GOJIRA (Godzilla) [1954] review
March 31, 2007 · Print This Article
GOJIRA the film may not necessarily be legend, but the character Godzilla is most certainly a legend. … And this can be applied to movies that have become legend and/or iconic. Just hearing one note of a character’s theme, or one note of a film’s score, and you instantly know it. I really can’t think of any movies that are of this stature to me that do not have an instantly recognizable score.
No doubt that Akira Ifukube’s score is iconic, legend, and instantly recognizable. Dint-dint-da, dint-dint-da, dint-dint-da, duh-duh-duh, dinta-da-dinta. … These sounds have become elemental to me as I absorbed them in my childhood from exposure to the “Creature Double Feature” every Saturday afternoon. … To this day I still feel ill about him losing his battle to Mothra. Why, why didn’t he use his atomic breath more when battling those two worms at the end?
This original version of the original film that started a flood of subsequent movies would be hardly recognizable to anyone who has only seen any of those subsequent movies. GOJIRA is a very subtle film, with a powerful story, and minimal, modest action sequences. It is shot in a grayscale black and white, which lends itself perfectly to the subtle directing of Ishiro Honda. Such touches as the female lead, Emiko, played by Momoko Kochi, looking silently overboard into the sea for a few moments after hearing of the peril that may be before her and everyone else on the ship going out to investigate the sinking of 3 other ships. It was just a great shot from early in the film that sticks in my mind even after all the action.
…Ethics are at play, and despite mass casualties and the burning of Tokyo, rash decisions to use great power in retaliation are not made, as they are in modern times. … Though some of the acting, especially by Miss Kochi is a tough dramatic, the sum of it adds to powerful final scenes as the weight of choices made by certain characters resonates. I got a bit choked up myself for the fate of some characters, and for the fate of Godzilla, my childhood hero still.
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