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There are two types of monster movies, those that are made with
the sole purpose of entertaining the audience
(usually with intended comedy and camp), and those
that are done with effort, resulting on a rather
good movie, both for its entertainment value and
for its merits. The Return of Godzilla
is one of those movies. It picks up 9 years after
the end of the Showa Era. During those moments,
most of the monster movies, made its way into
the first category. They weren’t indeed
very elaborate, and there was an increasing mania
for the use of stock footage. A huge silence spent
between the last Godzilla film until the release
of a new one. This new film, brings back the dark
tone of the first movie, and serves as a sequel
only to the first film, rather than Terror
of Mechagodzilla (1975).
It all begins when a fishing boat
losses control on a storm in the ocean. Reporter
Goro Maki goes out to investigate and finds the
boat in question. Inside he encounters the rotting
remains of the crew, and a large sea louse that
attempts to eat him. But then he encounters the
sole survivor, Ken Okumura, who tells him about
some giant monster that attacked the boat. Enter
Professor Hayashida, the movie’s smart scientist.
He interrogates Okumura and shows him some pictures
from Godzilla’s first attack, and after
hearing his testimony, concludes a new Godzilla
has appeared; or it could be the first one. Apparently
it was hibernating on the underground caves from
Daikoku Island, but when the island’s volcano
erupted, the creature awoke. The Prime Minister
orders the press not to tell anyone about the
Big G’s return. But Maki meets Okumura’s
sister, who is quite worried about his brother’s
whereabouts, and he tells her about him. Meanwhile,
a Soviet submarine is mysteriously destroyed.
The USSR blames USA for the lost, and assembles
its forces to attack. But the Japanese government
finds out that Godzilla destroyed the submarine,
and announces it to the world. Godzilla later
appears at a nuclear power plant and sucks all
the energy from the reactor. Ken notices that
Godzilla followed some seagulls before leaving,
and Hayashida finds out that Godzilla’s
brain responds in a similar way that birds do.
And so he elaborates a plan, which implies luring
Godzilla into Mount Mihara by using the frequency
that the birds followed. At the same time the
government decides to use it’s newest weapon:
The Super-X, a sort of flying tank that is supposed
to resist Godzilla’s beams. Will the world
stand a chance against the King of the Monsters?
Godzilla
(1954) was an allegorical film, with an anti-war
message; present there in memorial for the nuclear
bombarding on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This film
has a strong message against the Cold War. This
is noted at certain part of the movie, in which
the US and Russian ambassadors attempt to convince
the Prime Minister to use their nuclear equipment
on Godzilla, believing he could be a threat to
USA and Russia. The Prime minister tells them
that if Godzilla threatened those countries, they
wouldn’t destroy their own people with nuclear
weapons. This type of analysis wasn’t seen
in any of the previous movies, and it’s
good to be able to relate the movie’s plot
with a crisis that had so much impact on the real
world.
Acting is a plus, although most
of the characters don’t seem to be useful.
Ken Tanaka, who plays Maki, is really a good actor;
but his role, that is supposed to be the protagonist,
isn’t really polished that way, and he doesn’t
do much of the important things on the movie.
Yosuke Natsuki, who played Shindo in Ghidorah,
the Three-Headed Monster (1964), plays
here Professor Hayashida. His role is well played,
and his performance is believable. Veteran Hiroshi
Koizumi also makes a return, as the geologist
that elaborates the Mount Mihara plan. While his
performance wasn’t bad, it’s still
not a worthwhile role for him.
The special effects were outstanding
for the time the movie was made. The miniature
work is detailed; the military equipment is realistic;
while they used real tanks in most scenes. The
Super-X is quite an elaborate machine, and the
miniature does look realistic. Photography helps
a lot in these cases. But the best is certainly
Godzilla’s new costume. It looks badass,
and it’s pretty well portrayed. His foot
is given four thumbs again, and his tail is larger.
For the close-ups, they used an animatronics head
that look a bit bizarre; although it does work
well in some scenes, like when he roars in Tokyo
Bay. The rotting corpses of the doomed fishing
boat crew look spooky. The sea louse is a bit
fake, but that doesn’t change the impact
of the scene. Godzilla’s beams and the explosions
were a vast improvement over the ones shown in
the Showa series. There is also some stock footage.
Toho decided to re-use the giant highway explosion
from Prophecies
of Nostradamus (1974). I haven’t
seen the said film, but I can tell the scene works
well here, as it really shows the reach of Godzilla’s
power. In the same scene, Godzilla picks up an
elevated train, which looks much like the miniature
it is, and it does resemble noticeably the same
scene in the 1976 remake of King Kong,
where there is an exact same shot of the people
within the train tripping on the inside. But the
scene then has a very artistic shot of Godzilla
been reflected on a nearby building; that looked
phenomenal.
But as done many times, the film
received some “treatment” when released
at the United States. This time New World Pictures
was in charge of giving the American audiences
a re-edition. They deleted over 20 minutes of
footage from the original version, and reorganized
most of the remaining material. And as done many
times before, they added scenes with American
actors. Raymond Burr reprises his role as Steve
Martin, who was the main character in the raped
American version of the first film. Now, while
the pacing was slightly better here, the movie’s
serious tone, and its allegorical message were
affected by these changes. The American scenes
consist on Steve and a couple of untrained actors
in the Pentagon watching Godzilla on the screen
as he decimates Tokyo. These American characters
are pretty campy. They are a general, a mayor
and a colonel, that are constantly speaking nonsense
about Godzilla and drinking Dr. Pepper. Burr’s
character provides some faces and occasionally
funny lines that are supposed to be serious. He
even states “I was the only American who
survived that catastrophe”; I don’t
see how that’s relevant, considering he
probably was the only American in Japan at that
moment! And hell, they also made the Russians
look like the movie’s bad guys. This was
achieved on the scene where the Colonel attempts
to deactivate the missile-lunching device on a
boat that Godzilla attacks. He says “I’m
the only one who can do it, I must stop that missile”.
In the US version he instead says “I must
launch that missile”. And they add a shot
of his hand pressing the button, which replaces
the shot of him getting burned while trying to
shut down the satellite. Lots of dialogues were
changed as well. In the Japanese version, the
military explains they must contact Americans
to stop the missile because they are the only
ones with a compatible range to shoot another
missile, while on the US version they contact
them for no reason at all. And of course, a lot
of plot holes arose from the cuts: we don’t
get to understand how they found out it was Godzilla;
we don’t know the sea louse’s origin,
among others. And the ending was also treated
in a different way. Steve Martin gives a speech
about Godzilla being an offspring from Man’s
pride and carelessness. The speech isn’t
wrong, but it’s funny to see how the American
character was the only one smart enough to sort
that analysis.
Music is wonderful. Newcomer Reijiro
Koroku provides some pretty interesting and
occasionally bombastic dark themes, appropriate
for the movie’s tone. His first brings up
the very memorable main title, which has a sort
of chaotic feeling to it. During the movie’s
first 30 minutes, we are given a lot of suspense
cues, as the tension of Godzilla’s discovery
grows bigger. Then there is a march aimed at the
Japanese self-defense force, which has that bombastic
tone I mentioned above. It’s a really good
cue, and it fits those scenes well. And then when
Godzilla shows up, we get one of the best themes
in Godzilla’s history. It starts with an
ominous 4-note movement that then swings into
an ascendant string mixture, which ends on a high
note when we finally see Godzilla. As the movie
continues, some dramatic tunes are heard; mostly
to anticipate the movie’s ending. Then there
is the battle with Godzilla, which has the Super-X
theme. This Star Wars-like march seems a bit out
of place, perhaps for the contrast with the other
cues, but it has its utility. The music heard
at the end is tragic, yet hopeful on the last
10 seconds, maybe they wanted to give the viewer
the hint that the whole business wasn’t
over. Then there is the rolling credits song “Godzilla’s
Farewell”, a female vocal, surprisingly
sung in English. In the American version of the
film, music was altered, due to the changes in
the edition, but they also added some extra music.
This is basically a small compilation of stock
tracks from Christopher Young’s score for
Def-Con 4. These tracks help in some cases, and
damage in others. The submarine scene, although
cut beyond remorse; is actually improved in the
American version with an added suspense cue that
plays when the captain is checking the radar;
it really builds tension. But then when the military
operations begin, the Japanese army march is replaced
by some really dumb American army-oriented march.
And in the end credits, the song is replaced first
by an edited expert from Koroku’s music,
and then with a dull repeat of the said American
march, which ends pretty calmly and silently,
rather than with the full orchestra as heard in
the original version.
This is one of the best films on
Godzilla’s career, and I dare to say it
is one of the best films in the ‘80s. It
is a great pity that most people in the states
haven’t been able to see the full, uncut
version that really tops the movie they saw here
in 1985. Overall it is a good watching experience,
and a nice way to start Godzilla’s second
era.
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(4.5/5)