Dual/Duel Review: Gojira/Godzilla, King of the Monsters

Dual/Duel reviews are an online smackdown between two books, movies, games, podcasts, etc. etc. that I think are interesting to compare, contrast, and comment on. For a list of other dual/duel reviews, go here.

Continuing a little Godzilla series (I certainly can't review every Godzilla movie ever made!), here's a comparison of the original film and its American re-edit starring Raymond Burr. As a child, I saw the Burr version on television many times. Is the original better enough to replace it in my Godzilla-loving heart?

Contender #1 Gojira (1954) co-written and directed by Ishiro Honda

Boats start mysteriously disappearing off the coast of Japan. Most of the disappearances are near Odo Island which is experiencing a huge drop in fishing. The villagers blame a sea creature named "Godzilla." Reporters come to investigate. That night, a storm hits and Godzilla rampages on the island. The islanders head to the mainland to get disaster relief from the Japanese government. The government sends paleontologist Yamane (Takashi Shimura) who discovers radioactive footprints and a trilobite from the dinosaur age. The trilobites died out millions of years ago but this one is alive. He reports his findings, claiming the monster is 160 feet tall and probably arose because of underwater hydrogen bomb testing. The government officials debate about letting the public know and decide to send some frigates to depth-charge Godzilla to death. Yamane does not want Godzilla killed since this is a good opportunity to learn more.

Yamane's daughter Emiko (Momoko Kochi) is engaged to another scientist, Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata). But she is in love with a salvage ship captain named Ogata (Akira Takarada) and wants to break off the engagement. A reporter wants to see Serizawa so Emiko bring him to the isolated scientist's home. He refuses to tell the reporter what he is working on though he shows it offscreen to Emiko who is horrified by his invention. He swears her to secrecy.

Godzilla shows up in Tokyo Bay and causes a lot of destruction before returning to the ocean. The military decides to string up high-voltage electric wires as a fence to block Godzilla's advances. Yamane goes back home to discover Emiko and Ogata. Ogata argues that the damaged caused by Godzilla outweighs any benefit they might get from studying him. Obviously, he does not get permission to marry Yamane's daughter. 

Godzilla return to Tokyo and uses atomic breath to get through the electric fence. He causes more devastation, horrifying Emiko so much that she reveals Serizawa's invention--a machine that destroys oxygen in water leading to the death of any living things in it. Emiko and Ogata go to Serizawa to beg for the invention to fight Godzilla. Serizawa is worried it will turn into a superweapon that all countries will want and initially refuses to cooperate. Then he sees the destruction on television and relents, though he burns all his notes. 

Ogata and Serizawa take a navy ship to deliver the device in the bay. Serizawa goes down to activate the device but cuts off his air tube. He dies with the secret of the oxygen destroyer. The machine works to kill Godzilla, but Yamane warns in the finale that future nuclear testing may bring out other Godzillas in the future.

Contender #2 Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956) with additional directing and scenes by Terry O. Morse

The movie opens with a montage of the destruction that Godzilla has wrought in Tokyo. That, and a voiceover by main star Raymond Burr explaining what we are seeing and what is going on. Burr's character is Steve Martin (no joke!), a reporter traveling to Cairo with a four-day stopover in Tokyo. The story jumps back a couple of days before the devastation. Martin wants to visit an old college friend, Doctor Serizawa, who happens to be out of town. Serizawa's assistant takes Martin under his wing and they observe a lot of the press conferences and government meetings about the ships disappearing, i.e. footage from the original film. The assistant provides translations as Martin knowingly nods or asks questions. The plot follows the same course with a lot of editing in of Burr and a lot of editing out to fit a reasonable run time.

The editing out is fairly significant. The whole theme of the dangers of nuclear weapons is sidelined, with only hints that maybe Godzilla was awakened from Jurassic slumber by H-bombs. The slow build up to the reveal of Godzilla isn't there either. The moral posturing and struggling by the characters barely shows up. The love triangle between Ogata, Emiko, and Serizawa is there but handled very briefly. Any tension in the relationships of the characters is gone.

Godzilla's destructive rampages are left in, since he is the star of the show (though getting less screen time than Burr). Burr does an okay job as an actor reacting to the devastation and horror but all the Japanese actors from the original are more convincing, even in the edited down depiction. The voiceover is almost constant and seems at times like narration for the blind. Steve Martin explains practically everything, though he does not end the film with a warning about future Godzillas or the dangers of nuclear weapons. 

Which is better?

Even though I loved the Raymond Burr version as a kid (which was the only one available), it looks so flawed to my adult eyes, even if you haven't seen the original. The voiceover is often unnecessary. The dubbing of the Japanese characters only works occasionally. The voices of the original actors (which sound very different from their American replacements) can be heard when a character is crying or just saying a name. The filmmakers should have redubbed everything. The footage with Raymond Burr has a better quality visually, making it stick out from the Japanese scenes. He was clearly on a sound stage almost all the time, something I probably didn't notice as a kid. Somehow, the version with additional American scenes is 80 minutes long while the original is 96 minutes. The movie lost a lot getting recut for an American audience.

It's hard not to see the original as much better.

Winner:

Gojira 

Loser:

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! 

Criterion has both films packaged together but my library had the Sony Wonder set. Try them out for yourself!