May 3, 2004

Godzilla Returns!!!!!!!!!

Interesting story from SF Gate: bq. Exactly 150 years after Commodore Matthew Perry signed a trade treaty to open up Japan to the West, and 50 years after the Big Guy's first appearance on Tokyo theater screens, Japan's biggest cultural export finally gets his due in the United States with the release of the original "Godzilla" (known as "Gojira" in Japan). bq. It's a revelation. bq. We tend to think of "Godzilla" as a cheesy monster movie, thanks largely to heavy re-editing in the Burr version that dispensed with nearly 40 minutes of director Ishiro Honda's original vision... bq. But seeing the original version -- produced by a culture with still-fresh memories of atom bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and a feeling of being caught in the middle of Cold War paranoia between the United States and the Soviet Union -- it's clear that it's time for a major reappraisal. "Godzilla" is one of the great anti-nuclear films, made by a onetime prisoner of war and documentary filmmaker, with an original vision as well-imagined and chilling as "Dr. Strangelove." Very cool... Always been a fan of the big guy -- it will be neat to see the directors original vision. Posted by DaveH at May 3, 2004 9:04 AM