Godzilla (1954) is one of the more important Japanese films ever, and anyone interested in film and its history should watch it. Revisiting it was a pleasure.
I’ve always been a really big Godzilla fan and have enjoyed the franchise since I was young. When I was younger, I tended to lean more towards the 90s and early 2000s Godzilla movies. I still watched some of the original ones, but to be fair, it was hard to find Godzilla movies to watch in America at that time.
We didn’t have the biggest selection of ways to watch movies before streaming. You’d get lucky and find one at a random DVD store or a Best Buy. Godzilla (1954) is one of the more important films ever made, in my opinion. Its tales of monsters and nuclear warfare are still prevalent to this day.
Oppenheimer came out a couple of years ago and was one of the biggest movies of that year, and so many people talked about it. It shows that the theory of nuclear warfare is still something that is discussed to this day. Godzilla (1954) came out about 10 years after World War II ended, so it really was fresh on people’s minds then.
The movie itself delves into the horrors of the nuclear age, and it’s something that we still deal with to this day. It still affects everyone, and it weighs on many people’s minds as they get older. The movie itself does such a great job of showing the horrors of war. And in most Godzilla movies, he’s either the good or the bad guy. He’s either defending the people of Earth or attacking them.
In Godzilla (1954), he attacks them, and it seems like it’s karma for the man who created the bomb.
The black-and-white look this movie has is so incredible, and visually, it’s one of the best-looking films of that era. Seeing Godzilla rise out of the pitch-black, black-and-white 50s world and take on the city is incredible. It’s something that could not be replicated today, even if you tried. That old black-and-white look is impossible to recreate nowadays, and because of that, it has a strange, creepy atmosphere.
A lot of the movie is so dark, with Godzilla walking through the city and causing chaos. It makes it really creepy and incredibly unique. It must’ve been so intense to see this in theaters back in the ’50s. Especially with how much this film leans on the horror aspect compared to some of the others in the series.
As the series went on, they leaned more into Godzilla’s over-the-top, silly nature, which was very fun. But at the same time, when Godzilla is scary and menacing, it’s pretty hard to beat. When Godzilla Minus One came out, it felt the same way. It was a more horrific adaptation of him, and that movie ended up doing so well and basically reinvented the franchise on its own.
The American Godzilla films that came out did pretty well (not the 1998 one), but it seems like Minus One really got a lot of people’s eyes on Godzilla again. As someone who’s been a fan since I was a kid, I’m really glad to see others discovering the Godzilla series.
Godzilla (1954) is just so important. I think a lot of people might find older films slower-paced, but this one is relatively short, and when it gets going, it’s pretty awesome. It also has some great music that basically stuck with the series for the rest of the time. The movie has great sound design as well, creating that classic roar that has been used forever.
If it hasn’t been obvious yet, I’m reviewing the original Japanese Godzilla, not the American version made for American audiences.
The one made for American audiences is okay, I guess, but it doesn’t really hold a candle to the original Japanese one. It was more of a poor man’s retelling of it. It’s fun to see, but I would definitely watch the Japanese one as the story is just perfect and classic. Something that sat with me this time, compared to other times I watched it, was the ending.
Godzilla is basically killed underwater at the end of the film. The man who kills him at the end of the film has been conducting a science experiment of sorts to kill Godzilla, possibly for the military. But the man who creates this feels like a monster, almost like Godzilla. The final scene, with a sort of underwater stare-off, is pretty incredible. Sometimes it takes a monster to destroy another monster.
The movie ends on a pretty sad note as we see all the people affected by Godzilla’s wrath. There are obvious comparisons there to the nuclear holocaust that the Japanese experienced. That kind of melancholy has stayed with Japanese media ever since World War II.
I think that’s what makes Japanese media so unique and interesting. Almost all the great media they made have a melancholy vibe. It’s almost embedded in their culture at this point. Sure, there are these great stories that have very heartwarming moments, but there’s always a little bit of tragedy in there, and it’s never just a good guy winning, and that’s all there is to it.
I can’t help but think that a lot of that was due to what happened to them in the world wars. While as a nation they are well-off now, back then there was a complete travesty that affected them forever.
That’s also why so much of their media is great—because they’ve experienced so many things as a nation. We got Godzilla (1954) out of all the horrible things they went through. They were able to create something incredible despite all the tragedy.
In my opinion, some of the best art is personal art. Martin Scorsese said that once, and it seems to be what makes people most passionate as well. As a creative person myself, I find myself more driven to tell a more passionate story. I can’t help but think that Godzilla (1954) was done in the same vein.
