Before Marvel had its superheroes, the world had Godzilla. With all of the talk of Marvel and Disney revolutionizing the film industry, it’s easy to forget that they aren’t the first time a “Cinematic Universe” has succeeded. The first being all of the Kaiju films that range from 1925 to even today. So for a new series that I think might be fun, I’m going to look at all of these big ole monster films and see if all of them hold up. This includes the King Kong films as well as the Godzilla films, and all of the spin-offs of these franchises like Mothra and Gamera.
So do they hold up? Let’s start today with the first big ole monster film ever made, The Lost World, though not technically involved with the rest of the films; this film is historically significant as the primary influencer into the next movie. The Lost World is directed by Harry O. Hoyt and Milton Menasco. It is the first adaptation of the Arthur Conan Doyle novel detailing a large island inhabiting large creatures! And by giant creatures, we mean dinosaurs for the most part. Now the film didn’t age well, but it’s not awful by any means. The film is just a bouncing point. The effects used in the film I’m sure are mind-blowing for the time, but today just seem like a poor choice in comparison to the next film.
The next film is the iconic King Kong! Coming out almost ten years after The Lost World, Ernest B. Schoedsack was deeply inspired by the film and made what is arguably the most iconic film ever made. I feel like I don’t even have to explain the plot of this film. But King Kong follows a group of money hungry filmmakers as they find a giant ape and bring the ape back to New York. Things then go very swimmingly, and nothing bad happens. Unlike The Lost World, the effects for King Kong hold up exceptionally well. To the point where I still wonder how exactly a few effects were done. The film to this day, almost one hundred years later, still holds up as an amazing film.
Now King Kong was a roaring success. To the point where only a year later, almost everyone involved with King Kong returned for the sequel, The Son of Kong. Ernest B. Schoedsack returns for this film, and if you are wondering what else he did with his career, he found his niche and made films about how dangerous mammals are with The Most Dangerous Game, Dr. Cyclops, and Chang. The Son of Kong picks up immediately after King Kong; our main character is on the run from everyone who wants to sue/kill him because of the events of the first film. He returns to Skull Island where he finds out that King Kong had a son. Now, this film really can’t compare to the original. They had a smaller budget and smaller set. And noticeably it has a much lighter tone, almost becoming a comedy. Remember this because this will be a reoccurring theme throughout this series.
The Kong films became famous around the world. Interestingly, five years later a small production studio in Japan was interested in these films. This production company was called Zensho Cinema, and not much is known about them today. But they liked the Kong films so much that they decided to make their own. So they made the film The King Kong That Appeared in Edo. Following King Kong as he treks to Japan and causes chaos. Unfortunately, once the war broke out in Japan, the film was destroyed and is now considered lost. All that remains is a few pictures and frames of what the film looked like. And this might be a bad time to bring this up, but I have a fear of bad masks. Like when something looks half human and half animal. I don’t know; it just freaks me out. So when I look at the costume for King Kong made by Fuminori Ohashi, I freak out. It is terrifying, and I am honestly glad I didn’t have to watch this film. And although the film was lost and wasn’t a thundering success like the other Kong Films, Ohashi caught the eye of another director in Japan sixteen years later. This director was Ishiro Honda.
Ishiro Honda was a Japanese director who throughout the early stages of his career, he was forced to make propaganda war films for Japan. Upon the end of WWII, Honda began to make films the way he wanted but was met with harsh criticism and reluctance from financiers. Many claimed that Ishiro Honda’s scripts were too dark and realistic. Many of which criticized the war and the Japanese Government and Military, a very taboo subject at the time. It wasn’t until 1954 that Honda contacted Fuminori Ohashi, wanting to recruit him to create the suit and costume for his next film, Godzilla.
In 1954, Honda directed the secretly hyper critical anti-war film Godzilla. Though many who have never seen a Godzilla film before might be disappointed in the monster first foray into film. Godzilla doesn’t make that long of an appearance in the film, but his presence is strong. Off the coast of Japan, a monster has been born, and the natives call it Gojira, a 164-foot tall monster that is headed toward Japan. The rest of the film is the government attempting to figure out how to defeat the creature before it destroys Japan, and consequently the rest of the world. Godzilla is dark and haunting. There are no fun action sequences; it would be more accurate to describe the film as a horror film. The audience and the characters know destruction is coming and there is no stopping it. The only thing they can do is wait for their doom or try to figure out any possible way to stop it. Ishiro Honda didn’t realize what he was making then would end up changing cinema for the rest of time.