Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by Lain Of The Wired »

Idk, the AIP dub seemed pretty tame
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by Chrispy_G »

Question: When you marathon the Showa series, where do you folks put this film? In its release order placement or do you use it as an epilogue of the Showa series?

I know usual placement is right where it is in the timeline OR after the rest of the Showa series...and different debates are made about when DAM takes place, chronologically, relative to all of the other movies...and the story placement relative to how things are in the world as of those films.

But I actually think an interesting spot to put it would be just before Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla.

That way vs Gigan, vs Megalon, and DAM become a weird sort-of trinity involving Gigan and King Ghidorah...with King Ghidorah FINALLY being killed with all of the monsters working together.

I also really like the Showa Series ending on a note of Godzilla facing his arguable ultimate nemesis, a robot version of himself.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by eabaker »

When I'm marathoning, I always watch in production order. It might be different if the subsequent Showa movies had in some meaningful way been designed to function as prequels to DAM, but with the lack of significant continuity in the Showa series, the only real ordering factor I see as having any particular weight is the movie's place in the production history.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by Chrispy_G »

eabaker wrote:When I'm marathoning, I always watch in production order. It might be different if the subsequent Showa movies had in some meaningful way been designed to function as prequels to DAM, but with the lack of significant continuity in the Showa series, the only real ordering factor I see as having any particular weight is the movie's place in the production history.
I think that makes sense, and regardless of the dates used/given referenced in the films, it seems as though they were made with a bit of a sense of 'DAM happened' with people having seen it.

The only thing that REALLY irks me is I like the idea of King Ghidorah's death in DAM coming AFTER his appearance in Godzilla vs Gigan. But you could easily assume that it is another Ghidorah or some kind of revived Ghidorah(which I believe was the original intent).

Everything else just feels like DAM probably belongs before the rest. Ghidorah's return is no more odd than seeing movies that use stock footage PRIOR to the movies they use stock footage from. When watched back-to-back, you would notice a lot of the overlap of stock footage from Gigan into DAM, but when you watch DAM first and have a few movies between....it is a little less weird and obvious.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

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So I showed the final battle to my 3-year-old niece a while back. And I realized that... it’s pretty violent. Like, I absolutely love the Showa films, but I’ve never had a moment where I thought something may be a little too violent, until I rewatched this with my niece. It actually threw me off a little.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

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KingKaiju wrote:So I showed the final battle to my 3-year-old niece a while back. And I realized that... it’s pretty violent. Like, I absolutely love the Showa films, but I’ve never had a moment where I thought something may be a little too violent, until I rewatched this with my niece. It actually threw me off a little.
The whole movie is like that, shockingly enough. You have a scene where a guy jumps out a window and dies and the scene where Akira Kubo rips off the woman’s earrings is one of the hardest scenes for me to watch in the series.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

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UltramanGoji wrote:and the scene where Akira Kubo rips off the woman’s earrings is one of the hardest scenes for me to watch in the series.
Oh gosh, yes. I'm wincing just reading about it...
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by KingKaiju »

UltramanGoji wrote:
KingKaiju wrote:So I showed the final battle to my 3-year-old niece a while back. And I realized that... it’s pretty violent. Like, I absolutely love the Showa films, but I’ve never had a moment where I thought something may be a little too violent, until I rewatched this with my niece. It actually threw me off a little.
The whole movie is like that, shockingly enough. You have a scene where a guy jumps out a window and dies and the scene where Akira Kubo rips off the woman’s earrings is one of the hardest scenes for me to watch in the series.
Ya know what... I didn't even think of that. Well, I guess it was planned to be their final film, so it makes sense.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

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KingKaiju wrote:
UltramanGoji wrote:
KingKaiju wrote:So I showed the final battle to my 3-year-old niece a while back. And I realized that... it’s pretty violent. Like, I absolutely love the Showa films, but I’ve never had a moment where I thought something may be a little too violent, until I rewatched this with my niece. It actually threw me off a little.
The whole movie is like that, shockingly enough. You have a scene where a guy jumps out a window and dies and the scene where Akira Kubo rips off the woman’s earrings is one of the hardest scenes for me to watch in the series.
Ya know what... I didn't even think of that. Well, I guess it was planned to be their final film, so it makes sense.
It was also the first Godzilla movie written by Takashi Kimura. His scripts were always harder edged and more cynical than other movies in the genre.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by KaijuCanuck »

Watched this movie again this morning. I know it’s gotten a lot more criticism in recent years, which is fair considering the high regard it was held up too for so long... but fuck me, this movie is awesome. The Kilaaks are such dastardly, sneaky villains - if you read between the lines, it becomes clear that they are absolutely desperate as a people, and as soon as the humans have the monster control broken, all of their ploys are just empty attempts at intimidation. Ghidorah and the ‘Fire Dragon’ never actually stood a chance of victory through combat.

One criticism I often hear is that there is not enough kaiju action, too much focus on the humans. I gotta disagree, there’s kaiju like every fifteen minutes. Admittedly, the attack on Tokyo was much shorter than I remember, but it’s still pretty thrilling. And Ifukube’s epic score booming the whole way through, so exciting. Such a high note to close out the golden age of kaiju films.

On another note, I’ve found, disappointingly, that for many Godzilla films the blu rays actually hinder the movie because it’s much easier to see many of the strings. In this case, I didn’t see a single string. Effects hold up awesomely in high definition.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

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KaijuCanuck wrote:One criticism I often hear is that there is not enough kaiju action, too much focus on the humans.
I don't feel like this movie is at all disproportionally weighted towards the humans. I do, however, get why some people find the human scenes in this one a little dry and impersonal, which in turn can make them a little boring, and maybe feel longer than they are.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by KaijuCanuck »

eabaker wrote:
KaijuCanuck wrote:One criticism I often hear is that there is not enough kaiju action, too much focus on the humans.
I don't feel like this movie is at all disproportionally weighted towards the humans. I do, however, get why some people find the human scenes in this one a little dry and impersonal, which in turn can make them a little boring, and maybe feel longer than they are.
I can see that. There is very little personality in comparison with the characters of, say, MvG, KKvG and IoAM. But I get really engaged with the collective struggle of the human story - the humans acting as a group to take down the Kilaaks. There’s a fun tit for tat thing with the humans foiling one aspect of the Kilaak plan, only to contend with a backup.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by UltramanGoji »

Yeah, I don't think the problem is that there's too many human scenes, it's just that the human scenes are not engaging when they're on screen.

I've been overly harsh on this movie in the past; it isn't spectacular, but it's fun enough with all its effects scenes.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by GojiDog »

Did anybody else ever think that the "Godzilla" in this film was actually the Minilla from "Son of Godzilla"?

I mean Minilla's first film takes place in 1967, the year the film was made, correct? And DAM takes place in 1999.

You mean to tell me that Minilla never grew in 33 years?

So in my weird and random thought, Minilla grew up to be this film's Godzilla and somewhere along the way, he had another offspring.

Which if that's the case, that brings up another question: What happened to the 2nd Showa Godzilla that carried most of the series? Did he die at some point prior to the events of DAM?

OK, I think I've put way more thought into Godzilla lore than was originally intended.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by Ivo-goji »

I prefer to think Minilla just grows really slowly, since I like it more if the Godzilla in DAM is the same one seen in the rest of the Showa series.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

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Ivo-goji wrote:I prefer to think Minilla just grows really slowly, since I like it more if the Godzilla in DAM is the same one seen in the rest of the Showa series.
Yeah, I agree. And it makes a little bit of sense, if this species is supposed to be capable of living for millions of years, that their metabolism would just be really slow and they’d grow gradually.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by MechaGoji Bro7503 »

I love how Minilla is the one that gives King Ghidorah the final blow.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

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eabaker wrote:When I'm marathoning, I always watch in production order. It might be different if the subsequent Showa movies had in some meaningful way been designed to function as prequels to DAM, but with the lack of significant continuity in the Showa series, the only real ordering factor I see as having any particular weight is the movie's place in the production history.
Wasn't there a scene in G vs. Gigan where there was some sort of scientific base on Monster Island? I think it was at the place where the film showed the kaiju that were living on the island.

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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

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mikelcho wrote:
eabaker wrote:When I'm marathoning, I always watch in production order. It might be different if the subsequent Showa movies had in some meaningful way been designed to function as prequels to DAM, but with the lack of significant continuity in the Showa series, the only real ordering factor I see as having any particular weight is the movie's place in the production history.
Wasn't there a scene in G vs. Gigan where there was some sort of scientific base on Monster Island? I think it was at the place where the film showed the kaiju that were living on the island.
The monsters of Monster Island montage comes when Kubota discusses the Children’s Committee’s plans to destroy Monster Island. Later in the film there’s an announcement about Godzilla and Angilas having “broken out” of Monster Island. Take that how you will.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by Crazy Jim Films »

eabaker wrote:When I'm marathoning, I always watch in production order. It might be different if the subsequent Showa movies had in some meaningful way been designed to function as prequels to DAM, but with the lack of significant continuity in the Showa series, the only real ordering factor I see as having any particular weight is the movie's place in the production history.
Yeah, the continuity has always been a little wonky. As a kid, I never was under the impression that Ghidorah had been definitively killed in DAM. The whole idea of a timeline never occurred to me either. Destroy clearly introduces Monster Island as a concept and the subsequent films very much feel like sequels in the sense that they keep that concept going.
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