First though, we have to put Gojira into its historical context. The year was 1954. Not ten years had passed since Japan had enacted a brutal war upon its neighboring countries in their conquest to collect one of the largest empires in human history. Still reeling from the war in which many places were destroyed by fire bombings and two cities had been all but wiped off the map by atomic bombs, the Japanese people were still trying to recover. In that same period, the United States and the Soviet Union had begun the Cold War in which the goal was to create the most devastating weapon one could in hopes of keeping the others at bay. Not only did Japan see the effects of the atomic bomb on cities during the war; they had also seen a ridiculous number of hydrogen bombs being tested in their backyard.
Gojira starts off with a boat at sea. All is calm until suddenly, a bright flash erupts from the water and the ship explodes. To American audiences, this scene is just an introduction to the idea that there is a monster lurking. To Japanese audiences at the time though, it has a little more power behind it. See, not long before the movie came out, there was the Lucky Dragon #5 incident wherein a Japanese fishing boat had wandered too close to a place where the US was testing hydrogen bombs. All men aboard were badly contaminated by the radiation and all of them died rather quickly. In fact, the incident created a bit of a stir as suddenly, the Japanese were cautious of tuna. A lot of their food came from the sea, where things were being increasingly contaminated by hydrogen bomb testings conducted by the US.
A lot has been said on the topic of Godzilla as an embodiment of the atomic bombs. It's not so much that he embodies the atomic bombs specifically, but rather he represents all increasingly destructive weapons. He is this towering, lumbering icon of death and destruction. The film is very dark with a lot of war time imagery that US audiences would not be able to relate to the same way that Japanese would. There were no shortages of ground level shots with unfortunate people being crushed or burned to death by the monster. The very sound of air raid sirens must have spooked Japanese audiences given that not even a full decade earlier, they heard those sirens in regards to fire bombings and later, possibly atomic bombs. The shot at the end of Godzilla's raid shows Tokyo set ablaze - a clear call to mind the days of the fire bombings. It then transitions to the morning where we see Tokyo in a smoldering heap in a shot that looks like a straight copy of post-bomb Hiroshima.
These scenes are harrowing for anyone, but it must have hit much harder in Japan where the memory of those raids was still rather fresh. The movie is more than just war time imagery though. You also get complex layers of morality. Dr. Yamane quickly finds himself at odds with the rest of the Japanese community as they try desperately to destroy the creature that he believes has invaluable scientific value. There is also the issue that comes up with Dr. Serizawa's work. Serizawa was conducting experiments trying to find new sources of energy when he accidentally stumbles upon a way to split oxygen molecules which has the reaction of destroying all oxygen in a given area. Desperate to find a positive way to use this device, he refuses to reveal any information for fear of people harnessing it for destructive weapons, such as they had done with the atomic and hydrogen bombs.
One of the biggest plot elements lost in the American cut was that of the love triangle. Emiko was to marry Serizawa in an arrangement made long ago, yet she was in love with a young sailor named Ogata. This triangle seems pretty generic until you get to the end when Emiko and Ogata go to persuade Serizawa - their only hope of stopping Godzilla - to use his oxygen destroyer. At that moment, this seemingly small, personal conflict has the weight of the world balancing on it. Emiko goes to Serizawa's lab not only to reveal she won't be marrying him, but also to beg him to compromise his ethics to "save the world." Though she never quite ends up telling Serizawa about her and Ogata, he can obviously see it is happening. When they get to the lab, Ogata dives right in begging to use the oxygen destroyer. Serizawa, trying to feign ignorance, denies he knows what he's talking about and then turns to Emiko wearing a look of a man beaten by betrayal. And then Emiko tells him, "I broke my promise. I told him your secret." When Emiko says this, she's not just revealing that she told Ogata about the oxygen destroyer; she's also - more subtly - finally revealed that she is not going to marry Serizawa despite promises made long ago.
This layered moment calls to mind another situation that is a little confusing to catch in the American cut, but feels deeper in the Japanese. Masaji is a fisherman from Odo Island. His boat is sunk by the beast and he is the lone survivor. Later though, Godzilla lands on the island and crushes Masaji's house with him still in it. It's a way to say that you can't get away from Godzilla, just the same as you can't necessarily get away from the atomic or hydrogen bombs. If you survived the initial incident, it doesn't mean you're safe. This scene was a physical representation of radiation poisoning that scared many Japanese at the time.
Many people tend to think of Gojira as just another monster movie - maybe better than the rest of the field, but nothing special, but you don't see that kind of film making craftsmanship with most giant monster movies. You didn't even see that in King Kong. Gojira contains so many complexities and so many layers that it really deserves to be thought of outside the context of just a giant monster movie.
The love triangle still matters in the US cut, of course, but it feels a little less shocking. This is due to cultural differences between the United States and Japan, wherein the latter, they were dealing with a massive cultural shift from traditional Japanese norms to more western influences due to the occupation (marrying for love is a Western idea, but marriages on agreements is a more Eastern tradition). Honda would constantly tackle this theme of the old ways conflicting with the new throughout his career, heavily influencing his future Godzilla movies.
Sure, the special effects haven't aged well, but at the time they were innovative and not just by Japanese standards. Tsuburaya mixed a lot of different techniques - from stop motion, to puppets, to the classic man in a rubber suit - to achieve the look of Godzilla. His models were unparalleled. And the way he used matte backgrounds was so well done that even today it's tough to tell what is a matte background and what isn't.
The US cut does feel like a dumbed down version of the original, but I'd argue that you wouldn't see Godzilla succeed in the States without it. It is wrong to think Terry Morse treated the source material with disrespect as he was an avid fan of the original. One thing he did well that still stands up though is that he altered the structure of the movie. Gojira is a pretty linear movie. It starts with that first boat sinking and it goes straight through Godzilla's demise. Morse - a director of 1940s noir pictures - cut it up a little bit differently. The movie starts with reporter Steve Martin (Burr) trapped under the rubble of ruined Tokyo. Where the Japanese cut leaves you with a sense of suspense, trying to maximize this feeling by not showing the monster in full for nearly two full reels, the American cut leaves it more as a sense of mystery. From the beginning, you are left wondering what had happened.
Don't get me wrong here: the Japanese cut is far superior. It's just tough to argue that Morse didn't do a good job in Americanizing it. Yes, he cut out a lot of things that seem politically motivated on the surface. For example, there is a woman with her children sitting by a building during Godzilla's rampage. For a moment, there is a scene on a train where a couple is talking about the threat of Godzilla. The woman turns to her boyfriend and says that she can't believe she escaped Nagasaki just find herself right back in a similar situation. There are a few other instances that feel like they might have been cut due to political reasons (remember that Japan was occupied at the time and direct criticisms of the United States were illegal); it is more likely though that Morse simply cut these scenes as American audiences wouldn't be able to really relate to them, or at least they definitely would not have felt similarly (since the US's relationship with atomic bombs and nuclear energy is fundamentally different than Japan's).
What the American cut did though was provide an easily accessible version of a movie, kept a good number of the layers, and kept the tone rather dark. Even the US cut is not your average, mindless, 1950s science fiction fare. The recut was still important to the success of Godzilla in the United States. The way they shot new material and added it - while at first glance seems disrespectful - actually is more innovative and fair to the original material than you might think. I mean, this is definitely just my opinion, but I'd rather they do that then do a bad job simply dubbing everything with white actors doing fake Asian accents (as they would do later in Godzilla Raids Again).
Every Godzilla movie has more depth than people ever will give them credit for, but both Gojira and Morse's Godzilla: King of the Monsters definitely exceed those level of expectations. These are great movies that deserve to be really watched and taken in as a work of art, not as mindless science fiction monster movies. I never get bored with these two and I constantly find some new take on it. The craftsmanship of both versions is more often than not underrated.
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