Review by Guido Henkel

Godzilla, King Of The Monsters    (1956)
Simitar

Length:         79 mins.
Rated:           Not Rated
Languages: English
Subtitles:     Not available
Format:       Pan&Scan
                      Letterboxed               

the time, this movie tried to claim the throne of all monster movies and succeeded in doing so. Without a doubt, Godzilla is one of most recognized and “undying” monsters the film industry has ever seen.

The plot of “Godzilla” is pretty simple and without much twaddle. Ships are attacked by a vicious creature at night, destroying the vessels, hardly leaving anyone alive. The few who do survive tell stories about a huge prehistoric creature that rose from the sea and call it Godzilla  Gojira in the Japanese original. Godzilla is a creature mutated by the effects of radioactivity from atomic bombs and grown to enormous proportions. With its radioactive breath, it destroys and melts everything in its way. Shortly after the first sightings, the monster heads towards Tokyo. Nothing can stop this hostile creature. In no time it stomps through the city, leaving behind nothing but devastated ruins and shattered lives. No weapons seem to harm the creature, and the only hope is pinned on Dr. Serizawa, a moody scientist, who invented the “Oxygen Destroyer”, a weapon that destroys any kind of life  but what if this powerful weapon falls into the wrong hands?

emotionless narration by Burr. It made the localization of the movie easier, since it pretty much eliminated the need to translate or dub any of the Japanese dialog for that matter. It also allowed the American editors to shuffle around certain scenes without having to fear people would notice the continuity gaps in the dialogues. Since the whole re-editing was done so ineptly, it actually enhances the movie’s fun factor and makes it even more enjoyable to watch. What’s even more fascinating is that Toho, the studio responsible for the original movie, later released the American version in Japan as well, while the unedited, subtitled Japanese version surfaced in American theaters in the early 80’s.

Unlike the modern day resurrection of the monster, the original movies relied solely on miniature model shots as well as actors in rubber suits. Undoubtedly this accounts for a large part of the charm of these movies. It’s just plain fun to watch an actor  Haruo Nakajima in these early movies  wear a 300-pound monster suit, having the time of his life, stomping on models of Tokyo, destroying everything in sight. The way Nakajima portrayed the creature gave it a lot of fierce personality and charm, creating an unforgettable monster, one that at the same time was quite sympathetic. Nakajima, by

The disc also contains a new, digitally remastered 5.1 channel Dolby Digital soundtrack, as well as the original monaural soundtrack in 2.0 channel Dolby Digital. Since the 5.1 channel soundtrack was non-existent in the original movie, it had to be remixed from separate existing audio elements. This results in a bit of a mixed bag that may cause quite some controversy amongst movie watchers. Purists think that it is downright wrong to mess with the original material, while many other people will definitely appreciate an updated soundtrack using current technologies. It is very hard to cleanly extract audio elements from mono soundtracks to create new multi-channel tracks, so don’t expect miracles… but still, the new soundtrack is nice, and having a movie like “Godzilla” with surrounds is a nice touch, although it is different from what the original filmmakers created.

Since Simitar have released five selected movies of the series, “Godzilla, King Of The Monsters”, “Godzilla Versus Mothra”, “Godzilla Versus Monster Zero”, “Godzilla’s Revenge” and “Terror Of Mechagodzilla”, a very brief look at the other discs would be in place, too, I believe.

All these movies have received new transfers and with the exception of “Terror of Mechagodzilla” all of them have both the movie’s letterboxed and fullscreen versions on each disc. Strangely these transfers seem to be taken from completely different film prints, since they vary slightly. Oddly, also the chapter stops are slightly different in the widescreen version as compared to the fullscreen version of the films. Just like “Godzilla, King Of The Monsters”, sadly all of the other discs exhibit serious compression artifacts as well. Since these movies are in color, the visual distractions caused by the artifacts is pronounced. All the discs contain 5.1channel Dolby Digital remastered soundtracks as well as the movies’ original monaural soundtracks.

The discs come with plenty of bonus materials, some of which are accessible through PC DVD-ROM drives only. They all contain a Godzilla video art gallery, a good selection of very atmospheric still images of the creature from different movies and eras. A trailer collection for all five movies can also be found on each disc, as well as production notes and an entertaining trivia game that is different on each of the discs. If you own a DVD-ROM drive in your PC, you will also have access to 4 different full screen, full motion screen-savers, a printable Godzilla photo gallery, art gallery, and direct access to Simitar’s website.

Even though the image quality of the discs leaves something to be desired, I think these discs are well worth recommending. The Godzilla movies have become such classic pieces of our culture that it is very hard to get around them once you enter the area of monster movies. They are wildly entertaining and were done with a lot of attention to detail and skill for the time, making them charming testimonies of an era of movie magic long gone. Of course, it would have been nice had these valuable movies transferred to DVD with more affection and higher quality standards, but still, I take these DVDs over my old VHS tapes any day, especially since the discs restore the movies’ original aspect ratios.

May 1998