla: King of the Monsters is so close now, so very close, and in celebration, I'm going to the beginning; sixty-five years into the past to the film that birthed a genre and forever changed film history, the original, the one and only, Gojira.

Godzilla's first ninety seconds are, in a word, intense, as an unseen force lights the sea on fire and incinerates a boat. The calm, pleasant atmosphere of the boat is shattered, replaced with dread and urgency as people scramble to escape the unseen terror and the ship's radio operators desperately call for help, a futile effort as the ship silently vanishes beneath the waves. Within two minutes, and with not a single word spoken, Godzilla tells you what you need to know, it's a film that doesn't play nice, a film that, like its titular monster, will be cruel and unapologetic. If you're not familiar with this film and only know Godzilla as a series of campy monster movies about men in rubber suits stomping on models cities, this film will come as a bit of a shock to you, because it's not that at all, it's a different beast entirely. From there we get our introduction to some of the film's characters, of which the film primarily focuses on a few. Now, the film's characters are an interesting bunch thanks almost entirely to the two most interesting characters; Daisuke Serizawa and Dr. Yamane, as they each represent two of the film's core philosophies. Dr. Yamane is a scientist and is, in a way, the Ishiro Serizawa of this film; the leader of scientific research into Godzilla and someone with a passionate interest in him. He's very much against the grain in this film, with the rest of the country being gripped by fear and hatred for Godzilla, Yamane sees him as something special, a one of a kind specimen that needs to be studied and understood, not killed. This naturally puts him in conflict with other characters in the film, chiefly his daughter's lover, Ogata, who understands that Godzilla maybe a marvel of nature, but also understands the danger of keeping him alive. And on the other side of the coin is Dr Daisuke Serizawa, a war veteran and scientist who is the only person with the means of killing Godzilla.

That sounds great doesn't it; a guy with the means of killing an unstoppable force of evil, but like all things in this film, it ain't that simple. Serizawa is the film's most compelling character by far and his conundrum is one of the film's greatest strengths. Serizawa may have a way of ending his nation's suffering, but he fears the cost is too high, knowing that his creation; the Oxygen Destroyer, could be used for evil. Godzilla is not just a monster movie, it's a film with a very strong anti-nuclear message, one that resonated very strongly with the Japanese back in 1954, only nine years after some two-hundred thousand of their people were killed by the Atomic Bomb. In the context of this event, Godzilla takes on a much darker, much juicier meaning, one that cemented it as icon in film culture, and Serizawa's plight speaks directly to that meaning. His Oxygen Destroyer is a doomsday weapon; one that could kill millions if it fell into the wrong hands, a horror he does not want to see inflicted on the world again after seeing it being inflicted on his own people. The Oxygen Destroyer is a direct parallel to the Atomic Bomb, and Serizawa's guilt over creating it is easily one of the film's strongest attributes, leading to an emotionally gripping and harrowing ending that is part of what makes this film truly special. The rest of the film's characters are very much overshadowed by Yamane and Serizawa, even if both of them have a somewhat small amount of screen-time. The rest of the film's primary cast is your standard assortment for a film like this; an everyman, his lover, a journalist, you know the drill. The film's romantic subplot is very prominent throughout the film, but doesn't really become effective until the ending, and even then, that's solely down to Mister Eye-patch and how he completely steals this film.

Well, I say steals, but this film has one other, very obvious film stealer, the Big G, portrayed here as frighteningly as he'll ever be. Like the 2014 film, Godzilla takes some time to build up to the big moment, teasing as Godzilla causes chaos in the seas before coming ashore on a rural island, his arrival being accompanied by a violent storm. The first time you see him on-screen though is kind of like watching Alien, if you're not in the right frame of mind, you're probably not going to find it scary. That changes however when he comes ashore on the mainland for the first time, a scene that is greatly elevated both by Akira Ifukube's absolutely amazing music and Ishiro Honda's brilliant direction. This was very pre-CG and Honda didn't have the time or the man-power to create Godzilla using stop-motion, and Honda's solution to this problem, when it works, creates a monster more real and frightening than what even some modern monster and horror movies can pull off. As cheesy and campy as the rubber suit would end up looking throughout the 60's and especially the 70's, there was nothing cheesy about this one. When the full suit is used, it looks incredible; the fact that it's an actor in a suit gives the monster so much personality and life, far more than anything stop-motion could ever achieve. The added physicality of a real man in a suit crushing physical models buildings give the destruction a sense of realism and weight, giving these scenes an almost beautiful sense of horror. Make no mistake, Godzilla is a film that's trying to make its monster scary, and when the full suit is being used, it absolutely succeeds, not even breaking the illusion once. But then there's the puppet shots, which are a bit more mixed in their effectiveness, some of them are still incredible, while others are so obviously a rubber prop, and these shots do dent the illusion.

But Godzilla pulls it off for the most part, the child friendly, lovable superhero Godzilla would become was still over a decade away, this Godzilla is a walking embodiment of death and suffering, and more often than not, this film makes Godzilla scary. But Godzilla isn't just about a walking metaphor for the nuclear bomb, he's the star of a film that, at its core, is about the suffering of a nation. Remember the last five or so minutes of the 2014 film where firefighters are doing their best to rescue survivors and families are tearfully reunited in makeshift shelters, that's the entire last half hour of this film, and there are no tearful reunions, it's fucking rough. If you wanted to watch this film for a fix of fun action and campy monster goodness, be prepared to not be prepared, families aren't reunited in this film, they're ripped apart; children cry as their parents die in front of them, a mother tearfully tells her frightened kids that they'll be with their dad in heaven soon, the hospitals are flooded with helpless wounded. The bit that really got me was the little girl who starts screaming when they take her mother away, and the sombre, defeated look on Emiko's face as she tries to comfort the distraught child, and when I say got me, I genuinely mean had me struggling to hold back the tears, even now while I write this, I hate it. This is where the true horror of this film lies; the film doesn't indulge in destruction for the sake of entertainment, it plays it straight, showing the human cost of such a disaster in as harrowing and uncomfortable a way as it possibly can. In an age of films having themes and messages, Godzilla is not only a prime example of how this can work, but how it can define a film and turn it into a masterpiece of its genre without the need to be direct or heavy handed, and this was over sixty years ago. And as a cherry on top of this nightmare cake, we have the music of Akira Ifukube, a name which means nothing to you if you know jack shit about Godzilla, but his music is instantly memorable and exciting, his themes for Godzilla are powerhouses of dread and tension, it's some of the best music in the science fiction genre, and it further enforces this film's complete lack of cheese.

Be Happy With Emiko, Goodbye

Godzilla is like a lot of old masterpieces; it's a film you need to be in the mood to watch, because if you're not, you might be distracted by some of the film's dated effects, but when you're in the mood and want to see some of the most effective, haunting kaiju thrills that film can muster, Godzilla really is in a class of its own. While Godzilla may have a reputation for campiness and fun, cheesy monster action, this original film isn't anything like that; it's a subtle, sombre, frightening exploration of the horrors and evils of war, one that doesn't even try to be nice to its characters or its audience. It's scenes of destruction are darkly beautiful, but beneath them is a beating heart that keeps this film alive in your mind even after it ends. Godzilla is not for everyone, it's not a crowd pleaser, but it is one of a handful of films that reduces me to tears, it is a masterpiece, and it is an absolute must watch.