April 29, 1964: Godzilla, Mothra Clash for First Time
- By Tony Long
- April 29, 2011 |
- 7:00 am |
- Categories: 20th century, Culture, Tech Gone Bad
1964: Mothra vs. Godzilla makes its screen debut in Japan. Or was it Mothra Against Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Mothra or Godzilla vs. The Thing?
By whatever name you choose — and it went by all of them at one time or another — for those of us who grew up watching these entertaining romps, this is the quintessential Godzilla movie.
It had everything you could ask for: wonderfully cheesy special effects (acute halitosis never looked so good); great dubbing (in the English-language release, the talking went on after the Japanese actors had stopped moving their lips); a couple of hot Japanese twins (albeit a pair of faeries scarcely a foot tall); wanton, widespread destruction (Nagoya, rather than Tokyo, took the hit this time); and a monster to root for (the big moth).
The Godzilla-Mothra imbroglio wasn’t the first time these two had courted trouble.
Godzilla had already been around for a decade, rising from the sea in the 1954 film Godzilla to ravage the Japanese mainland following a hydrogen-bomb test gone awry. Godzilla evolved over the years, his dinosaur-like appearance always changing. But he never lost the atomic breath that, along with his sheer bulk, served as his main weapon of destruction.
As for Mothra, she (yes, Mothra was all woman) made her original cinematic bow in the 1961 flick bearing her name. Maybe because fictional lepidopteran Mothra originated in a novel before coming to the screen, she was more nuanced than her troglodytic antagonist. Unlike Godzilla, Mothra possessed an intellect, which she put to use in a series of films.
The plots for what are loosely called “Godzilla movies” follow the same simple formula: The monster — usually our man Godzilla — is awakened from its slumber, either by man’s folly (nuclear testing) or man’s greed (there always seems to be an evil capitalist lurking in the weeds, eager to exploit a lost culture or a slumbering monster). Fully awake now, the monster wreaks vengeance on the hapless Japanese, whose soldiery, never fully recovered from Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima, lies prostrate before the rampaging beast.
The soldiers do know how to die dramatically, though, which makes for some entertaining cinematic moments.
In the end, the movie’s alpha monster is finally overcome, either by a few plucky scientists who dream up some goofy formula that works, or by another hairy, scaly or wing-flapping opponent, who — for reasons never adequately explained — decides to temporarily ally itself with the perfidious two-legged mammals that stirred up this hornet’s nest in the first place.
Simple and repetitive as the story lines may be, the ‘64 film began a complicated relationship between Godzilla and Mothra, who, over the course of several movies, died and were reborn, were alternately vanquished and victorious, and lined up both as friend and foe. Their relationship with humanity was equally complex: Mothra could be punishing but was ultimately benevolent. Godzilla, usually the heavy, occasionally emerged as a kind of antihero, earning our sympathy in his role as avenging angel.
The Godzilla franchise was born in the Toho film studios in the 1950s but has been spun off so many times that it’s impossible to chronicle the monster’s lineage here. Suffice it to say, Godzilla has appeared on the screen — both large and small — in comic books, videogames, novels and myriad other places as a pop culture icon.
OK, so maybe Mothra vs. Godzilla wasn’t Kurosawa. But it was a fine way to kill a Saturday afternoon.
Source: Various
Photo: 1964’s Mothra vs. Godzilla is seen by many as the ultimate Godzilla movie. (Toho Kingdom)
This article first appeared on Wired.com April 29, 2008.
- April 7, 1933: King Kong Opens Wide
- Think Godzilla?s Scary? Meet His Lawyers
- New Godzilla Movie Will Reboot Franchise ? Again
- Complete Underwire coverage of monster movies
- Jan. 29, 1964: Duck and Cover
- March 13, 1964: No One Helps as Kitty Is Slain
- April 17, 1964: Ford Mustang Starts Galloping
- April 7, 1964: IBM Bets Big on System/360
- May 1, 1964: First Basic Program Runs
- June 19, 1964: Twilight Zone Fades Into Twilight Zone
- July 31, 1964: Ranger 7 Keeps Shooting Until the Very Last Second
- Dec. 11, 1964: Dr. King Warns About Science Without Morality
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind review The Shawshank Redemption review The Godfather review The Godfather: Part II review The Good, the Bad and the Ugly review
No comments:
Post a Comment