Godzilla on DVD

By Bob Ignizio 

Godzilla may be the King of the Monsters, but when it comes to home video he’s often received less than royal treatment.  In the VHS era, only ‘Godzilla vs. Biollante’ was released in letterboxed format, and unless you were buying bootlegs you could forget about subtitled editions of the G-films.  Even if you just wanted a good full screen copy of the Americanized versions, they weren’t always taken from the best source materials.   

Thankfully the tide has started to turn.  Although some of the early Godzilla DVDs left serious G-fans grumbling, Columbia/Tristar has finally started to give the radioactive monster some respect.  In this article, I’m going to cover the recently released “50^th Anniversary” editions of 5 Godzilla films from the sixties and seventies.   

‘Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster’ (1966, Columbia/Tristar)

Directed by Jun Fukuda 

This was the first Godzilla film to be directed by Jun Fukuda instead of Ishiro Honda, who had helmed all the films from the first up until this point.  Aside from a new director, ‘Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster’ also marked a new direction for the series.  Massive destruction of major cities had been a hallmark of all prior Godzilla films, but this time around the King of the Monsters would be confined to a tropical island with very little in the way of real estate to trample on.  Whether this was done to save money, because Toho studios felt the series needed a new twist, or a little of both is unclear.  Regardless, the results weren’t bad at all. 

Apparently Godzilla is taking a nap after his previous exertions, but when threatened by a giant crab our human protagonists decide to wake the big guy up with a lightning rod.  Although cranky, our favorite monster still manages to muster up the energy for a game of rock volleyball with the evil crustacean.  The crab, known as Ebirah, is kept under the marginal control of a bunch of bad guys thanks to a liquid manufactured by slave labor.  The slaves are from Mothra’s island, and as anyone familiar with giant Japanese monsters knows, it’s never a good idea to piss off Mothra.  It takes a while, but eventually the islanders perform a production number and Mothra joins the fray as well.  There’s also a giant bird of some kind, but Godzilla turns it into barbecue so fast it’s hardly worth mentioning.   

This is the last time Godzilla would appear even remotely menacing until his mid eighties revival.  He’s not quite the goofy hero he would soon become, not quite the terrifying and destructive monster of the early films.  He ends up being the “hero” of the film simply because the giant crab and its controllers are stupid enough to mess with him, while the good guys wisely choose to stay out of the way as much as possible.  All in all, a pretty enjoyable hour and a half worth made that much better by the widescreen presentation, good quality print, and the option of watching the movie in Japanese with subtitles (although an English dub is available if you prefer). 

‘Son of Godzilla’ (1967, Columbia/Tristar)

Directed by Jun Fukuda 

This movie features what is without a doubt the worst looking Godzilla costume of the entire series.  Luckily it also boasts one of the better plots, with the human story being moderately interesting for a change.  A bunch of scientists are engaged in weather control experiments on an island populated by giant mantises.  They’re joined by a reporter who parachutes onto the island who they quickly put to work as their cabana boy.  Also on this island is a mysterious egg which emits a signal that interferes with the scientists’ experiment.  This signal also gets the attention of Godzilla.  When the egg hatches, it quickly becomes apparent why. 

The new hatchling is a baby Godzilla, known as Minilla, although that name is never used.  And if you thought Godzilla’s costume was looking shabby, you ain’t seen nothing yet.  Although no doubt intended to be cute, Minilla instead comes off just looking ridiculous.  Maybe that’s why the mantises decide to beat up on him, but when Godzilla finally shows up the insects realize that wasn’t such a good idea.  At some point, the reporter also discovers a beautiful native girl on the island, and for some reason she is able to communicate with the baby Godzilla.  She also knows there’s yet another monster lurking about, a giant spider named Kumonga.  She says Kumonga is sleeping, but you know that isn’t going to last.   

While by no means a great movie, ‘Son of Godzilla’ is lots of fun.  With all the monsters, there’s seldom a dull moment.  The print used for this DVD is bright and colorful, and the widescreen photography looks great.  It’s clearly aimed at a more overtly young audience than the previous films in the series, but it hasn’t reached the completely juvenile excesses of the films to come.  Despite its flaws, ‘Son of Godzilla’ is one of the essential films for any fan of Japanese monster movies, and Columbia/Tri Star has done a good job of presenting the film on DVD. 

‘Godzilla vs. Hedorah’ (1971, Columbia/Tri Star)

Directed by Yoshimitsu Banno 

This is generally considered the weirdest of all the Godzilla films.  A lot of people hate it, and not without justification.  For starters, taking a cue from the Gamera series, there’s one of those annoying kids in short pants who seems to have some sort of psychic bond with Godzilla.  More importantly, Godzilla comes across not as a powerful monster but as a buffoon.  The costume is certainly better crafted than the one in ‘Son of Godzilla’, but it’s also intentionally cartoonish.  For better or worse, this would be the standard look for Godzilla until the series ended in 1975 with ‘Terror of Mechagodzilla’.  And did I mention that Godzilla flies in this one? 

In sharp contrast to these juvenile elements is the psychedelic seventies atmosphere, including acid rock, go-go dancers, and what would seem to be a bad trip in which a character sees everyone with fish heads.  There’s also a number of scenes in which people actually die as a result of Hedorah’s toxic spew, giving this film more of a sense of horror than usual.  The film also uses some unusual visual techniques, including animated segments.  It’s interesting, but I’m not so sure it really works.   In the end, this is one of the Godzilla movies most likely to appeal to those who watch them for the cheese factor.   

As far as the disc itself, the film looks darker and gainier than ‘Sea Monster’ and ‘Son’, probably because the movie was intentionally shot that way, although I’m not sure.  Those who remember watching the old dubbed version of this (as ‘Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster’) may be disappointed to find out that the dubbed version here does not translate the “shoulda’ been a hit” “Save the Earth” into English.  There are also a few other (very) minor differences between this uncut version of the movie and the ‘Smog Monster’ version.   

‘Godzilla vs. Gigan’ (1972, Columbia/Tristar)

Directed by Jun Fukuda 

This dull entry in the Godzilla series takes a full hour before getting to the monster battles the audience wants.  The human interest story is okay by the standards for these sort of films, but hardly engrossing enough to make up for the absence of rubber suit wrasslin’.  And if you thought Godzilla flying in ‘Hedorah’ was a jaw dropper, in this one… he talks.  In the original Japanese version this was accomplished through comic book word balloons, which kind of fit with the main human character being a comic book artist, I guess.  Sadly, even though this is the uncut Japanese version of the film, the word balloons are missing.  Even more sadly, the English dub track still retains the conversations between Godzilla and his quadrupedal buddy Anguiras as they race to save the day. 

The plot of this one is that interstellar cockroaches disguised in human host bodies (seriously) have decided to conquer earth for their race.  Realizing that monsters like Godzilla could put a stop to their plans, they intend to destroy Monster Island, the locale where all giant Japanese monsters have taken up residence by this point in the series.  To do this, they call on two space monsters:  the ever popular King Ghidrah and a new creature, Gigan.  Although I still would have liked the action to get underway a little sooner, at least it’s pretty cool once it gets going.  And bloody.  Most TV prints of this film had the monster gore edited out, but it’s back in all it’s dayglo red glory here.  Apparently this has been the case with past VHS versions, too, but unlike those cassettes this disc is in widescreen format and boasts a sharp colorful image. 

‘Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla’ (1974, Columbia/Tristar)

Directed by Jun Fukuda 

Another bunch of aliens decide to take over the earth via Japan, but this time they decide to fight fire with fire.  Rather than wrangle some unreliable space monster, they build their own robotic Godzilla.  With the ability to shoot laser rays and missiles from just about every part of his anatomy, Mechagodzilla just might be Godzilla’s toughest foe.  Luckily he’s got help from a mangy looking and redundantly named King Caeser.  Anguiras also shows up briefly, only to get thoroughly trounced by Mecha G and sent on his way. 

This is one of the better of the seventies Godzilla flicks.  The Godzilla suit still looks slightly comical, but he doesn’t act like quite as much of a goofball.  There’s a fair amount of monster action, and it’s wisely spaced out through the film.  The spacemen this time are rejects from ‘Planet of the Apes’ who spurt black blood when shot.  This had previously been cut out of most versions of this movie seen in the US, but along with some mild profanity (damn, bastard) has been restored to this DVD version.  Undeniably good trashy fun.  Along with ‘Son of Godzilla’, this is the other “essential” Godzilla flick included in this batch.

So there you have it, five films from the original Godzilla series in nice looking widescreen versions, complete with both English and Japanese soundtracks with optional subtitles.  Some bonus features would have been nice (at least the trailers, fer crying out loud!), but I imagine most fans will be pleased.

A few other Godzilla classics are currently available from Sony's budget label, though in nowhere near as definitive presentations.  'Godzilla, King of the Monsters' (1954), is a decent edition of the re-edited American cut of the first Godzilla flick.  It's not letterboxed and it's not supposed to be since this wasn't shot in widescreen.  They also have "standard" editions of some later G films that should be letterboxed:  'Godzilla vs. Mothra' (1964), 'Godzilla vs. Monster Zero' (1965), and 'Terror of Mechagodzilla' (1975).  'vs. Mothra' and 'vs. Monster Zero' are only slightly altered from their original versions (with some fans preferring the American 'vs. Mothra' to the Japanese cut), but 'Terror of Mechagodzilla' is missing a substantial amount of material.  None of these titles have Japanese soundtrack with subtitles options.  

All four of these titles, as well as 'Godzilla's Revenge', were previously released by Scimitar Video.  Scimitar's editions featured widescreen prints of 'vs. Mothra', 'vs. Monster Zero', and 'Godzilla's Revenge' (1969).  Still the American versions only, but at least they were widescreen.  Their versions of 'Godzilla: King of the Monsters' and 'Terror of Mechagodzilla' were just as good (or bad) as Sony's.  Also out of print is 'King Kong vs. Godzilla' (1962).  It's a "standard" version of the widescreen film, with (surprise) only the English language dub.  You may be able to find these discs on Ebay.  Last but not least, A.D. Vision has a version of 'Destroy All Monsters' (1968) that is still in print.  It's a decent looking (though not perfect) letterboxed edition of the film.  Once again, however, no Japanese audio with subs. 

If you like the newer Godzilla films as well as the old classics, Columbia/Tristar has released similarly high quality editions of some of those films.  From the late eighties/nineties series that started with 'Godzilla 1985' and acted as if none of the old movies except the original 'Gojira'/'Godzilla, King of the Monsters' (1954) had existed, they've released 'Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 2' (1993), which is actually a "remake" of 'Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla' (1974) and also featured Rodan and a new "baby" Godzilla.  From the third series of G films which began with 'Godzilla 2000' and, once again, acted as if none of the previous movies except the original had happend they've given us 'Godzilla vs. Megaguiras' (2000), 'Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Mothra:  Giant Monsters All-Out Attack' (2001), 'Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla' (2002, yet another unrelated version of the monster vs. machine battle royale), and 'Godzilla:  Tokyo S.O.S.' (2003, in which Godzilla fights Mechagodzilla yet again, although this one is connected to the previous film at least).

Columbia/Tristar also still has discs in print of 'Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah' (1991) paired with 'Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle For Earth' (1992), and 'Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla' (1994) paired with 'Godzilla vs. Destroyer' (1995).  The first double feature, however, is only in "standard" format (which means it cuts off portions on both sides of what should be a widescreen image), and neither double feature offers the Japanese language with subtitles option.  The lack of a Japanese audio track with subtitles also mars Columbia/Tristar's stand alone release of 'Godzilla 2000' (1999).  On the plus side, there is an audio commentary from the crew who oversaw the U.S. editing and dubbing, and some behind the scenes material.  Oh yeah, there's also a French audio track (?).