The Movie
When boats begin disappearing in the same mysterious spot off the coast of Japan, the local legend of Godzilla, a terrifying beast of the sea, is reawakened. And tall tales aren't the only thing brought to bear on modern Japan: A 165-foot-tall dinosaur that has been trapped under the sea since the Jurassic era has been released by recent H-bomb detonations and, its habitat destroyed, it is attacking anyone who comes near. It's picked up a few new tricks from all of those splitting atoms too, namely the ability to spew radioactive fire from its mouth. And soon enough, the creature comes ashore, leaving utter devastation in its wake.
By Hollywood standards, Godzilla often plays like more a movie than a monster movie, with a lot of personal drama spacing out the mayhem. And why not? Released in 1954, less than ten years after the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, Japan was still reeling from the after-effects and searching for a new cultural identity. Just as profound an influence on the story was an event that same year, as the crew of a fishing boat ventured too near the American hydrogen bomb test site near Bikini Atoll, with tragic consequences.
But fans of giant monsters won't leave disappointed, as much of Act II is devoted to Big G's rampage, which eventually comes to highly populated urban areas. The military's mightiest guns seem to bounce right off its scaly skin: Can it possibly be destroyed? Could the answer lie in a scientist's dangerous new discovery, a potential weapon on an atomic scale which could lead to the destruction of humanity if used improperly?
The deeper significance of Godzilla is evident for anyone willing to look past the dubious genre acting and, sorry, the very dated miniature special effects. (To be fair, some shots, such as the beast's glowing dorsal fins before it lets loose with the death breath, are indeed ambitious.) It is very much of its time and place, a nation caught in the middle of The Cold War, when even a single death carried great weight. Make no mistake, this is the very first Godzilla film and, despite a scientist who doesn't want to see it killed, here it is a true monster, before it would go on to become a comical, even heroic pop culture figure.
The Picture
If Godzilla could smile, he'd express his happiness at this new, high-definition restoration, created from a 35mm fine-grain master positive, struck from the original camera negative, which sadly no longer exists. It is presented in black-and-white at its proper aspect ratio of 1.37:1, with vertical black bars left and right on widescreen TVs.
There's quite a bit of grain still in evidence, along with lots of scratches and other minor film damage that snuck through the healing digital process, and such flaws are more evident as we cut to stock footage. The good news is that the detail is tremendous, from tiny spots and wrinkles on skin to the weave of the remarkably spiffy clothing. Blacks, while never especially detailed, are consistently inky and organic.
The American version, Godzilla, King of the Monsters was also restored from similar elements and is included here among the supplements. While neither transfer is as impressive as, say, Criterion's The Killing from the same era, both represent a major step up in quality compared to all previous versions that I have seen.
The Sound
The Japanese mono soundtrack is delivered here as uncompressed Linear PCM 1.0, restored to a mostly-clean state but still severely limited in its dynamic range, the highs getting the worst of it, particularly in Akira Ifukube's powerful musical score. The accompanying English subtitles default to On, but can be turned off. When we listen past the home theater trappings and try to appreciate the sound effects themselves however, we will surely note what a fine job the designers and mixers did. And the iconic Godzilla wail still kills in any format.
The Extras
Several of the extras arrive in the form of new on-camera interviews with key creative personnel who are still with us, thankfully. We meet the star in "My Classmate Godzilla with Akira Takarada" (13 minutes), the guy in the rubber suit in "The Ultimate Joy: Haruo Nakajima on playing Godzilla" (ten minutes) and model builder Yoshio Irie and suit constructor Eizo Kamai in "Exquisite Effects" (30 minutes). All of these are in Japanese with English subtitles. Ported from a previous release is almost an hour with composer Akira Ifukube. Additionally, a nine-minute featurette reveals some secrets of the photographic effects, including unfinished and unused shots.
Film critic and author of A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla Series David Calat supplies two brand-new, highly entertaining audio commentaries, one for each version of the film, both indexed by topic. King of the Monsters, the 1956 re-working with added footage of Raymond Burr as an American reporter, co-directed and edited by Terry Morse, shows some fascinating, sometimes cheeseball differences and is not to be missed.
Japanese-film critic Tadao Sato insightfully explains how the movie plays into Japanese culture (14 minutes) while the new audio essay "The Unluckiest Dragon" by Greg Pflugfelder recounts the misfortune of the fishing vessel Lucky Dragon No. 5, the fate of which partly inspired the film. All of the video extras are in some form of HD.
Final Thoughts
This Criterion Collection edition--a long time coming, first announced for a never-released laserdisc at the time of the piss-poor 1998 Matthew Broderick remake--might represent the most prestigious treatment that the critically-maligned Godzilla has ever received, a well-supplemented audio/video restoration sure to please the generations of loyal fans the world over.
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