Favorite 60's Showa Godzilla Movie

[Drill-Arm_Godzilla]

1. Destroy All Monsters
2. Godzilla vs. The Thing
3. Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster
I say The Sea Monster for the fact the story has always interested me. I don't KK much since I never have liked the characters much. Also it always bothered me with how Kong got power from electricity.

[we77964]

[DannyBeane]

13 years later and its still Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster!

[Legion]

Jeez man, this thread is over 12 years old!

My answer is DAM though.

[Hybrid Gojira]

Hooray for thread necromancy!

My answer has changed from 12 years ago - MZ now holds the top spot.

[DannyBeane]

Sometimes I just want people to look at their old posts and feel shame muahahaha!

[lhb412]

I said Monster Zero in '03, but now I throw my hat in for Mothra vs. Godzilla. I know it seems like the safe choice, but it's just that good, and in terms of my favorite kaiju film overall it's probably second only to the original Mothra.

[Moonlight SY-3]

13 years and only 49 votes?!?!

[MekaGojira3k]

I don't remember what my vote was, but lately Monster Zero has really risen to the top of not just the 60s stuff, but maybe the series overall. There's a lot of polish in that film.

But I've also grown to love King Kong vs. Godzilla a great deal.

[klen7]

Gigan is my top for numerous reasons, but overall 60s Showa films dominate my favorites lists.

Can you imagine being a kaiju fan living in Japan in 1966? Godzilla vs Sea Monster, Gamera vs Barugon, Damaijin, Ultraman, War of the Gargantuas...

The genre had all the momentum; it was riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now... with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

[O.Supreme]

I just voted DAM as it is not only my favorite 1960's Godzilla film, it is my all-time favorite. Looks at this poll... compares it to Godzilla Movie Tournament...

[lhb412]

[jellydonut25]

[lhb412]

^Of course, the '90s was definitely a resurgence. I mean, when Toho ended the Heisei series to make way for GINO they immediately made Mothra movies! It was a solid time of at least one kaiju movie every year for... 17 years? From Biollante to Gamera the Brave.

Maybe I should qualify that it's the best boom time for American fans? We have Legendary making a shared continuity of films around Godzilla and King Kong and producing a sequel to the Hollywood Tokusatsu film Pacific Rim, and it seems interest has in the genre has really risen here: Godzilla Resurgence and the new Gamera film will of course be intended mainly for Japanese audiences, but there's still a lot of interest in them from America and the studios are throwing bones to American/International fans (showing off the Gamera promo film at an American convention, making an official English title and logo for Resurgence very early). Tsuburaya is straight-up simulcasting their Ultraman shows! In contrast, a lot of the Heisei and Millennium series was largely unknown to the American nerd population of the time.

Also, when we're thinking of eras we have to remember that in the '70s the Godzilla films were a part of a kids film festival not intended for general audiences, so even though still running for most people in Japan it was as if the series had already gone away.

[jellydonut25]

I'm still not entirely convinced PacRim2 is happening.

[Rodan]

Mothra vs. Godzilla (incorrectly listed on the poll with the title of the '90s version, for what it's worth).

It's one of the Godzilla movies I love not only as a genre fan, but as a general fan of film. It's a superlative example of what the genre can do -- beautifully shot, tightly edited, humanist and political and aesthetically fun. Handily the second best Godzilla film ever made, and definitely the best of the era. Only a few misgivings keep it out of my top ten favorite movies of all time.

King Kong vs. takes second, and it's a very fun movie, but I think everyone's craft has improved by Mothra. It also lacks the urgency of Mothra's script.

[Benjamin Haines]

[lhb412]

^Holy moly! That's a blast from the past. Yeah, that was the standard video title of the time.

When was it that the film stopped being Godzilla vs. The Thing and started being Godzilla vs. Mothra in the US?

[Legion]

[lhb412]

No. Not 'Mothra vs. Godzilla.' It was 'Godzilla vs. Mothra' on video in the '80s, '90s, and early '00s, but I'm not sure when the switch to that happened.

I remember seeing it on television at least once as Godzilla vs. The Thing in the '90s, though.

[Rodan]

[lhb412]

I grew up in the '90s with pan-n-scan versions. Tohoscope in the '00s was a revelation (I missed the Simitar releases and ADV's DAM in '98, though I got 'em several years later).

[Benjamin Haines]

[Rodan]

[Benjamin Haines]

Have you seen the original 1961 Mothra? I think Mothra vs. Godzilla works especially well as a sequel to that gem, another of Honda's best.