Godzilla (1954 – Criterion UHD Edition)

Director: Ishirô Honda
Screenplay: Takeo Murata, Ishirô Honda
Story by: Shigeru Kayama
Starring: Akira Takarada, Momoko Kôchi, Akihiko Hirata, Takashi Shimura
Country: Japan
Running Time: 96 min
Year: 1954
BBFC Certificate: PG

2024 marks the 70th anniversary of what must be one of the most recognizable Kaiju in cinema history – Godzilla! Criterion are commemorating the occasion with a 4K release of the original 1954 classic, complete with a brand new essay, separating it on their label from the mammoth Showa Era box set (reviewed way back in 2019 by David here https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2019/11/godzilla-the-showa-era-films-1954-1975-criterion/)

This was the first time I’d seen the original, unaltered Japanese cut of Godzilla, having only previously watched the 1956 American recut, Godzilla, King of the Monsters, a film which strips out many of the postwar themes of the Japanese story and replaces them with awkward new footage starring Raymond “Perry Mason” Burr. What’s striking about the experience of watching the 1954 Godzilla in 2024 is how easy it is to underestimate just what an impact that big nuclear lizard has had on pop culture over the last seventy decades. From the intro sequence to the theme music that will be instantly recognisable to fans, there are also story beats which have been imitated countless times but were first used here.

It’s also a remarkably lean film at 96 minutes, hopping straight into the action and delivering an incredibly captivating story that’s less about a big lizard trashing Tokyo than it is about human survival in disaster and in the wake of tragedy. As silly as the later Toho films got, it’s these themes that defined the idea of Godzilla and it’s noticeably what the better, later films in the multiple Godzilla franchises have aspired to, from Gareth Edwards 2014 Godzilla to 2023’s superb Godzilla Minus One. As with these better films it is at pains to underscore how humanity’s hubris is to blame for its downfall and has a great focus on the societal and generational differences in response to the threat Godzilla poses while also blending in family drama and an exploration on the ethics of the use of weapons to fight the beast – something that ties very strongly into its narrative as a post World War II reflection on nuclear warfare.

As good as the more human side of the narrative is, though, viewers are here to see the big guy on the poster and it’s easy to forget how well the effects of the time were used to bring him to life. Some of the work we see here may seem primitive to modern audiences, but the mixture of puppets and suits, shot with miniatures and composited crowd footage still manage to create a convincing image of a giant reptile on a rampage. Godzilla here isn’t the zany creature he becomes in the more family friendly films of his original Showa era run, instead lumbering along, decimating all in his path with his sheer size and heat ray breath. There’s a genuine sense of terror in the attacks and, again tapping into the post Hiroshima and Nagasaki anxieties of Japan, a sense of despair in the wake of them. The design of Godzilla in this film is also strikingly demonic, almost evil and certainly not the saviour of humanity he’s mostly presented as in subsequent films – this is a shadow of darkness falling across the land still scarred from the war, a presence that’s bringing repressed horrors bubbling back up to the surface. All of this is only emphasised by Akira Ifukube’s score which runs the gamut from bombastic, to melancholic, introducing leitmotifs that are carried through even into the modern day outings.

Criterions 4K release is an excellent opportunity to visit or revisit this massively influential film – it’s a story that still resonates today and its themes are so frequently explored in the later films of the series and even adjacent franchises that it feels both familiar yet also wholly original and still stands up superbly seventy years later. The 4K transfer is crisp and beautiful for the most part however the increased resolution does highlight some of the lower fidelity stock footage that is used in the film. While the Showa box set is still an excellent addition to any collection, this stand alone release of the original is hugely recommended for fans on a budget or for those who aren’t interested in any of the sillier films of the series.

Bonus Features

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• High-definition digital restoration of Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Terry Morse’s 1956 reworking of the original, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Audio commentary for both movies by film historian David Kalat
• Interviews with actors Akira Takarada and Haruo Nakajima and special effects technicians Yoshio Irie and Eizo Kaimai
• Interview with legendary Godzilla score composer Akira Ifukube
• Featurette detailing Godzilla’s photographic effects, introduced by special effects director Koichi Kawakita and special effects photographer Motoyoshi Tomioka
• Interview with Japanese-film critic Tadao Sato
• The Unluckiest Dragon, an illustrated audio essay featuring historian Greg Pflugfelder describing the tragic fate of the fishing vessel Daigo Fukuryu Maru, a real-life event that inspired Godzilla
• Trailers
• PLUS: An essay by critic J. Hoberman