I didn’t plan to screen the original Godzilla film in the same week that “Godzilla: King of the Monsters”, the 35th film in the Godzilla-franchise, was released. Still, I enjoyed the coincidence and admit that it was the character’s longevity that brought me to its origins. Godzilla is the ultimate monster movie and a supernatural commentary on the atomic age. The realization that this first film came out less than a decade after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki helped provide me a look into a country and culture still putting pieces back together again.
The film starts with boats disappearing off the coast of Japan and a crushing attack on Odo Island. A team of scientists travel to Odo to study the wreckage and see the dinosaur like monster return to the island. Back in Tokyo, citizens watch in horror as a series of defensive strategies fail one by one and Godzilla nears closer. Eventually, the monster reaches the city and begins the famous person-in-suit-stomping-on-models destruction we’ve come to know and love. Stopping the chaos would rely on the use of a new, controversial super-weapon.
What impressed me about the film was how well developed the character drama was, amplified by the film’s place in history. Disaster films aren’t known for their dimensionality, but in “Godzilla”, characters face real internal conflict. Dr. Yamane wasn’t just some hippie doctor that didn’t want Godzilla killed; he was a man who witnessed the effects of radiation first hand and saw in Godzilla a cure. Dr. Serizawa wasn’t just a moody mad genius; he is a man making a choice between the wellness of his country and the soul of humanity, a choice made clear by watching the proliferation of nuclear technology.
I know it’s unfair to say, but for me, the film’s biggest flaw is its 65 year old special effects. I’d like to think that’s not just my presentism-bias speaking as I was impressed by the effects in even older films, such as “King Kong” or “Metropolis”. “Godzilla” bites off more than it can chew on the effects-front and relies too heavily on toy cars and the man in the suit for me to take seriously. Still, the film stands somewhere between charming and horrific as a exhibit of the Japanese zeitgeist in the 1950’s and remains fascinating to this day.