A new restoration of Godzilla 1954, the monster classic that has spawned six decades of sequels, imitations, and remakes comes back to movie theaters – in an all new, restored version.
Godzilla was originally released in the United States in 1956 as Godzilla, King of the Monsters, an atrociously cut, dubbed and re-edited version that inserted American actor Raymond Burr into the action; only an hour was used of the original’s 98 minute running time. Raymond Burr does not appear in the original, uncut version – the restored 2014 version – which has an all-Japanese cast including Takashi Shimura, who the very same year appeared as leader of the Seven Samurai.
As directed by Ishir Honda, with special effects by the legendary Eiji Tsuburaya, Godzilla is much darker in tone than the dumbed-down U.S. release version, which entirely eliminated the original’s underlying theme: in the Japanese version, the monster is clearly a metaphor for the nuclear menace and the film itself a cry for world peace and disarmament. The American version also cut out all of the original’s astonishing Dr. Strangelove -like black humor.
The original Godzilla holds up as one of the greatest science fiction/monster films ever made, boasting still-impressive special effects, as the radiation-breathing prehistoric monster, awakened after millennia by Hydrogen Bomb testing – and impervious to repeated shelling by the Japanese army – wreaks destruction on Tokyo.
Godzilla became Toho Studio’s #1 box office hit of 1954 (its #2 that year was Seven Samurai) and was so popular worldwide that the company has since produced nearly 30 sequels and remakes; a statue near Toho headquarters in Tokyo pays tribute to their most valuable property.
