Godzilla
Short description
Ships begin sinking off the coast of Japan under mysterious circumstances, with only fragmentary distress calls describing bursts of fire from the sea. When villagers on Odo Island blame a legendary creature they call Godzilla, a team of scientists led by Dr. Kyohei Yamane travels there to investigate. They find a giant prehistoric reptile, radioactive and seemingly awakened by nuclear testing, which soon comes ashore and lays waste to Tokyo. As the military proves unable to stop it, the paleontologist's daughter Emiko and her fiancé, Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, confront the question of whether Serizawa's secret research should be used against the creature.
The film is directed by Ishirō Honda and written by Honda with Takeo Murata, produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka. It is the second of the twenty-five features Honda directed in chronological order, following The Man Who Came to Port and preceding Godzilla, King of the Monsters! The cast includes Akira Takarada, Momoko Kôchi, Akihiko Hirata and Takashi Shimura, with thirty-nine credited cast members and fifty-five credited crew. Made in Japan, it earned about 2 million dollars worldwide. It holds a rating of 7.6 on IMDb from 1,168 votes, and critics' reviews also average 7.6 on TMDB from 76 reviews, indicating broad approval from both audiences and critics.
What's left behind the scenes
- The name Gojira (Godzilla) is a combination of the Japanese words 'gorira' (gorilla) and 'kujira' (whale). A hybrid of a gorilla and a whale was also an early prototype of Godzilla, proposed by Tomoyuki Tanaka himself. But after Tanaka watched the American film 'The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms', he concluded that Godzilla should be a dinosaur. The old name of the monster, however, remained.
- The soldiers heading to the coast to fight Godzilla are real Japanese troops who happened to be conducting maneuvers during filming and were fortunately captured on camera.
- Simultaneous filming of 'Godzilla' and 'Seven Samurai' nearly bankrupted the Toho company.
- The original Japanese version of 'Godzilla' with English subtitles was officially released in the USA only half a century later – in 2004. In the same year, Godzilla received his well-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- Initially, Godzilla was going to be named Angirus. The idea didn't work out, but the creature Angirus appeared in the second film as Godzilla's rival.
- Godzilla's eyes and mouth in the first film were controlled using three cables run along his back. In the second film, separate batteries were built into the suit for this purpose, making it even heavier.
- Director Ishiro Honda himself appeared as the operator pulling the lever to electrocute Godzilla with 300,000 volts. And right before this scene, Haruo Nakajima himself can be seen in the room, who also appeared in the film as one of the reporters.
- The film was nominated for the Japanese Academy Prize for Best Film (the only time in the entire franchise's history), but lost to Akira Kurosawa's 'Seven Samurai.' However, it won in the category of Best Visual Effects.
- The power transmission towers that Godzilla melted with his radioactive breath were made of wax and melted by shining spotlights on them and blowing hot air.
- Eiji Tsuburaya, responsible for the special effects, originally envisioned Godzilla as a giant octopus. This octopus, named Oodako, was created and even appeared in some films later on. Another early version of Godzilla was a creature with a mushroom-shaped head.
- The first Godzilla suit weighed 91 kilograms, which caused significant discomfort for the stuntman (Haruo Nakajima) while moving. Haruo could only walk about ten meters in it, after which it became impossible to stay inside Godzilla due to the weight and heat. Subsequently, the suits were made somewhat lighter.
- Stop-motion animation of a Godzilla model (as in the old American 'King Kong') was rejected due to its cost. Moreover, Eiji Tsuburaya stated that at that time there simply weren't any masters in this field of animation in Japan.
- To create Godzilla's roar, film composer Akira Ifukube ran a thick leather glove along the strings of a double bass, and then a reverberation effect was added to the recorded sound. Godzilla's footsteps were created by hitting an iron cauldron with a rope.
- The first two ships destroyed by Godzilla were named 'Eiko-Maru' and 'Bingo-Maru'.
- Originally, it was planned that when Godzilla first appeared on screen, he would hold a bloodied cow in his mouth. The scene was filmed, but Ishiro Honda disliked it and reshot the scene without the cow.
- The idea for a film about a radioactive monster came to producer Tomoyuki Tanaka after he was forbidden from filming a project based on the real-life story of Japanese fishermen aboard the “Lucky Dragon 5,” who were exposed to a serious dose of radiation in the area of American nuclear tests. Meanwhile, the beginning of “Godzilla” is a direct reference to this story.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
