Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy Vie Wilson.
Speaker 1: This is one of those shows where we have housekeeping
Speaker 1: before we get to the actual talkie talk parts. Just
Speaker 1: a little bit, not too much. Yeah. Um So, first,
Speaker 1: I want to mention that we have a live show
Speaker 1: coming up at Midwestern Roots. Were actually part of the
Speaker 1: pre programming that kicks it off. That is happening on
Speaker 1: July sevent in Indianapolis, Indiana. You can get more info
Speaker 1: and a link to tickets by going to the live
Speaker 1: shows tab on our website, which is missed in history
Speaker 1: dot com. It's right there at the top of the menu.
Speaker 1: It's easy to find, and soon there will hopefully be
Speaker 1: uh some more live shows listed there. We're getting some
Speaker 1: logistics worked out. Yeah, we have some things that are
Speaker 1: definitely in the works that are planned for also in
Speaker 1: the summer and then in the more tentative stages in
Speaker 1: the fall. Yeah. Um Second, this episode is sponsored by
Speaker 1: the upcoming film Godzilla, King of the Monsters. Uh So,
Speaker 1: the folks behind that film came to us and asked
Speaker 1: if we would be interested in doing an episode related
Speaker 1: to the franchise. We said, yep, I love Godzilla, so
Speaker 1: that was an easy one. UM. And then we worked
Speaker 1: with them and kicked around some ideas for show topics,
Speaker 1: and that kind of landed at Godzilla's history. UM and
Speaker 1: I first met Godzilla on Saturday Afternoon TV, which I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people my age did when I
Speaker 1: saw the nineteen s movie Godzilla, King of the Monsters.
Speaker 1: Very different film, uh, starring Raymond Burr, but really, let's
Speaker 1: face it, the stars Godzilla and I loved that movie,
Speaker 1: but I really did not realize until I was older
Speaker 1: that that was a re edit of the film that
Speaker 1: had originally been released in Japan. I think that's a
Speaker 1: pretty common experience for most people, Like I said, around
Speaker 1: my age, uh, that we saw that version and we
Speaker 1: didn't know until much later that it was really a
Speaker 1: different film that had been repackaged for the US. And
Speaker 1: so as I started to research this episode and I
Speaker 1: revisited both that Raymond Burr version and the original, I
Speaker 1: really realized that the beginning of Godzilla's history is pretty
Speaker 1: rich on its own. So that becomes the primary focus
Speaker 1: of this episode. Um. And that is also in part
Speaker 1: because the Godzilla franchise is massive. We could do a
Speaker 1: dozen episodes on just that and never run out of material,
Speaker 1: which a lot um And also we, in full disclosure,
Speaker 1: have gotten to see the movie already, so I would
Speaker 1: encourage everyone if you were into history and into Godzilla,
Speaker 1: it's worth going back to those early films because you
Speaker 1: realize how much this new film is very much a
Speaker 1: love letter to them, and it's very rooted in the
Speaker 1: origins of of Godzilla's story. Um, and it's very fun.
Speaker 1: We had a lovely talk as well with the director,
Speaker 1: Michael Doherty, and he is very into the history of
Speaker 1: Godzilla and into Godzilla's place in a sort of alternate
Speaker 1: world history and and how that plays out, which adds
Speaker 1: a nice layer for our history loving friends out there
Speaker 1: in the audience. UM. So today to let you know
Speaker 1: what you're in for, we're going to talk first about
Speaker 1: the events that led up to that first film, and
Speaker 1: then what it took to turn it from an idea
Speaker 1: into a reality, and then how that film made its
Speaker 1: way across the Pacific to U S audiences and ultimately
Speaker 1: became the massive juggernaut franchise that it is today. It's
Speaker 1: a phenomenon. Indeed, Godzilla is of course the most famous
Speaker 1: of all the kaiju, and the word Kaiju is usually
Speaker 1: generally translated from Japanese into English along the lines of
Speaker 1: strange beast. And we've talked before about giant monster movies
Speaker 1: that aren't Japanese in their origin. Most recently when we
Speaker 1: need our stop motion animation episode, we talked about how
Speaker 1: Willis O'Brien brought the giant Guerrilla to life on screen
Speaker 1: when he was effects supervisor on the N three King Kong,
Speaker 1: and we also mentioned how Ray Harry howsm you stop
Speaker 1: motion to create the monster in the nineteen fifty three
Speaker 1: picture The Beast from twenty thousand Fathoms, and the nineteen
Speaker 1: thirties three King Kong that we just referenced had also
Speaker 1: been re released in Japan in nineteen fifty two to
Speaker 1: great popularity, and it really stirred up fresh interest in
Speaker 1: movie goers for big monsters on the big screen. And
Speaker 1: then the following year that other movie we just referenced
Speaker 1: from the US, also featuring a big monster, really captured
Speaker 1: the attention of Japanese audiences. In the Beast from twenty
Speaker 1: thousand fathoms, which was distributed by Warner Brothers in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty three. A dinosaur is awakened from its slumber under
Speaker 1: the Arctic ice, and it's awakened by nuclear testing, and
Speaker 1: this dinosaur, known as the Ritasaurus, moves south along the
Speaker 1: east coast of the North American continent and eventually reeks
Speaker 1: havoc on Manhattan. This film culminates in a battle between
Speaker 1: the dinosaur and the US military at Coney Island, where
Speaker 1: he finally defeated. Yeah, there's some great footage of you know,
Speaker 1: this dinosaur in the midst of roller coasters and stuff,
Speaker 1: which is a pretty fabulous visual. And Harry Housing's Beast
Speaker 1: and the story of mayhem that unfolded around its awakening
Speaker 1: from the ice got the attention of Japanese producer Tomoyuki Tanaka,
Speaker 1: who had been working for the Toho Studios company since
Speaker 1: nineteen forty. He did have a brief break in his
Speaker 1: tenure with the company in the forties, and when Tanaka
Speaker 1: saw the Beast from twenty thousand fathoms, the occupation of
Speaker 1: post World War to Japan by US military, which lasted
Speaker 1: from to nineteen fifty two, had only just ended, so
Speaker 1: there was this new level of opportunity to tell stories
Speaker 1: that would really not have been possible or not cool
Speaker 1: to tell just the year before. During that occupation, In
Speaker 1: addition to Kong's renewed popularity in Japan and the story
Speaker 1: of Warner Brothers Rita Saus, another event took place that
Speaker 1: impacted the mindset of the Japanese public and Godzilla's creators.
Speaker 1: On March first, nineteen fifty four, a nuclear weapons test
Speaker 1: was performed at the Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific.
Speaker 1: So nuclear testing at the Bikini at all was not
Speaker 1: a new thing. That spot had been used by the
Speaker 1: United States as a test site since nineteen and the
Speaker 1: history of that testing and how the island population was
Speaker 1: treated UH could and hopefully will be its own episode eventually.
Speaker 1: It's not a super fun story, but it's important. UM.
Speaker 1: But on that morning in nineteen fifty four, a Japanese
Speaker 1: fishing boat its name translates to Lucky Dragon number five
Speaker 1: was close enough to the test that the boat and
Speaker 1: its entire crew of twenty three men were contaminated by
Speaker 1: nuclear fallout. UH. There are additional details around that which
Speaker 1: also would be great in another episode about why they
Speaker 1: were close and some um inaccurate estimates of how powerful
Speaker 1: that test was going to be. UM but when the
Speaker 1: men were examined, it was determined that they all had
Speaker 1: acute radiations syndrome and their catch they were fishermen, after all,
Speaker 1: which had already been sent to market by the time
Speaker 1: the severity of the situation was realized was recalled, though
Speaker 1: it is believed that some of those fish were sold
Speaker 1: and presumably were eaten. Yeah. I think we talked some
Speaker 1: about this incident in our our episodes about the thousand
Speaker 1: Cranes for our thousandth episode. Yes, the Lucky Dragon incident
Speaker 1: was a reminder that almost a decade after the war,
Speaker 1: nuclear weaponry was still a very real threat, even in
Speaker 1: times of peace. That reminder really resonated with producer Tamoyuki Tanaka,
Speaker 1: and he pitched a film to his boss at Toho
Speaker 1: inspired by the incident and borrowing from Harry Housen's dinosaur feature.
Speaker 1: This proposed film would be called The Beast from twenty
Speaker 1: Thousand Miles under the Sea. The giant monster genre was
Speaker 1: still seen as really the domain of United States cinema,
Speaker 1: but Tanaka was given the green light to move ahead
Speaker 1: with this idea. Yeah, that was apparently a very tentative
Speaker 1: green light, like I don't know, but okay a um.
Speaker 1: And as an aside, we should mention before we get
Speaker 1: into Toho's giant and now famous Lizard, that there was
Speaker 1: also a Japanese silent film that had been made that
Speaker 1: was inspired by King Kong and that came out in
Speaker 1: Night titled King Kong Appears in Edo so Gojira that
Speaker 1: we're about to talk about was not the first time
Speaker 1: Japanese filmmakers were inspired by American monster cinema to create
Speaker 1: their own version, but in the case of the Japanese Kong,
Speaker 1: that film is lost and there's still some questions about it.
Speaker 1: Film historians will sometimes point to this two part film
Speaker 1: as the beginning of Japan's giant monster film genre, but
Speaker 1: there is ongoing debate about exactly how giant this monster
Speaker 1: was uh and the size of the guerrilla involved. There
Speaker 1: are some people who believe he was actually a giant
Speaker 1: monster in terms of scale in the film, but others
Speaker 1: suggest that it was actually kind of just a regular
Speaker 1: guerrilla that was largish in size. It would not really
Speaker 1: qualify as a kaiju of any kind. It's a little
Speaker 1: early for a sponsor break, but we are going to
Speaker 1: stick one here so that we can keep the next
Speaker 1: chunk of the story together. It all goes into lots
Speaker 1: of detail about how to hoose big monster film was made.
Speaker 1: You want to keep all that stuff in the same segment.
Speaker 1: Once Tanaka had his monster movie project approved, he put
Speaker 1: together the team that would develop it and get it
Speaker 1: to the big screen. And Tanaka had already produced a
Speaker 1: film with director issue to Honda in nineteen fifty two,
Speaker 1: called The Man Who Came to Port and he turned
Speaker 1: to Honda again for his Monster film. Honda had directed
Speaker 1: dramas and war films for Toho already, including n Eagle
Speaker 1: of the Pacific, which was a box office success and
Speaker 1: that featured the first collaboration between Honda and special effects
Speaker 1: director A. G. Subaraya, who was also brought onto Tanaka's
Speaker 1: Monster film. By the time Honda joined the project, the
Speaker 1: story had already been written by a writer named Shigeru Kayama.
Speaker 1: Kayama's script was handed over to Honda and to screenwriter
Speaker 1: to Kayo Marata to be finessed into an actual shooting script.
Speaker 1: Honda not only co wrote the film, he was also
Speaker 1: heavily involved in almost every aspect of it, and he
Speaker 1: was also a trusting collaborator. At the same time, when
Speaker 1: it came to super EA as effects, the special effects
Speaker 1: director was allowed to do his work without having to
Speaker 1: have Honda's supervision. Yeah, that would have been kind of
Speaker 1: unusual for an effects director to just kind of have
Speaker 1: his own free reign. But that was in part because Subarayah,
Speaker 1: who was a decade older than Honda, could be very willful.
Speaker 1: He kind of had a reputation for being a little
Speaker 1: bit hard to work with. He didn't like when his
Speaker 1: shots were edited when he had worked with other directors,
Speaker 1: and he had very very strong and clear ideas about
Speaker 1: how he wanted things done. But between him and a
Speaker 1: Shooto Honda, a very balanced professional relationship really blossomed. They
Speaker 1: trusted one another and as a consequence, each man really
Speaker 1: did his best work. They would visit each other's sets,
Speaker 1: but that more to see how logistics were playing out,
Speaker 1: so that when they each shot their own segments they
Speaker 1: would blend together as seamlessly as possible. It wasn't so
Speaker 1: much like I'm coming to supervise you as I'm coming
Speaker 1: to make sure our collaboration works. It's worth noting that
Speaker 1: making this film was considered very risky for a director
Speaker 1: like a shiro Honda. He was on track to build
Speaker 1: a serious career as a director, so to take on
Speaker 1: a film in a new genre, one that had the
Speaker 1: potential to turn out very silly when it was meant
Speaker 1: to be serious, was really putting his reputation on the line.
Speaker 1: I think this still happens today sometimes when somebody has
Speaker 1: a reputation as us very serious director, then they take
Speaker 1: on a project that might look kind of goofy. They
Speaker 1: committed to it entirely, though, and he expected everyone working
Speaker 1: on the film to have the same level of dedication.
Speaker 1: In an interview with his wife, Kimi, she described the
Speaker 1: first day of the shoot. Quote he told them, on
Speaker 1: the very first day, read the script. If you were
Speaker 1: not convinced, please let me know immediately and leave the project.
Speaker 1: I remember him saying the spear a firmly. He only
Speaker 1: wanted those who had the absolute confidence to work with
Speaker 1: him on this film. Both producer Tanaka and effects director
Speaker 1: super Yah were of the same mind. All three Ben
Speaker 1: had agreed that this film would only work if they
Speaker 1: took it on as a serious project, and initially Superya
Speaker 1: had some ideas that did not, in fact make its reproduction.
Speaker 1: He originally thought that the film's creature star should actually
Speaker 1: be a massive octopus, but producer Tanaka put his foot
Speaker 1: down on the idea that it had to be more
Speaker 1: like a dinosaur, and the effects director also initially pitched
Speaker 1: stop motion to bring that monster to life, but with
Speaker 1: only six months to make the film from pre production
Speaker 1: to completion, that was not going to work. We talked
Speaker 1: in our stop motion episode that like even today, with
Speaker 1: the most advanced technology and people who really really know
Speaker 1: what they're doing, you only get a few seconds a day.
Speaker 1: So for people that were learning it, it was never
Speaker 1: gonna happen in any kind of realistic timeline, and that's
Speaker 1: how what came to be known as suit Nation was born.
Speaker 1: Suberia hired Tiso Toshimatsu and his team to create a
Speaker 1: full body rubber suit based on designs by Akira Wantonabe,
Speaker 1: who was the film's production designer. Cloth, wire, and Latex
Speaker 1: were all part of this beast that borrowed design elements
Speaker 1: from an iguadadan, a stegasaurus, a tyrannosaurus, and an alligator
Speaker 1: into a form that a human man could wiggle into
Speaker 1: Sabrinko Jira to life, and that human man was stunt actor.
Speaker 1: How to own Nakajima, who would go on to play
Speaker 1: Godzilla for almost two decades, And that was no small feat.
Speaker 1: This suit weighed an estimated that's two hundred pounds, and
Speaker 1: he could only walk limited distances in it at any
Speaker 1: given time because it was so taxing on his body.
Speaker 1: He passed out on several occasions while working in the suit.
Speaker 1: He nearly drowned while filming one of the water scenes.
Speaker 1: Uh this was not an easy task, and since the
Speaker 1: creature would make use of a human in a suit,
Speaker 1: that also meant that many recreate sations of locations around
Speaker 1: Japan had to be created for the sets since the
Speaker 1: monster was supposed to tower over them. While working on
Speaker 1: this film, Superiah was completely protective of the monster's image.
Speaker 1: Even cast members weren't allowed to see the Coajia costume.
Speaker 1: The concern was that if they saw the costume on
Speaker 1: its own without all the movie magic involved, they might
Speaker 1: think it was silly, and then that would sour the
Speaker 1: whole production, and Nakajima was basically creating a whole new
Speaker 1: style of performance. No one knew what to tell him
Speaker 1: in terms of direction, because using a suit like the
Speaker 1: one in film had really never been done before. He
Speaker 1: studied animal movements and prepared for the strength and endurance
Speaker 1: that being in this suit required, but ultimately the suit
Speaker 1: and its limitations governed the performance and how he moved.
Speaker 1: He didn't have full range of motions. It's like you
Speaker 1: can prepare all you want, but when you get in
Speaker 1: the suit, maybe your arm only moves a little. When
Speaker 1: we spoke with the director of the new film, he
Speaker 1: mentioned that he had gotten to try on the top
Speaker 1: half off of one of the newer suits that have
Speaker 1: been made by Toho, and even that in the more
Speaker 1: modern era was excruciating. So imagining this two hundred pound
Speaker 1: suit and wearing it around seems like um an active
Speaker 1: athleticism that's hard to comprehend for us mere mortals. One
Speaker 1: element of production that has remained something of a history
Speaker 1: mystery is exactly where the name Gojira came from. And
Speaker 1: there is one tale which has absolutely no substantiation, that
Speaker 1: the name originated as a nickname for one of the
Speaker 1: Toho Studios employees who was portly, and that it was
Speaker 1: a portmanteau of the Japanese words for Guerrilla and Whale,
Speaker 1: but again, there is no evidence that anyone has found
Speaker 1: to back that up. Even people who worked on the
Speaker 1: production are like, I don't I don't know what's time about.
Speaker 1: Uh So it remains an element of film more people
Speaker 1: like to tell the story, but there's there's no uh
Speaker 1: no evidence for him. It is also possible that story
Speaker 1: writer Shigeru Kayama came up with the name pretty early on.
Speaker 1: There have been some hints that he actually mentions that
Speaker 1: name in his diary, but that is also not entirely clear.
Speaker 1: The bottom line is we don't know the origination of
Speaker 1: the name. Really. A groundbreaking aspect of Honda's film is
Speaker 1: the use of actors and scenes where they couldn't see
Speaker 1: what they were acting against. Today, it's commonplace for actors
Speaker 1: to have this challenge of working within digital effects and
Speaker 1: meaning to emote and react as a character to things
Speaker 1: they just can't see, But for the Japanese actors on
Speaker 1: Honda's set, this was a totally new concept. Actor Akira
Speaker 1: Takata later described the experience from the performer's point of
Speaker 1: view as being like children needing to constantly ask what
Speaker 1: they were doing. Honda was always patient and kind and
Speaker 1: explained everything to them, especially the younger, more inexperienced actors.
Speaker 1: He knew that the performances had to be as serious
Speaker 1: and real as possible to carry this film. As with
Speaker 1: any film in the sound era, the music and sound
Speaker 1: design play a vital role in bringing Godja to life.
Speaker 1: For one, studio heads were concerned that the film and
Speaker 1: its monster still looked too silly despite all of the
Speaker 1: camera and effects work, until they saw it with a
Speaker 1: Kida if Ukube score. It's a score that he wrote
Speaker 1: actually without benefit of seeing the film initially, although he
Speaker 1: did at the very end get to kind of tighten
Speaker 1: it up and make some adjustments to make it match.
Speaker 1: And if Akube is also credited with creating some of
Speaker 1: the most important things that you hear in the film
Speaker 1: and that you can probably conjure in your mind, uh
Speaker 1: the monster's unique screech and its footfalls. The vocalizations of
Speaker 1: Honda's star creature, which are now iconic, were created by
Speaker 1: dragging a leather glove across the strings of a purposely
Speaker 1: detuned contrabass, and the footsteps, which are almost a character
Speaker 1: on their own, were the results of the composer thumping
Speaker 1: an amplifier. While the production had a timeline of six months,
Speaker 1: only two of them were spent actually shooting, and a
Speaker 1: schedule that would seem unthinkable by today's film standards. The
Speaker 1: script was finished on June tenth. The design and other
Speaker 1: pre production started immediately after that. Photography started in August
Speaker 1: of that was finished in October, and then the film
Speaker 1: was released in theaters on November three. That blows my
Speaker 1: mind every time I think through and I'm like, Holy Moses.
Speaker 1: The location shoots that they had to do were incredibly challenging.
Speaker 1: They were filming in the summer heat, and that meant
Speaker 1: that actors were often running from the monster in already
Speaker 1: grueling temperatures. Adding all that physical exertion caused a lot
Speaker 1: of heat exhaustion on set. It almost became an issue
Speaker 1: where like they had to manage potential heat exhaustion as
Speaker 1: much as any other aspect of production. Coming up, we
Speaker 1: will talk about the film's life once it was released
Speaker 1: into cinemas, but first we will pause and take a
Speaker 1: quick sponsor break. Once the film was released, it was
Speaker 1: a huge hit with audiences. There were critics, however, who
Speaker 1: felt that using the very real tragedies in Japan's recent
Speaker 1: history to drive a monster movie was in poor taste,
Speaker 1: even if the message of that movie was ultimately uh
Speaker 1: one of being careful about how we tamper with nature.
Speaker 1: But despite those concerns raised in some reviews, the movie
Speaker 1: was an undeniable blockbuster. It was Japan's highest grossing film
Speaker 1: of nine Soho had been really smart about marketing for
Speaker 1: the film, knowing that warming the audience up to what
Speaker 1: could be taken as an absurd premise was going to
Speaker 1: be vital to its acceptance. Throughout the shoot, press had
Speaker 1: been invited to visit the sets where Honda was shooting,
Speaker 1: though all the creature work that Superiah was shooting at
Speaker 1: the same time was not open to the journalists. Promotional
Speaker 1: photos were released to the press that the public could
Speaker 1: see what Toho was cooking up in this new film.
Speaker 1: There was a lead up radio play that unfolded in
Speaker 1: eleven episodes. It actually started running before principal photography began,
Speaker 1: and all of this made the idea of a serious
Speaker 1: film starring a fifty foot tall creature an event that
Speaker 1: was being greeted with a lot of anticipation. In some ways,
Speaker 1: the audience was won over way before any projected image
Speaker 1: hit a screen in a public movie theater. Obviously, this
Speaker 1: is similar to how movie marketing works today. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: how everyone does it. Many people have their minds made
Speaker 1: up a lot of times before they get into the
Speaker 1: theater because they've seen all of these stills and heard
Speaker 1: stories leading up to it. Yeah, it's fascinating when you
Speaker 1: think about, like how Entertainment Weekly like they will have
Speaker 1: a big splash cover article about like an upcoming film
Speaker 1: and talking all about it. I'm like, this is all
Speaker 1: kind of rooted back and the things they were doing
Speaker 1: for Godzilla. So when we think of old school giant
Speaker 1: monster movies today, probably a lot of people think of
Speaker 1: them as sort of campy or silly, and that reputation
Speaker 1: does have a very real basis. In film history, there
Speaker 1: have been a lot of films made, both in the
Speaker 1: US and Japan and in other countries over time that
Speaker 1: featured monsters that look funny or they behaviorally comedically. But
Speaker 1: for Gaujira is a much more sober film. It is
Speaker 1: quite obviously rooted in the nuclear tragedies that Japan experienced
Speaker 1: in the years leading up to its production, and one
Speaker 1: scene early on testimony is being given about the unthinkable
Speaker 1: possibility that a giant creature has suddenly emerged from the
Speaker 1: sea and poses a danger to human life. The character
Speaker 1: doctor Yamene says, quote it was probably hidden away in
Speaker 1: a deep sea cave, providing for its own survival and
Speaker 1: perhaps for others like it. However, repeated underwater h bomb
Speaker 1: tests have completely destroyed its natural habitat. To put it simply,
Speaker 1: hydrogen bomb testing has driven it from its sanctuary. And
Speaker 1: later in that same scene, there is a very heated
Speaker 1: debate about whether to go public with the information that
Speaker 1: Gujita is a threat, and one of the issues that
Speaker 1: cited for withholding that information is the chaos that could
Speaker 1: be done politically, including damaging very delicate foreign relations. There
Speaker 1: is a very clear parallel being drawn to Japan's act
Speaker 1: ual relationship with its foreign colleagues outside the world of
Speaker 1: the film that was going on post World War Two.
Speaker 1: And in a scene immediately following, as the news is breaking,
Speaker 1: there's a young woman who's riding a street car and
Speaker 1: she remarks to another passenger, I barely escaped the atomic
Speaker 1: bomb in Nagasaki. And now this incidentally, all these quotes
Speaker 1: that we are reading are from the subtitles of the
Speaker 1: Criterion Collection edition of the film. Yeah, just in case
Speaker 1: anyone's wondering. Since it is in Japanese, uh Gajita is
Speaker 1: grim throughout. It does not pull any punches regarding the
Speaker 1: danger of nuclear testing. So after the creature attacks the
Speaker 1: city and his atomic breath covers entire city blocks, children
Speaker 1: are shown being tested for radiation and coming up positive.
Speaker 1: Children see their parents die. Even the scientist who invents
Speaker 1: the means by which humans can defeat their giant ancient foe,
Speaker 1: is conflicted about introducing such a serious weapon into the world,
Speaker 1: and the message of nuclear test, saying being a dangerous thing,
Speaker 1: is reiterated right to the end, even after they have
Speaker 1: defeated the creature. Good Zero was shipped to the United
Speaker 1: States and very limited distribution, and that's how producer Edmund
Speaker 1: Goldman saw it. He bought the distribution rights from Toho
Speaker 1: after this and then flipped them to Jewel Enterprises. The
Speaker 1: executives at Jewel, like Goldman, saw the potential of this film,
Speaker 1: but they felt that it needed some doctoring to truly
Speaker 1: capture American audiences, and it was at this stage that
Speaker 1: Gojira kind of morphed. At the suggestion of the Tohoe
Speaker 1: marketing department into Godzilla to make it easier for English
Speaker 1: speakers to approximate the name, and the film underwent a
Speaker 1: number of revisions to repackage it for US screens for
Speaker 1: a much wider distribution. About fifteen minutes of the film
Speaker 1: were cut to minimize concepts that would be difficult for
Speaker 1: US culture to grasp, like an arranged marriage that's part
Speaker 1: of the original film. There's also uh scenes that would
Speaker 1: have been uncomfortab bowl, like the villany of nuclear weapons
Speaker 1: which the US had recently used against Japan. And of course,
Speaker 1: the whole premise is based on nuclear testing as the
Speaker 1: catalyst for the movie's central conflict, so it could not
Speaker 1: be removed completely, but a lot of the very grim
Speaker 1: scenes which give Honda's original version so much gravity, were removed.
Speaker 1: There were also scenes that were added to the film
Speaker 1: in the US version, which starred Raymond Burr as a
Speaker 1: journalist named Steve Martin. Burr's segments were used to give
Speaker 1: a different perspective to the film and to tell the
Speaker 1: story as seen through the eyes of Burr's character, and
Speaker 1: the film, Burr was sent to report on incidents in Japan.
Speaker 1: This newly cut film was titled Godzilla King of the
Speaker 1: Monsters and released in US cinemas on April six, and,
Speaker 1: just as was the case in Japan, critics did not
Speaker 1: fall in love with the film, but that did not
Speaker 1: matter because audience is sure did. Godzilla was again an
Speaker 1: instant hit, and that recut version of the film ended
Speaker 1: up being distributed internationally, gaining new audiences wherever it opened.
Speaker 1: By the time Godzilla King of the Monsters had made
Speaker 1: its US debut, Japanese audiences were already watching the sequel
Speaker 1: to the original, which was called Godzilla Raids Again. That
Speaker 1: was directed by Moto Yoshi Oda, with A. G. Subariyah
Speaker 1: once again serving as the effects director. And that was
Speaker 1: just the beginning. In the almost sixty five years since
Speaker 1: Gja first appeared in Japanese cinemas, almost three dozen films
Speaker 1: have been made featuring Godzilla, and in the Guinness Book
Speaker 1: of World Records named it the longest continually running film franchise.
Speaker 1: UH this film that's about to come out is the
Speaker 1: thirty five. They're already slated to work on follow ups
Speaker 1: to it, so it will hit three dozen very quickly,
Speaker 1: and the films have taken on some wildly different tones
Speaker 1: over the years, as Toho, which has continued to make
Speaker 1: all but three of the movies in the franchise's history,
Speaker 1: has shifted in its tone for the series and made
Speaker 1: a number of reboots over time and through different eras
Speaker 1: of production. Additional Kaiju have been added to the Godzilla lineup,
Speaker 1: and a lot of them started out in their own films,
Speaker 1: including Mathra and Rodent. There have been TV series, video games, toys,
Speaker 1: all kinds of merchandise picturing Godzilla as well. In two
Speaker 1: thousand four, which was the fiftieth anniversary of the Japanese
Speaker 1: version gujira uh, it was restored digitally by rialto pictures
Speaker 1: and released in theaters and on home video, And this
Speaker 1: was for a lot of fans the first time that
Speaker 1: they had ready access to the movie that started at
Speaker 1: all there. That was also sort of revelatory in um
Speaker 1: film circles because I think people had not realized how
Speaker 1: much had been cut from the original to make it
Speaker 1: more comfortable and palatable for American audiences. UM So it
Speaker 1: kind of that moment is really quite pivotal in film
Speaker 1: history where people realized, like, oh, you really did do
Speaker 1: some serious changing to this. The film Yeah, well, and
Speaker 1: I like certainly knew that the preponderance of big monster
Speaker 1: movies in the fifties was all out of ways a
Speaker 1: response to the nuclear tax on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and
Speaker 1: the threat of nuclear warfare and this idea of radiation
Speaker 1: causing giant creatures to exist and do terrible things. But
Speaker 1: I didn't really know until reading your outline how much
Speaker 1: the original Japanese Gajia was really like an anti war
Speaker 1: movie and it wasn't just about radiation made this thing
Speaker 1: it kind of an abstract level. Yeah, we talked about
Speaker 1: you know how. It kind of was inspired also by
Speaker 1: the American movie The Beast from twenty fathoms. One thing
Speaker 1: that's really interesting is that even though that Beast was
Speaker 1: awakened by nuclear testing like Ga was in the first one, Uh,
Speaker 1: it stayed. It just was awakened. It wasn't morphed, It
Speaker 1: did not take on any atomic powers the way Godzilla does.
Speaker 1: And it really kind of shifts the gear to be
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a film about not messing
Speaker 1: with nature, right, um, which I'm only lay thing because
Speaker 1: it it's it's always so strongly been that, and I'm
Speaker 1: realizing that it had its roots in some films from
Speaker 1: the US that didn't really take that part of it
Speaker 1: into account. Was kind of interesting. There was also am
Speaker 1: an interesting commentary that I read in one of the
Speaker 1: sources I was using for this one, where they made
Speaker 1: the point that the films, the creature films that came
Speaker 1: out of Japan often have that that much more um
Speaker 1: ecologically minded ideology, where they actually, even though they recognize
Speaker 1: they have to battle the creature to save humanity, there
Speaker 1: is a certain level of empathy for the creature and
Speaker 1: like understanding that we did this, whereas if you look
Speaker 1: at most of the US made films with creatures, none
Speaker 1: of that is in there. It's just like, there's a threat,
Speaker 1: we gotta kill it, and they don't really have that
Speaker 1: same that same level of sensitivity to like cause an
Speaker 1: effect in it, which is pretty interesting. I would want
Speaker 1: to do a bigger survey of of creature films from
Speaker 1: the era to really see how that plays out. But
Speaker 1: it made me think for her. Um. So yeah, and
Speaker 1: again thanks to uh to the new Godzilla, King of
Speaker 1: the Monsters into Michael Doherty for talking to us about it.
Speaker 1: He's so passionate about it, and like we said, he
Speaker 1: really knows a lot of Godzilla history on his own
Speaker 1: and can speak extemporaneously at length about it. UM. So
Speaker 1: it's cool that he is getting to uh to be
Speaker 1: a big part of this universe now and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: hopefully everyone will see and enjoy it. I had to say,
Speaker 1: that's the most beautiful Mathra has ever looked in my opinion. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just spectacularly beautiful. The film is absolutely beautiful, um
Speaker 1: in terms of just like cinematography and composition, it's really
Speaker 1: spectacular and in fact, as I mentioned at the top,
Speaker 1: hearkens back a lot to this original film UM, which
Speaker 1: is kind of a lovely homage in a way that
Speaker 1: still feels very new and fresh. I have completely unrelated
Speaker 1: listener mail because I came into the office today to
Speaker 1: find a very strange and delightful gift on my desk.
Speaker 1: It is tiny, but the full um it is from
Speaker 1: our listeners Sean, and he writes, Hello, Holly. Enclosed is
Speaker 1: a path tag for you. Path tags are small coins
Speaker 1: created by Geo Cashier's to leave in cash is as
Speaker 1: a sort of calling card. I had a bunch of
Speaker 1: these made up a few years ago. Thanks to you
Speaker 1: and Tracy for all of the podcasts. But what makes
Speaker 1: this very very cool is he has this teeny tiny
Speaker 1: coin that is made with my Hana mansioned boyfriend the
Speaker 1: hat Box Ghost on it, and it glows in the
Speaker 1: dark and there's a hidden mickey when it glows in
Speaker 1: the dark. I have not been able to get it
Speaker 1: into a dark room because I just opened it this
Speaker 1: morning and then we had to run into the studio.
Speaker 1: But it's adorable and I love it and I kind
Speaker 1: of want to make a necklace charm out of it.
Speaker 1: So thank you so much, Sean. What a cool thing,
Speaker 1: and it's really beautifully designed and I love it, so
Speaker 1: that is a deep treasure for me. If you would
Speaker 1: like to write to us, you can do so at
Speaker 1: History Podcast at how stofworks dot com. You can also
Speaker 1: find us across the spectrum of social media as Missed
Speaker 1: in History, and you can visit us and our online
Speaker 1: home them which is Missed in History dot com, where
Speaker 1: you can find every episode that's ever existed since the
Speaker 1: show began and we were not even associated with it.
Speaker 1: If you would like to subscribe to the podcast, that
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