Talkback Thread #12: Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

[edgaguirus]

Gigan has a great design. It's unusual looking in some respects, but Gigan is a memorable foe.

[Tyrant_Lizard_King]

Which movies was each soundtrack in the film derived from? Can anyone give me a rundown?

Not many I don't think. A lot of the music comes from concerts and fairs and such. If you're not overly familiar with Ifukube's non kaiju work it impossible to know the score wasn't made for the film. I didn't know that until TK.

[LegendZilla]

Which movies was each soundtrack in the film derived from? Can anyone give me a rundown?

Not many I don't think. A lot of the music comes from concerts and fairs and such. If you're not overly familiar with Ifukube's non kaiju work it impossible to know the score wasn't made for the film. I didn't know that until TK.

I know some of it is derived from Expo '70.

[Space Hunter M]

Hey check this out:
http://godzillavsgigan.ytmnd.com/

[Rodan]

Hey check this out:
http://godzillavsgigan.ytmnd.com/

I'm amazed that "He was a thick as two short planks" never made it into a King Geedorah track. There's some rhythm in that delivery.

[eabaker]

Hey check this out:
http://godzillavsgigan.ytmnd.com/

I'm amazed that "He was a thick as two short planks" never made it into a King Geedorah track. There's some rhythm in that delivery.

Agreed. That would have fit perfectly.

And now I want to rush home and either listen to Take Me to Your Leader or watch the dub of Godzilla vs. Gigan.

[Dannybeane]

People who don't like this film are probably awful to be around.

[GodzillaFanatic2001]

I was reading about on OriginalTrilogy, and someone (SpacehunterM) mentions that the Sony DVD of Gigan "is also a complete synchronization disaster." I personally never noticed any errors, so I'm curious, what does he mean by that? Can someone explain?

[darthzilla99]

The scenes lifted from Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster are what take me out of the movie the most, but I still adore this film, so it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. To me, anyway. I should probably note that as a kid, those scenes didn't bother me, even though I could tell they were from GTTHM, so like ebaker pointed out, it works for it's intended age group. It's probably Nakano's 'grossest' use of stock footage in any of the Godzilla films he worked on, but it doesn't hamper my enjoyment of the overall experience.

Nakano would agree with you. In an interview with Steve Ryfle in the Japan's Favorite Monstar book, Nakano talks about how much he hated being forced to use stock footage and that he would try his best to make them 'new' scenes by flipping the footage, changing the tint to match it to night time as much as possible, ect... but he admitted theres only so much you can do.

Nakano was one of the humblest SPX directors Toho ever had. My only criticism of him was why he used Sinking of Japan stock footage explosions in Return of Godzilla when he had a huge budget for that movie (the chain reaction explosion of the cars is the scene mentioned in this case).

[Goji]

That stock footage was from Prophecies of Nostradamus, not Sinking of Japan, but I'll assume that was just a brain fart on your part.

I'm guessing that since that film had already been on a self imposed ban for the past 4 years, and was such a great sequence (and he didn't want it to be lost to the ages), that he choose to reuse it, but that's just speculation on my part. And here we are, 40 years later, and Toho still hasn't loosened up on the issue..but that's a discussion for another topic.

[edgaguirus]

It's a pity Toho was cutting the budgets for the G films, but they did a good job with they had. G vs Gigan is one of the more entertaining of the later Showa films.

[eabaker]

G vs Gigan is one of the more entertaining of the later Showa films things in the history of the known Universe.

Just had to make a slight adjustment there.

[edgaguirus]

I fully agree with you.

[Lord Krit]

Godzilla vs. Gigan is one of my favorites Showa films, along GvM and Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster.

[Living Corpse]

Rewatched this with a friend not too long ago, we both forgot somethings.

-I forgot how many Maser Cannons there was in this flick, King Ghidrah destroys like 10 or 11 of the things.

-He forgot how dark this film was. Keep in mind we had rewatched Godzilla vs Megalon before this so he forgot that it wasn't campy like Megalon and more oppressive.

[Godzillian]

If only Toho had given this film the budget it deserved. If they had a real budget like the early 60s films this would've been even more fantastic

[Living Corpse]

If only Toho had given this film the budget it deserved. If they had a real budget like the early 60s films this would've been even more fantastic

The fact we can see the potential of the film despite everything holding it back speaks volumes about the crew working on it and their talent.

[eabaker]

I don't know what you guys are talking about with this unrealized potential business. The movie is goddamn fantastic and special and wonderful just the way it is, like a warm shower on frosty day.

And, yes, it is a movie I first saw when I was about five years old, and I can't really divorce it from that context...

[Living Corpse]

Have I mentioned how much I love this movie's atmosphere? Unlike most of the alien invasion movies in the Godzilla franchise, this and TOMG actually feel like the world is at stake if Godzilla fails to repel the invasion.

[eabaker]

In a way, the bleakness of the tone, the sense of paranoia and oppression, and the way that the invaders' plot specifically centers around marketing to children all give it a sensibility similar to Halloween III.