Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

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LSD Jellyfish
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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

To reply to an earlier comment:

Yes, Godzilla vs Gigan and Godzilla vs Megalon have stock footage, but they still have tons of new footage. Yes we know Megalon isn’t really hiding in the bushes, but it’s actually easier to distract yourself then seeing Godzilla fight the giant condor again, and you still get tons of awesome footage of Megalon destroying the dam, and the big fight. Gigan’s destructiob scene is impressive etc...

GRA on the other hand is literally Minya and the kid commentating over past fights, which by the way are some of the lamest in the series. Both Gigan and Megalon also have more interesting plots, and while there’s stock footage it’s set in a new frame work.
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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

Post by Godzillian »

Not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. Considering the movie is about a kid who likes Godzilla films, the stock footage isn't so bad especially with how films later in the Showa series use it so shamelessly and clumsily.
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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

Post by KaijuCanuck »

Question: does this movie have a kid who weirdly has a made-up gibberish monster name, or a monster who weirdly has a regular human name?
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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

Post by UltramanGoji »

KaijuCanuck wrote:Question: does this movie have a kid who weirdly has a made-up gibberish monster name, or a monster who weirdly has a regular human name?
Pretty sure it's indirectly implied that Ichiro names the monster after the kid.
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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

Post by KaijuCanuck »

UltramanGoji wrote:
KaijuCanuck wrote:Question: does this movie have a kid who weirdly has a made-up gibberish monster name, or a monster who weirdly has a regular human name?
Pretty sure it's indirectly implied that Ichiro names the monster after the kid.
That’s kinda funny when you think about it. It could be the equivalent in English of having a kaiju named ‘Frank’ or ‘Johnson’.
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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

Post by Terasawa »

"Gabara" is a nickname Ichiro gives his bully (I'm not sure we're ever told why), it's not a real name.
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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

Post by Zarm »

So it's basically the equivalent of a kaiju being named 'jerk-face' or 'fart-breath.'
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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

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Visually, audibly, and morally the most repugnant G film ever created. You don’t need to be a psychiatrist to see the flaws in this film’s message. This isn’t about standing up to the bully and rising above as the better man. It’s about out-punching him and leading his band of ne’er-do-wells as the new alpha ape. Immediately after kaiju Gabera gets whuped, Ichiro starts teasing him, and we see the exact same thing happen with human Gabera. Then Ichiro starts down the same path as Gabera, bullying a blue-collar worker and running away. Had the ending been scored with a more ominous and creepy soundtrack, this could’ve been interpreted as a profound work of self-criticism on Ishirō Honda’s part regarding how children can misinterpret media.

I get that this isn’t the message they were trying to tell. Ichiro isn’t supposed to be this bully. Unfortunately, the film accidentally portrays him as such. This is without a doubt the worst Godzilla movie, but it’s more entertaining than Godzilla Raids Again.

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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

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LockBite wrote: This is without a doubt the worst Godzilla movie, but it’s more entertaining than Godzilla Raids Again.
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How...uh.....
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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

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Maritonic wrote:
LockBite wrote: This is without a doubt the worst Godzilla movie, but it’s more entertaining than Godzilla Raids Again.
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How...uh.....
An inferior film can still be more entertaining. The so bad it’s good principle.

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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

Post by Maritonic »

LockBite wrote:
Maritonic wrote:
LockBite wrote: This is without a doubt the worst Godzilla movie, but it’s more entertaining than Godzilla Raids Again.
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How...uh.....
An inferior film can still be more entertaining. The so bad it’s good principle.
I guess I'll just never ever ever be able to understand this fandom's hatred for Godzilla Raids Again.
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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

Post by eabaker »

Ichiro does not lead the gang of children in bullying an adult at the end of the movie. The kids act out against a perceived authority figure (by - gasp! - honking a horn), which is pretty damned normal, healthy behavior.

People really seem to tie themselves in mental knots trying to analyze the ending of this movie and find some negative message in it, rather than just saying, "I didn't really care for it," and moving on.
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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

Post by Zarm »

I'm gonna have to agree with Lockbite analysis here. Part of it stems out of a socio/political disagreement on what's healthy for kids in the first place (isn't it funny that conservatives tend to endorse obeying authority yet want to limit the ability of government to become one, while liberals tend to endorse resisting authority, yet want to give the government more power to be one over them? I just realized that while thinking out this post. And then you have the eventual fear- abuse of power/authority becoming tyranny, and again, the way each side thinks they'll avoid it (recognition based on morality/resist it all just in case) is kind of opposite to their treatment of free speech (protect it all just in case/oppose or accept it based on morality)? It's funny the more interactions here make me think through political dichotomies, the more I see each political side applying absolutely opposite principles to two different things in their belief systems...)

...And that's a whole lotta words without getting to All monsters Attack. :)

...So a part of it is a disagreement on the point of acting out against authority being a positive benefit; but even outside of that, look at what the act contextually represents- the same behavior that Ichiro was bullied for refusing earlier. He has become their leader, yes- and he is leading them in exactly what he was taking a principled stand against earlier. (Caused by a different methodology, but with the intent of bringing about the same result). He has become exactly like what was hateful, was portrayed as negative, just because he's been accepted as one of them.

Add to that, of course, the analysis from my own review about the consequences and psychological/situational state of each family member by the film's end (father in debt and trying to escape the city, now forced deeper into the hole financially to make up for his son's misdeeds as he promises to make restitution for the vandalism, with the implication that this may become the new status quo; mother horribly traumatized and living in paralyzing fear for her son's safety and unable to do anything about it except silently try to cope, alone; and Ichiro capitulating to join the system of anarchy and mischief, not only representing a moral compromise, but also a situational deterioration and potential to cause even greater grief and stress for his already-overburdened parents).

At best, I can be generous and call this a major critique of inner-city life of the era; a way of saying 'This is hopeless, it traps families and corrupts and destroys them, it leaves its mark on everyone and is hopeless and there's no way out; this is no way to live.' Which would be a pretty subversive criticism to encode into a kid's film, but at least it would be a redeeming feature. As it is, I think all these things are an unintentional side-effect of poorly-thought-out writing, much like the tonally-jarring 'heroic WMDs' of the Millennium era. (Although I do suspect some of the visual/aural ugliness LockBite mentions is an intended critique of big-city life; the lyric in the opening song does talk about how "Life is hard for us also," so I think there's a definite element of 'life in the city kinda sucks'- just not to a degree of accounting for the unintentional despair and existential hopelessness layered onto the family's situation by the ending).

But I really don't think this is tying into knots, or even reaching- just a reading of what's presented onscreen. Perhaps one from a slightly-different viewpoint of child psychology, but not one that in any way requires reading into more than what's presented onscreen.
Last edited by Zarm on Fri Mar 23, 2018 12:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

Post by Ivo-goji »

^I can see how that ending would come off as problematic.

It's like Daniel winning the karate tournament only to run off and join Cobra Kai.
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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

Post by Zarm »

Ivo-goji wrote:
Maritonic wrote:
I guess I'll just never ever ever be able to understand this fandom's hatred for Godzilla Raids Again.
I know, right?
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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

Post by Terasawa »

I think the idea was supposed to be that Ichiro's bullies ended up respecting him for standing up for himself, but it's very awkward in the film. The paint can gag is also obviously there for one last bit of slapstick for the audience, but yeah, it makes Ichiro look like the bully.

I actually watched this last night and I was struck again by how good Honda's direction and staging in the climax is. Honda is kinda well known for avoiding violence in his films (unless you count monsters beating each other up), and the Ichiro/Gabara fight certainly follows that. (That would at least explain the odd still frame technique that's employed here.) But the climax in the abandoned warehouse has some shots that are actually startling for a Honda film, specifically when Sachio Sakai pulls a knife on Ichiro. Obviously he never ends up using it but the idea that he could makes it one of the most disturbing moments in any Honda fantasy film. The chase leading up to that moment is excellent as well, recalling the earlier shot of Gabara chasing Ichiro on Monster Island. I like the cuts back to sfx footage showing Ichiro defending himself using Minya's example.

I listened to Richard Pusateri's commentary track on the Classic Media DVD and I thought he had some good insights about Honda's direction too. Several times he notes a Kurosawa-esque transfer of action from narrative A to narrative B that just feel so natural that I'd never noticed them. For example, Ichiro sees a police car racing down the street. Cut to the interior of the car as the police deliver exposition about the robbers. Pusateri also mentions the recurring "down the hole" motif, from Ichiro on Monster Island to the robber falling through one in the warehouse.

So I don't think this is a stupid or incompetent film at all. On the contrary, I think it might be one of Honda's most artistic (at least in the drama, non-sfx, footage). It's just very unfortunate that Toho decided to build the monster set pieces around recycled footage. And the new monster stuff isn't a whole lot better either...
Last edited by Terasawa on Fri Mar 23, 2018 5:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

Post by GojiDog »

Does anybody else think the high pitched baby voice they gave Minilla in the original cut is actually more annoying than the Barney Rubble voice they gave him in the US cut?
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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

Post by Maritonic »

GojiDog wrote:Does anybody else think the high pitched baby voice they gave Minilla in the original cut is actually more annoying than the Barney Rubble voice they gave him in the US cut?
Annoying, maybe. Awkward and embarrassing as all hell? No. I prefer it any day.
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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

Post by ThunderScore »

I thought he sounded more like Quick Draw McGraw...

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Re: Talkback Thread #10: All Monsters Attack (1969)

Post by GojiDog »

ThunderScore wrote:I thought he sounded more like Quick Draw McGraw...

Fair.

Oh God, now I'm picturing Minilla running around Ka'bong-ing Gabara with a guitar.
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