Speaking of Kaiju
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on May 30th, 2013
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Couldn’t view this with sound here at work (will have to see it again when I get home). What a great montage! Like most of us, I grew up with the 1950s and 1960s Godzilla films as a kid.
Never got to see any of the 1980s retreads, but from this montage it looks like they run the gamut from awful to awesome.
I was an adult when I finally got to see the original Godzilla movie (“Gojira” 1954), without the american dubbing or the Raymond Burr inserts. It is a totally different movie than the americanized “Godzilla, King of the Monsters” (1956) and is a brilliant must-see movie, full of allegory, metaphor, and symbolism (as well as a great story, great scares, great editing, great art direction- did I mention it is a great movie?).
I like Raymond Burr and he has been in some wonderfully cheesy movies (Bride of the Gorilla, Please Murder Me, etc.), but the american version of Godzilla is a neutered film that has little or no meaning. The Raymond Burr inserts take this empathetic soul-wrenching tale of a conflicted and beaten nation’s shame and suffering and reduces it to background shots for the american tourist to walk through.
If you haven’t seen the original unedited version, make a point to see it, and be prepared to see Kaiju films in a whole new light.
I far prefer the films where Godzilla is a hero and savior of Japan, like “Godzilla vs. Megalon,” and “Godzilla vs. Gigan,” where he and Anguiras are the kaiju equivalent of Batman and Robin. I’ve always been a fan of stories where the monsters are good guys, be it the Hulk or even the Transformers’ Autobots. I still have a soft spot in my heart for the heroic Troglodyte from “Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger.”