Godzilla, King of the Monsters!

Well it literally is a different animal from Ishirō Honda's seminal 1954 movie about the giant atomic lizard who wakes up in a bad mood. Here the American version clips the atmosphere considerably (and the running time), craftily edits Raymond Burr into Honda's movie and of course removes the anti-American sentiment that once existed. Yet the film did prove to be very popular with English speaking film fans and further enhanced the growing appeal of all things Godzilla like.

As it is it's a decent enough film, especially if you have never seen Honda's original. For sure it's still creaky in that "man in rubber suit" way, but the iconic creature is still thrilling as it goes about its merry way destroying some carefully constructed model workings. The nuclear war heedings are still there and there's much fun to be had, intentional or otherwise. Its pale in comparison to the original, but it's not a stinker either. 6/10

Godzilla: King of the Monsters starring Raymond Burr is a completely different work than the original Gojira. In the American version many references of the Nuclear Test have been muted and almost non-exsitent. While the Japanese version has many cautions about the plight of Nuclear war. Perhaps that decision was politically manipulated for the American Audience or it could be for the fact that the American producers wanted bottom-line cash and hook even if it meant making Godzilla: King of the Monsters no deeper than the flying saucer. All in all This movie is good for a laugh, but if your looking for a deep and haunting tale then opt for the original Gojira which has just recently been released of DVD by Classic Media.

Like many of the other Godzilla fans, this is the only version of the the Big-G's debut that I have seen. I have never had the pleasure of watching the original Japanese version, which is even more dark in nature than this Americanized version. I often wonder how much more of an impact the original version of this film would play and would it be treated in a more favorable light than this version. However, this is still a great film despite its flaws. Raymond Burr does a credible job as Steve Martin and he does his best to convey the horror of Godzilla's attack, even though his scenes were shot much later. However, I hope that one day someone will have the bright idea to show both the Americanized version and the original back to back to allow the audience to choose for themselves which one is better.

Godzilla is truly a legendary icon who has really stood the test of time for more than fifty years. His first film back in 1954 was very serious compared to most monster movies at the time. Most agree that it's a typical story of a prehistoric creature mutated by radiation rising up to challenge the world with his newfound power, but it's a little more than that. How so? Everything seems to be taken seriously by both filmmakers and the characters in the story. In this U.S. version, dubbing is kept to a very minimum by the lead characters while everyone else is speaking Japanese, which brings a small sense of realism. Godzilla himself is taken seriously by the filmmakers because while the primitive effects are obvious, his actions are like how a real animal reacts to a certain situation like when he approaches the electrical barrier and pauses to look at it curiously or when he snarls at a ringing clock tower because he thinks it might be another animal. He doesn't "attack" Tokyo just for the hell of it, he's just lashing out at whatever attacked him. After Tokyo is destroyed, the scene where the people mourn for the dead and dying truly moved me because the "attack" was treated like an actual disaster. I truly respect that.

Tomoyuki Tanaka really knew how to tell a war related story (war films in Japan were illegal at the time) and make his dinosaur the biggest star (literally) in the world. Steve Martin(Raymond Burr) and Dr. Serizawa are among the best known human characters in the entire series. I give this movie little more credit than before because of how it was made and the angle it was going for. Long live the King!

The 1954 classic was apparently not good enough for American audiences. They remade the film with Raymond Burr narrating the action and starring as a reporter covering the incident.

Rather than a subtitled film, we get one dubbed. At least they left some of the Japanese dialog.

Stars of the original film, Takashi Shimura, Momoko Kôchi, and Akira Takarada, took second billing to Burr, who dominated throughout.

Godzilla was a grave representation of the horrors of the H bomb; horrors that Japan knew all too well. Scenes of the destruction caused by Godzilla, and of the broken, burning bodies pulled from the rubble, look authentic enough to be documentary footage of Hiroshima or Nagasaki. The film, a huge hit in the original form, must have been therapeutic for the Japanese people.