Katsumi Tezuka | Through the Shattered Lens

The year was 1976 and the flamboyant Italian producer, Dino de Laurentiis, was drumming up a lot of publicity for his remake of the monster classic, King Kong. In Italy, the journalist, screenwriter, and director Luigi Cozzi assumed that the King Kong remake would be a huge hit and decided to get in on the action himself. If Italian audiences loved a film about a big monkey, how about a film about a big radioactive lizard?

Cozzi’s original plan was to buy the distribution rights to Gojira but Toho Studios turned him down. They did, however, agree to allow Cozzi to distribute the American cut of Gojira, Godzilla, King of the Monsters. (That’s the version where Raymond Burr appears as American reporter Steve Martin and, through some clever editing tricks, appears to be interacting with the characters from the original Japanese version.)

Cozzi immediately ran into two huge problems when it came to distributing Godzilla, King of the Monsters. First off, the film was in black-and-white and most Italian theater owners refused to show black-and-white films. Cozzi’s solution was to “colorize” the film by putting translucent gel over the frame, resulting in random splotches of color that gave the entire film what could generously be called a radioactive glow. Secondly, the American cut was considered to be too short for theatrical distribution. Cozzi proceeded to re-cut the re-cut, adding in scenes of actual war footage and clips from other 50s monster movies. As a result Cozzi’s film opens not with Tokyo on fire but instead stock footage of Hiroshima before the bomb was dropped. Later, footage of actual victims of the bomb would he used as footage of victims of Godzilla.

Having re-cut the film, Cozzi then decided that the movie could use a synthesizer-heavy soundtrack, which was provided by Vince Tempera, Fabio Frizzi, and Franco Bixio.

The end result …. well, the end result is a mess but it’s a mess that fascinating for fans of Godzilla. The colorization creates an odd effect, in which the images are all familiar but still seem different, as if being viewed in a dream. Often times, the splashes of color are so harsh and random that it makes it difficult to actually see what’s happening in the scene. I had to look away a few times, due to the harshness brightness of some of the yellows. There are a few times — and by that, I mean a very few times –when the color effects oddly work. In those rare moments, Godzilla’s atomic nature seems to be radiating through the entire movie.

As for the “new footage,” it’s thoroughly tasteless to use actual footage from Hiroshima and Nagasaki but, at the same time, it also serves to remind the viewer of the national trauma that inspired the creation of Godzilla in the first place. The footage reminds the viewer of the horrors of war while also leaving viewers wondering they really should be watching it used in the way that it’s used in this movie. (For his part, Cozzi said he used actual war footage because modern audiences would expect more violence and destruction than was present in the original film. It’s reasonable to assume that any subtext was purely accidental.)

Finally, the soundtrack …. actually, I like this version’s score. It’s wonderfully ominous, especially at the start of the film.

Nicknamed Cozilla by Cozzi himself, 1977’s Godzilla is a bizarre experiment that doesn’t quite work but I would say it’s still one that should be seen by anyone who is interested in the history of either Godzilla or exploitation films in general. (And make no mistake, this version of Godzilla is definitely an exploitation film.) For years, the film was impossible to see outside of Italy. Now, of course, you can find a copy on just about every torrent site.

Previous Godzilla Reviews:

Godzilla Raids Again begins with a plane making an emergency landing on an island near Japan. Soon, another plane lands to help out the first plane. The two pilots, however, are immediately stunned by the sight of Godzilla battling an armored dinosaur with a spikey back. Rushing back to the Japan, the pilots learn that the armored dinosaur was an Ankylosaurus that has been named Anguirus. Anguirus and Godzilla are among the many prehistoric creatures who, having once been thought extinct, have been awakened and set free by nuclear testing. And though Godzilla and Angurius are first spotted fighting on an isolate island, there’s little doubt that they will soon make their way to Japan, where the population is still recovering from the previous Godzilla attack.

First released in Japan in 1955 and subsequently released in the United States in 1959, Godzilla Raids Again was the first sequel to Gojira and, in a nod to continuity that would become extremely rare as the series continued, it actually does provide an explanation as to how exactly Godzilla is still alive after being apparently dissolved at the end of the first film. It’s explained that there are actually several Godzillas. The one that previously attacked Tokyo was destroyed but now a second one is coming. Unfortunately, the man who destroyed the first Godzilla was killed in the process and apparently, he didn’t leave behind any notes explaining how he did what he did.

Once again, Japan is attacked by a giant monster. Once again, cites are in flames and innocent people are dying. The main difference is that, this time, Godzilla isn’t so much trying to destroy humanity as he just doesn’t even seem to realize that humanity is there. Godzilla is more concerned with fighting Angurius and he barely seems to notice the buildings that he’s destroying and the lives that he’s ending. If the first Godzilla film was about the lingering trauma of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Godzilla Raids Again is about being a small country caught in the middle of a conflict between two nuclear superpowers. Godzilla and Angurius are so obsessed with beating each other that they really don’t care about anyone who gets trampled underfoot. While Godzilla Raids Again is nowhere near as dark as the nightmarish first film, it’s still considerably more sober-minded than the Godzilla films that would immediately follow. Godzillla Raids Again may not be as powerful a film as the first one but it still has its moments. The film is at its best when it examines how ordinary citizens react to being pawns in the middle of a war between two super-powered monsters. Some people defy the orders to stay home and instead try to have a good time in what may be their final moments. Others cower in fear. Some turn to religion. Some turn to science. A group of criminals try to bust out of prison. In the end, it’s the brave citizens who are willing to risk and sacrifice their lives who ultimately save the world from Godzilla’s atomic fury.

When Godzilla Raids Again was released in the United States, it was in a heavily re-edited and poorly dubbed version. (The narrator is sure to mention that the United States is willing to help out Japan with its monster problem.) The film was retitled Gigantis and, throughout the Americanized version, Godzilla is referred to as being “Gigantis.” Apparently, the film’s distributor thought that audiences would stay away if they knew that this film was a sequel, despite the fact that Godzilla had been a hit with American audiences. Since Godzilla died at the end of the first film, the distributor felt that audiences would reject the idea of the character returning from the dead. Times certainly have changed.

Of course, Godzilla is forever.

Previous Godzilla Reviews: