User reviews

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.

I prefer English versions in most cases but this is kinda silly having Steve Martin (Raymond Barr) in it and not speaking Japanese. Otherwise this is still a spectacular Godzilla film! The destruction is great and effects were incredible for it's time.

The abuse and destruction unleashed on this Japanese city Tokyo is nothing short of epic in stature. The city, through the various romps of the titular character, literally swirls in flames, buildings fall at amazing speed , and just about every human form of transportation is reduced to rubble. This is the setting for much of the film, Godzilla - King of the Monsters. Despite being nothing more than a film with a man in a rubber suit trashing a miniature Tokyo set, this first Godzilla has much going for it. It is well-paced, and the action is engrossing and climactic. I saw the Americanized version with Raymond Burr, and thought Burr did a fine job playing foreign correspondent Steve Martin. Burr really helps create and add tension in the film with his narration and through the events we see through his eyes. The Japanese actors are very good as is the direction. Really the only low-point of the film for me was the inept dubbing, particularly the Brooklyn accent given to one of the chief Japanese scientists. Quite a gem!

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.

American studios obviously believed two things: (1) that Godzilla could be sold to American audiences, and (2) that American audiences wouldn't watch the original Japanese version, and so a familiar American actor would have to be added. The end result was the filming of many scenes incorporating Raymond Burr as American newspaper reporter Steve Martin, who just happened to be in Tokyo when Godzilla struck.

In all honesty, I haven't seen the Japanese original ("Gojira") and so I have no basis on which to compare the two versions, so "Godzilla: King Of The Monsters" has to be looked at on its own merits. Let's admit right off the top that it has a lot of weaknesses. The Burr scenes aren't edited in particularly well, there are some strange decisions about dubbing (sometimes the original scenes are left in, with Japanese language and all and a narration by Burr explaining what's happening and sometimes English is dubbed over the original Japanese, and there didn't seem to me to be any particular rhyme or reason for which decision was made to which scene), the special effects are primitive (but it was made in the 1950's), and the monster stretched credibility a bit (partly the costume, and partly that he was 400 feet tall - how would the link between Jurassic era land animals and sea animals be so big?) Having said that, unless your agenda is simply to bash Americans for Americanizing the movie, you also have to admit that it's not bad. The opening scene is marvellous, with Martin being rescued from a destroyed building and brought to a hospital on a stretcher. If you didn't know the story (and we do, so perhaps this loses its impact) you'd swear off the top that this is a movie about an atomic bomb attack. For all the above weaknesses, the movie's fun pretty much all the way through if not particularly scary, and the casting of Burr accomplished what the studios wanted - Godzilla became as much an American cult classic as a Japanese one.

The ending is a bit abrupt, and seemed pretty decisive, leaving me to puzzle where all the sequels came from, but overall, if not great this was still an enjoyable film, probably undeserving of some of the criticism it gets. 6/10

Dear Godzilla,

I decided to look into a piece of film history today, so I watched Godzilla: King of the Monsters for about the fifth time. I realize that your decision to permit this film was made early in your career, before you had established the the status of a legend, and that you might have felt the American cinemarket might not be ready for the biggest, hottest star ever produced off the coast of Japan, but I have to say that I think this entire film was a mistake.

The pasted in Raymond Burr scenes are awful and dull, and the voice-over narrative is unnecessary and distracting. You look great, of course, with the exception of one scene - about midway through the film, after you've been reanimated by nuclear testing and the paleontologists have recognized you as the missing link between Jurassic terrestrial and marine reptiles - when, for some reason, you appear as an unmoving silhouette in the background looming over a burning, wrecked Tokyo.

My complaints regarding this film all stem from its Americanization. I really don't understand why you allowed so many American scenes to be added to the film, and why you waived the right to review the script. Gojira was a much better film, of course, and time has told that tale well.

With Undying Affection,

~M

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!

"Godzilla, King of the Monsters!" is the ridiculous Americanized version of the Japanese "Gojira" (1954) that destroys the Japanese masterpiece. The insertion of Raymond Burr´s character Steve Martin is a bad joke and the Japanese characters speaking in English is unbearably stupid. Do not waste your time trying to watch this garbage, prefer the original "Gojira". My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

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

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.

American version of 1954 Japanese classic Gojira (Godzilla) with added scenes of Raymond Burr as journalist Steve Martin (no doubt a wild & crazy guy) providing narration and an outsider's point of view on the attack on Tokyo by Godzilla. I think most fans tend to prefer the original version to this one. It's easy to see why, though both are good movies. The original is a darker, more intense film. The addition of the Raymond Burr footage in the American version lightens things up as well as eliminating many of the atomic bomb and Hiroshima references. For his part, Burr is fine and his character is well-written and respectful. No boorish American stereotype, thankfully. The Japanese cast is excellent, though you get a much better appreciation for them watching the original. Akira Ifukube's haunting score will stay with you long after the movie is over. The special effects are charmingly quaint but never so poor that it takes you out of the mood the film sets.

Godzilla wasn't the first movie of its type but it is one of the better ones, even if judged solely on the level of being a fun monster movie. However, it's the added anti-nuclear theme in a film made by a people directly affected by the atomic bomb a decade before that gives Godzilla a certain gravitas that other giant monster movies from the 1950s don't have. If you are able to enjoy a slowly-paced film with subtitles (not everybody is, let's be honest), then you should seek out the original by all means. Whichever version you watch, I think you will be pleased as both are terrific films with entertainment and historic value. Oh and don't worry about that ending. The movie was followed by a sequel or two...dozen.

Oh when Americans first pillaged foreign product for big mainstream gains. With Godzilla, King of the Monsters! we see the beginning of a franchise in all its fractured, cheesy glory. After finally seeing the original Japanese version, Gojira, I also went back to the American version too, which I had seen when I was younger. The impression left by the Americanized version isn't very large, but when compared to the CGI 98 Godzilla at the time- I saw the first around the same time as they played the old ones over and over to build up publicity- it's a spring chicken, err, radioactive lizard to be exact. Seeing how its cut together here again, I'm a little surprised of how noticeable it all is with Burr in the scenes, but I don't mind terribly much (I can always think, well, it could be worse...it could be one of the Godzilla movies from the late 60s that time forgot).

Ultimately, what makes the movie exciting and dumb fun are the attack sequences, especially Godzilla's destruction of Tokyo. Also, as a kid, there's something very effective with the black and white, as it almost comes off as being darker than the other color-film Godzilla movies of the early 60s; one can see the ash all rising around, and a shot or two looks like it could've been lifted from the old newsreels following the end of WW2. Actually, Godzilla is, originally and with 'best intentions', an allegory for nuclear destruction. The American version doesn't stress this nearly as much as Gojira, and what is cut out now gets felt on a repeat viewing. But I could think of worse things to do on a Sunday afternoon.

I watched this film right after finishing original Godzilla. Every character's interaction and characterization butchered into bare skeleton at the expense of narrator-character "Steve Martin" an American reporter. The all important nuclear-hydrogen bomb parallel almost glossed over. After reading about this film's history, the only good thing about it is that it introduced Godzilla to Western audiences. Some fascinating shots from the original film kept at least which makes it slightly bearable. This is one the earliest template of "dumbing down" by film studios.