I recently received two new DVDs: This Island Earth and the original Godzilla, Gojira as it was released to a Japanese audience in 1954.
Gojira comes in a two DVD set with the original Japanese film and the Americanized Godzilla with Raymand Burr. There's also a small booklet with background information, all in a suprisingly nice case.
I had not watched Gojira before, but from my experiences with other Japanese films where there has been an original and a 'Americanized' version, I expected differences. I was amazed, though, in how much of the original movie was lost in the American version.
Gojira was made in a post-war Japan still reeling from the shock of extensive firebombing and having not one but two atom bombs dropped on it. We look at Pearl Harbor and talk horror. The bombings in Japan destroyed not ships in harbor but entire cities: from smallest child to oldest woman. Not just lives, but entire familes and their history destroyed in a land that revered both.
The movie was as much warning against war and such weapons of war, as it was a 'monster' film. In a way, the true monster in this film is war, represented metaphorically as Godzilla: the dark beast that walks the land destroying and burning all in its wake.
All of this was lost in the American remake. All of it cut out. I watched the original Gojira, and then the modified Godzilla, and cringed at how badly the film was edited–Raymond Burr added in to provide a clean, non-guilt inducing narrative to cover that ripped from the original.
In the effort to sanitize the film for American audience, much of the brilliance of the film was also lost. In the original, the director managed to create a sense of nemises of the monster, enough so that when it did appear, it became quite easy to ignore the lack of 'special effects'. This is true science fiction mastery: less a reliance on CGI than on talent and story telling, skill with camera and interaction of characters.
In Godzilla, Burr's presence tended to disrupt this flow, and kill the suspense. It was like watching a safari being held in a zoo. The fakery at which the original characters were 'seen' to be talking with Burr, when they were originally talking with others, becomes even more glaringly odd when you watch the two films, one right after the other.
I grew up with Godzilla and it was a beloved film. It still holds a special place in my heart for its role played, but I would have rather had the original all along. Thankfully future generations won't have to settle for less.
On a scale of one to five, with five being exceptional, I give Gojira a five and Godzilla a two, for old times sake.
