Godzilla
DVD | Blu-ray
Directed by Ishiro Honda
Starring Takashi Shimura
The Criterion Collection
Release date: January 24, 2012

Yes. Throughout their history, The Criterion Collection has been the bastion of the purest of pure arthouse and intellectual cinema. Be it their presence on home video, giving the world class A copies of classics like The Seven Samurai or the greatest film ever made, a.k.a. Godard’s Breathless or their theatrical releases by backers Janus Film, who helped singlehandedly created the arthouse format. However, never let it be said that even they don’t like themselves a few genre films.

Nestled away in their library are some utter classics of genre film. Carnival of Souls. Hausu. Onibaba. Hell, the geniuses are even set to release films like Quadrophenia and Eating Raoul. That all said, the 24th saw the release of what may be their biggest, both in fanfare and in character size, genre release to date.

Criterion’s new release of the original masterpiece, Godzilla (also known as Gojira) has hit, and it not only features some of the best supplements around, but for all intents and purposes, this proves that while the character may be best known for its ability to destroy entire cities, the minds behind the monster had something even greater behind the creation of the beast.

In the wake of an expansion of nuclear war tactics, including attacks in Japan and H-bomb testing in the Pacific Ocean, Godzilla is both a bombastically uproarious monster film, and also a film that gives the film world one of the most humanizing looks into a monster that it has ever seen. Telling the story of a monster who is on a rampage within Japan, the film has become known for various reasons, most of which are pertaining to the film’s genre trappings, and the double digit amount of sequels that have been released in the roughly 60 years since its 1954 release. However, if this Criterion release does one thing, it’s prove that while he may have been running mindlessly through city streets, director Ishiro Honda and his crew had far more on their mind than just burning buildings and a city full of rubble.

Discussing Godzilla must begin as if one were discussing what makes Criterion such a great company: context. Released in 1954, the film bowed not even a decade following the 1945 atomic bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which many people see as the reason behind the surrender of Japan during WWII. Killing roughly 200,000 people within the first four months following, Japan was still very much reeling from these attacks, even nearly a decade later.

In the guise of a monster film, director Honda crafted a film that is both brutally violent (particularly what is likely the film’s most well known sequence, finding our monster tearing through an entire city), but is also bluntly melancholic. A reminder, by proxy, of what devastation Japan had gone through just years prior; the film’s premise seems to be second fiddle to what it attempts to get at on a far deeper level.

Following the story of a monster bread out of nuclear testing, the film stars Takashi Shimura, who is actually quite great here. The obvious emotional weight is placed upon the shoulders of the monster itself, but the narrative weaved here by Honda and his writing team is really quite taut and moving. There are a cavalcade of moments here, featuring some utterly devastating performances, many of which add this distinct sense of realism to the film’s destruction, giving weight to what the monster is doing, something monster movies today seem to be incapable of doing. A simple sequence like a woman telling her children that they will be seeing their father soon, something as simple as that, makes this picture something far more than a monster film. It’s an A-level piece of human drama, just with a focus set directly upon the shoulders of a beast.

And then there are the effects. Backed by the impeccable Toho Co., Godzilla features some of the best effects work of its day. Focusing on a monster is a tough thing to truly do, but what Honda and his effects crew does so well here, is make not only Godzilla feel like a palpable object within this universe, but they build a landscape that makes the viewer feel viscerally moved when it is destroyed. Each action set piece has a great sense of depth and realism to it that makes this truly the king of the monster films. Oh, and the Akira Ifukube score may be one of the best scores of its era. No lie.

Given its just due by Criterion, this release is easily one of the best in quite some time. While I was unable to view the Blu-ray, the DVD’s audio and visual transfers were really great. The DVD looks wonderful, and the black and white photography really adds a punch through this new print. And as with any monster film, the audio track has to be, and truly is here, absolutely killer.

Included with this release is the Americanized version of the film, Terry Morse’s 1956 film, Godzilla, King Of The Monsters, a film that is both wholly unlike its original, but also holding in it its own merits. Starring Raymond Burr, the film focuses on an American reporter who investigates a series of disasters, only to find out that a monster has been reborn from nuclear testing. Burr, an admitted fan of the character, does his best here, but is literally existing within this film as a proxy for the audience, doing little to nothing to stop this beast, instead opting to have the entire film happen unto him. It’s really an odd little picture, and while it’s a weaker film, it adds a lot to this release.

Rounding out this release are a series of interviews with cast, effects team members, film critic Tadao Sato, and even Ifukube himself. Also, an audio essay looks into the fate of Daigo Fukuryu Maru, a ship whose fate played as inspiration for the film. Finally, each film includes a commentary from historian David Kalat, which are some of my favorite commentaries in quite some time. Both are really engaging and fun to listen to, while also being absolutely stimulating and enlightening. They add a great deal to each film, and gives this release an insane level of re-watchability.

Overall, this is not only another great release from Criterion, but will likely be one of their biggest to date. An absolute must own for pure cinephiles and genre fans alike, here’s to hoping we can get more genre fair from this team, as they appear to know exactly what the hell to do with it.