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The original (best I can see) movie ripoff by 1950s japan. Black and White, and the monster is terrifying in a way that modern godzilla movies have forgotten to be.
({I can't tell if this movie ripped the plot off of reptilicus or vice versa, so maybe its an original).

Anyway, its worth seeing, as a movie made about something I think japan at that moment in time couldn't put into words and film very well yet, but needed to process. WW2 was a for real horrible war, with massive bombings of fragile and very flammable japanese traditional city centers from allied air command. The ring of fire tactics used so slightly at dresden or on berlin were widely and horribly used, and THAT was before the dropping of nukes. So sudden mass casualty fire situations with the entire city burning wasn't a science FICTION part of the japanese civilian experience, it was living memmory for even teenagers, when the original big monster was made.

The power godzilla had? Was of course heat breath, somehow triggered by atomic power in his back, but capable of devastating cities. I am fairly sure a lot of the footage used was among the more realistic (even though the flames were special effects) the AFTER effects of the attack were pretty dead on. Twisted rubble and ash where once a city was, and very believable crowds of panicky refugees being treated, etc etc. Godzilla isn't just the original tyranid nightmare on earth (and yesss, gaurdsmen attacking him with tanks and planes rolled a LOT of ones in this movie, blowing up the landscape in a wide circle about him while the 200 odd foot monstrosity slowly lumbered through waist deep water. It brought a tear ta me eye to see those boys' weapons hit again and again but have no effect, while the high pen anti-tank stuff blew up nearby bridges, houses, and innocent bodies of water. So VERY planetary defense force, especailly with the locals in mobs cheering them on. But I digress.)

Point is, gojira isn't just the thunder lizard made radioactive. He is the embodiement of the deep wounds to japan's city dwellers that WW2 created -- a sudden, horrific, momentary monstrosity that cannot be stopped by mere mortal means.

Ah, where are the space marines to autowin? Don't exist as such, but the bravery of the little tanks as they fire, then back up (obviously a line of tallarn leman russes) and watch their shells leaving glowing, but utterly harmless, spots on the angry monster? That's every damn game I ever played!

Anyway. I think its intersting to see it from the dual persective, especially with an idea towards this being a generational movie that probably processed a lot of trauma. Go watch it. gojira (aka godzilla) may sink a few ships, but the absolute terror he has is to set firewalls in motion with his breath, consuming life, structure, and leaving only dirt and ash and twisted metal.

As time goes on, I think that japan softened the pschology of the thing, when you look at later movies, it feels like a big scale version of the bloody power rangers, but this?

This was HORROR.

Anyway, that's my review of a tiny bit o geek culture.

Absolutely in agreement. I have the BFI version of the DVD and it's one bit of my collection that won't get ebayed. It's a peculiar thing when you're used to thinking of Godzilla as, like you say, scaled up Power Rangers. (Or a big scaly Marvel Superhero, 'verse' and all) In my opinion the only reimagining, over the decades, that comes close to the theme and feeling is Shin Godzilla.

Dukeofstuff wrote:
({I can't tell if this movie ripped the plot off of reptilicus or vice versa, so maybe its an original).

Reptilicus was 60s. It's ripping off The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms.

There is a line in reptilicus when the scientist is trying to explain its origin that is the same as the line in gojira when their scientist is doing his "show and tell" about why he thinks his creature is from a mesoform era in the distant past, about suspecting a chimera like creature halfway between forms evolved in the end of the jurrasic / distant past.

So its oddly quite similar in that sense, it may be the translator played liberties (I confess that's possible) after watching the other film, but I don''t think so in context. So the two movies have some real genetic material in common, I think.

Course, I have not seen the 20k league creature, that may in fact be the ursprung of both.

Um, what movie did gojira "rip off"? The beast from 20,000 fathoms? That wasn't the first movie with a dinosaur loose in a city, the original 'the lost world' did that in the silent movie days. King Kong had a giant monster loose in a city in the 30's. Godzilla had a monster causing massive destruction in a city on a huge scale unlike kong or beast. Hell, the biggest danger from the beast was the disease it carried. The actual damage it caused was fairly small, kong did even less. Godzilla turned the heart of tokyo into a sea of flames, as raymond burr put it in the american version. I don't think it's really fair to say godzilla ripped off any movies before it.

As to the horror, to me the scene of the mother holding her children and saying they were going to be with their father soon was the most horrific scene in the movie.

 Matt Swain wrote:
Um, what movie did gojira "rip off"? The beast from 20,000 fathoms?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla#Characteristics
https://monsterlegacy.net/2017/08/14/godzilla-1954
https://wikizilla.org/wiki/The_Beast_from_20,000_Fathoms#Influence_on_Godzilla

There may be more direct references than wiki articles, and 'rip-off' is a bit tongue-in-cheek here, but Godzilla would've been kinda different without the Rhedosaurus.

Wow, I thought i was up on my gozilla trivia but that was the first time i heard abort the "alligator people". I knew some of godzilla's skin was based on burn victims but never had heard that part.

While we're talking about the big G, anyone here like shin godzilla?