A Look Back on Ishiro Honda's 1954 Classic 'Godzilla'

“Look! It’s Godzilla!!” One panicked Japanese citizen shouts as Godzilla emerges from the ocean to terrorize a casual yacht party. I can’t help but burst out laughing. This line has become so clichéd over the years that trying to take it seriously is pretty much impossible. But Ishiro Honda’s 1954 classic ‘Gojira’ (Which, to avoid any confusion, I shall henceforth refer to as ‘Godzilla’) is a film that demands to be taken seriously. Honda stated that he specifically intended the monster Godzilla to serve as a metaphor for the atom bomb and the nuclear devastation Japan experienced at the end of World War II. There are no Wrestlemania-esque monster brawls; no goofy, child-friendly antics; no madcap science fiction plotlines. Just death and destruction and lots of model buildings getting smashed.

Honda’s Godzilla is more reminiscent of a horror flick than anything else. Its imagery is haunting - Godzilla’s destructive rampages are intercut with footage of the people on the ground suffering in his wake. One mother holds her children close as Godzilla destroys everything around them. "Don't worry," she tells her children. "We'll be with your father soon."

Yikes.

Another disturbing scene features a hospital in the aftermath of Godzilla’s attack. Victims moan in agony; one child screams uncontrollably, mourning the death of her mother. It’s a far cry from the absurd monster mashing mayhem of subsequent entries in the series. It's also a far cry from its American counterpart -Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which featured awkward footage of Raymond Burr as a pipe-chomping news reporter cut into the original film. Much of the allusions to nuclear testing and horrific death is brushed over. In its place stands a more generic, awkward American-ized mess and is probably more familiar to American audiences than the more jarring Japanese version.

But, despite these powerful moments, Godzilla is by no means a perfect film. The special effects are horribly dated. There’s nary a moment when the monster doesn’t look like a dude in a rubber dinosaur suit stomping on model buildings. The plotline and characters are as paper thin as can be and not even remotely compelling. (Although it was really nice to see Takashi Shimura of Seven Samurai fame as a scientist who would rather study Godzilla than bring about his demise) But Honda’s film is largely successful due to its stark, unforgettable images and its iconic monster.

It’s crazy looking back on the entire franchise as a whole and realizing that it started with a film that was more concerned with warning us about the dangers of nuclear testing than with crowd-pleasing monster mashing. Gareth Edwards' 2014 revival of the character seems to be following suit and even appears to be a direct sequel to Honda’s work. I’m keeping my fingers as firmly crossed as possible that it manages to live up to its lofty expectations and makes this long overdue revival worth the wait.

FINAL RATING: 3.5/5