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An original, text-heavy poster for Ishirô Honda's Godzilla
Two battleships mysteriously sink, and soon after the 'superstitious' are proven to be right: An ancient monster named Gojira has been reawoken to life by nuclear bombs after two million years of hibernation, and he is ready to trash Tokyo! Godzilla is written by Takeo Murata (A Man in the Storm/Arashi no naka no otoko (1957)) and co-writer/director Ishirô Honda (Aoi shinju (1951)), with Shigeru Kayama (Half Human (1958)) contributing story elements. The acting is sometimes overdone in a silent film kind of way, but it has charm just like the rest of the film. And because Godzilla comes out of the Japanese seas, where the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear attacks wrought previously unimaginable death, destruction and havoc, which helped end WWII just under a decade prior the film's release, the film's coupling of the timely theme of weapons of mass destruction with the metaphoric title monster never rings false. The effects are many and exciting, and the iconic theme by Akira Ifukube (Yôsô (1963)) is effective. Godzilla is a classic of profound meaning and a film that I can't wait to rediscover again some day.
Watch a trailer for the 2014 re-release of the film here
Cost: 60 mil. ¥, approximately 165k $ Box office: In excess of 4.1 mil. $ = Mega-hit (returned at least 24.84 times its cost) [Godzilla was released 3 November (Japan) and runs 96 minutes. About the monster Honda said that he "took the characteristics of an atomic bomb and applied them to Godzilla." The original Japanese name for the monster, Gojira, comes from welding together gorira [gorilla] and kujira [whale]. Honda asked 30 crew members prior to production to read the script and decide if they believed in it or not, as he only wanted to work with those with confidence in the film. A stop motion approach as utilized in King Kong (1933) was scrapped in favor of suitmation, as the alternative would have been too time-consuming. The first version of the Godzilla suit weighed 100 kg (220 pounds). The main Godzilla actor Haruo Nakajima could spend only 3 minutes inside the suit before passing out, and he lost 20 pounds during filming. Still Nakajima went on to portray Godzilla and other monsters until his retirement in 1972. The monster's roar was created with instruments; a leather glove and a contrabass, altering the pitch and speed of the noise created. Principal photography took place in Japan, including Tokyo, lasting 51 days. Honda would usually work shirtless in hard weather and suffered sunburns that left permanent scars on his back. Special effects photography took 71 days. The film sold 9.6 mil. tickets in Japan, grossing 1.6 mil. $ there as the year's 8th highest- grossing film in Japan. It sold 835k tickets in France in 1957, probably in the same trimmed and cut Americanized version with US actor Raymond Burr, which was released in North America in 1957 as Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, and which grossed 2 mil. $ in North America. It has made another 562k $ in North America in 2004 and 2014, as the original version was reportedly shown for the first time in the West. Roger Ebert gave the film just 1.5/4 stars, translating to three notches lower than this review. Godzilla started the longest-running franchise in movie history, spanning to date 36 movies, 32 of them from Japanese Toho and 4 from Hollywood. Godzilla returned in Godzilla RaidsAgain/Gojira no gyakushū(1955). Honda returned with Koi-gesho (1955). Godzilla is certified fresh at 93 % with a 7.67/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
