This year, on the 60th anniversary of Ishiro Honda’s landmark film, we’ll get to see Gareth Edwards’ reinvention of the world-famous Toho monster. In the subsequent decades since Godzilla first lumbered out of the water we’ve see other mightily impressive creatures (with some equally impressive firepower) blaze across the screen yet of the biggest and baddest Gojira reigns supreme. Over the years he’s retained the title of “King of the Monsters” but he didn’t earn his moniker easily – there are some memorable, and equally gargantuan, baddies who can and have gone toe-to-toe with Toho’s big screen icon. Today we look up, way up, like into the clouds up to see…
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The Criterion Files: Godzilla
Godzilla Directed by: Ishiro Honda Written by: Ishiro Honda, Takeo Murata Starring: Akira Takarada, Momoko Kochi, Akihiko Hirata, Takashi Shimura Cinematography by: Masao Tamai Music by: Akira Ifukube Release: November 3, 1954 I remember strongly disliking Ishiro Honda’s Godzilla the first time I watched it. Grant that at the time I was both young and unwittingly self-indoctrinated to believe the king of all monsters to be a big, cuddly good guy rather than a metaphor for atomic horror; going from Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, Son of Godzilla, and The Terror of Mechagodzilla to the film that started it all was something of a shock to my eight-year-old…
