Film
Godzilla-Geddon: Godzilla/Destroy All Monsters
- Director
- Ishirô Honda
- Certificate
- PG
- Running Time
- 185 mins
Yep, Godzilla officially becomes a pensioner this year (or would have done before they raised the retirement age). The Bristol Bad Film Club celebrates the 65th anniversary of the original film with this latest blowout in its Genre-Geddon series.
First up is rare opportunity to see the 1954 film that launched Toho Studios’ epic franchise. More sombre than the silly sequels that followed, it has the eponymous gigantic dinosaur reawakened by atomic testing to stomp around and breathe radioactive halitosis on screaming Tokyo folks. For US and European consumption, Godzilla was cut by 15 minutes, with new scenes featuring Raymond Burr as a reporter spliced in to the dubbed dino mayhem. Gone was the original film’s explicit plea for peace and an end to nuclear testing. Thankfully the august British Film Institute has now released the original fifties film in its full uncut glory.
But if it’s silliness you crave, stick around for the second part of this double-bill, which unleashes multiple monster mayhem. In 1968’s Destroy All Monsters, from original Godzilla director Ishirô Honda, the dastardly female Kilaaks plot a global takeover from their lunar base. This they hope to achieve by attaching electronic collars to the monsters gathered on Monsterland on the planet Earth, unleashing Godzilla on New York, Rodan on Moscow, and Mothra on Beijing.
Both films will be introduced by Aardman archivist Tom Vincent, who’s billed as Bristol’s premier Godzilla fan. Go here for tickets.
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