Savant's new reviews today (about ten hours early) are
Hello! This is a tad early, but there's a method to the madness. Six new reviews tonight. I also have some thoughts about a couple of theatrical screenings I saw.
I did go to the original Toho Godzilla at the Nuart a week ago and promised a report on it. It is indeed a picture with an entirely different spin than the reworked Terry Morse version that we have been watching in America for the last 48 years. The Raymond Burr scenes gave the movie a Yank presence and really didn't change it much; I've always liked the way Burr was integrated into the show. But it did distort the original intention of the movie. The original Japanese Godzilla doesn't directly address the issue of Japan's nuclear bombing nine years earlier, but it's very clear just the same. People on the subway talk about having to evacuate Tokyo again, and what a bother it was the first time. The war itself is never mentioned, but the Japanese public is said to have been very aware of the inspiration for the movie, an incident when a shipload of fish strayed into an American nuclear test zone (later disputed) and crewmen suffered burns while tons of irradiated fish were distributed back in Japan. Although nobody comes out and says it, the original Godzilla monster is therefore a monstrous manifestation of the nuclear threat to the world posed by the U.S.. There is even dialogue where the monster is said to be innocent, having been turned into a threat by radiation poisoning (source not mentioned in so many words).
The problem has a typically Japanese solution. A dedicated Dr. Serizawa sacrifices himself (just as in the Ray Burr version) to destroy Godzilla, so that his secret "oxygen destroyer" weapon can die with him. Unlike those irresponsible American scientists, this ethically superior Serizawa takes true responsibility for his "crime" of finding a new weapon. There are of course, no Japanese authorities in the film to direct Serizawa or wrest control of his invention as happened here; he found the secret all by himself and bears the responsibility exclusively.
So what we're left with is a vague American enemy (by symbolic proxy) and Japanese who are doubly noble: unbowed by their terrible victimization under the atom bombs, yet sufficiently superior morally to handle another new weapon "responsibly," when the arrogant Americans won't even admit that their reckless testing is poisoning the ocean. It's a nice dodge which doesn't have to get into the issue of the war or admit any kind of national wrong or even error. Serizawa carries a mark of Cain, a scar that's blinded him in one eye, an interesting transposition of Rotwang's gloved hand in Metropolis. But he's only been made ethically stronger. In this first Godzilla film Japan is defiant and unbowed.
Since we're told that Godzilla won't be coming to home video in this form (Toho has been frustratingly mysterious with their monster shows in the United States for the last ten years or so), I'll end by saying that the Rialto theatrical prints look fine, a tad darker than the old videos I've seen of this version. The movie is in about the same condition as theatrical prints of Seven Samurai - some scratches, jumping at splices and general blah quality, but most of it plays well. The Toho logo looked terrible for some reason, as if it were very overexposed and grainy.
The other screening I went to was a preview of Saved!, a new film from my old alma mater, MGM. It's a teen comedy with the twist that the subject is an "All Christian" private school where kids live and breathe Jesus all day long, a brainwashing regimen that's more than a little disturbing. Although it plays like an outrageous exaggeration, I'm assured that most of what happens is not exaggerated at all. I liked the cast and there were plenty of witty jokes. The tone eventually turns sentimental which seemed acceptable. I'm told MGM is giving it a limited release. It's controversial and thought-provoking as well as funny - the audience loved it. I hope it will be a hit. It stars Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin, Eva Amurri and Patrick Fugit. Back in a couple of days, Glenn Erickson.
Posted by DVD Savant at May 26, 2004 11:45 AM