Back from the grave

Criterion is a company I have great respect for, because they are in the business of restoring and marketing classic films from many countries, and they have an obvious passion for doing it. Their releases are always of the highest quality and historical accuracy. Chances are if you've seen a DVD or Blu-ray release of a film by Kurosawa or Fellini or Godard, it was probably restored and released by Criterion. They started out doing this back in the laser disc days and haven't stopped since. They have impeccable taste and a keen sense of what a classic film is.


It was quite a shock to many people then when Criterion posted the above photo on their Facebook page. Obviously it's a reel from a Japanese film, but it wasn't long before the text was translated online into English:


Dupe Posi(tive): GODZILLA. Reel 2 of 10 Reels. Toho Company, Ltd.


Yes, Criterion is going to release the original 1954 Toho film Godzilla (technically, Gojira) on Blu-ray! Now, you and I may not consider the Godzilla films in general to be classics in the same vein as, oh, say the works of Kurosawa, who also made films for Toho pictures. But that's because we've never really seen the original Gojira. What we got over here in the US, years after the film was released in Japan, was a butchered version that featured an American reporter (oddly, named Steve Martin in the film) who was shoehorned in so poorly that the plot became incomprehensible, with jarring cuts and no semblance of narrative. And then there was the terrible dubbing too. After that of course we were barraged by countless fun, but not-at-all classic retreads and remakes and sequels.


The original Gojira was a film about the dangers of nuclear war. Did you get that from "Monster's Week" on Channel 50? I sure didn't. But consider that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the firebombings of Tokyo and many other Japanese cities, and then the Daigo Fukuryū Maru incident (look it up) were all still very fresh in 1954. It wasn't really Gojira destroying Tokyo, it was the specter of war. In particular, nuclear war.


I've seen a cut of this movie close to the original, although of very bad quality, in Japanese with subtitles and most of the original storyline intact. It's actually a chilling film, with a message and a warning


It is this film that Criterion will be releasing, although with much higher quality. After extensive investigation and a world-wide search, they managed to locate a high-quality fine-grained 35mm print in a private collection and have secured rights to use it. A print of this type is only one step down from one made directly off the camera negative (which is long gone) - by far the best print that's been found in many, many years. And it restores the original Japanese run time and storyline.


And there is no Steve Martin to be found in it, thank goodness.