TALKBACK #11: Godzilla vs. Hedorah

[Russzilla]

Smog Monster was always one of my favorites. I still remember seeing this for the first time as a kid in the ‘70s on Creature Double Feature that Saturday afternoon. I thought Hedorah was one of the coolest monsters I’d ever seen. And during that time around my way, watching a Godzilla movie was an event, as around this time, Godzilla movies really started going into heavy syndication, especially ones that hadn’t had their world broadcast premieres on television yet. Smog Monster was one of them when I first saw it.

[UltraDada72]

This is also one of my favorite Godzilla films as well. For a long time I had wanted to watch it, only knowing about it from reading the Ian Thorne Godzilla book (which I still own a copy of that I scored off ebay several years ago). It finally came on TV and when I first saw it, I loved Hedorah's design(s), found many of the aspects just weird (the club scene, the cartoons, the random and odd style and tone), and it just seemed like an odd acid trip. To this day I still find myself occasionally singing the English dub of Save The Earth, which I know all the words too.

[Benjamin Haines]

This movie had a lot of thought put into it and it shows. Love or hate Banno's directorial style, the film's pacing and attention to detail are very deliberate.

Godzilla vs. Hedorah has been one of my favorites since the first time I saw it and even after all these years, I'm still noticing new things when I rewatch it. Today I just realized that Godzilla doesn't willfully activate the electrodes to fry Hedorah the first time he blasts them. Godzilla learns his atomic breath can do that by accident when he means to blast Hedorah.

At the outset of their battle at Mt. Fuji, Hedorah hits Godzilla with several acidic sludge splats, including one on Godzilla's face which leaves his left eye swollen shut for the remainder of the film.



After lasering Godzilla and leaving him writhing on the ground, Hedorah targets the people. Godzilla gets Hedorah's attention again with a blast of atomic breath. Uncharacteristic of Godzilla, his atomic breath misses his target a little to the right, because now he's aiming with just his right eye.



When the military is able to lure Hedorah with flashing headlights, they get him to walk between the electrodes but they don't yet have the power to activate them. Godzilla once again reinstigates his fight with Hedorah using his atomic breath, again missing Hedorah by aiming too far to the right. This inadvertently activates the electrodes.





But Godzilla wouldn't have known at first what those electrodes would do. He couldn't know that the humans were struggling to activate them or that his atomic breath would inexplicably do the trick. Once he saw the result he kept doing it but when he activated the electrodes that first time, I think Godzilla did it completely by accident due to Hedorah burning his left eye and throwing off his aim.

[kiryugoji04]

Inspired by this week's climate strikes as well as based on a poster I made for the climate strike I attended last Friday at the Georgia State Capitol.

[lhb412]

^ Splendid work!

[kiryugoji04]

Thank you kindly!

[Benjamin Haines]

Very nice art. Banno would be proud.

[superhedorahsaiyan]

This is my favorite of the Showa era, and is in my top ten Godzilla movies. Wonderfully weird, trippy, and dark. Hedorah definitely one of the more powerful Showa era kaiju.

[william newell]

[XvGojira]

[lhb412]

Often I think an Earth inhospitable to human life would be something of an improvement.

And in my experience the kind of people who think global warming is a conspiracy also believe in Icke's Reptiloids and the Protocols and probably eat spoonfuls of aquarium gravel because a radio host told them it would make their brain more powerful.

[kiryugoji04]

Found the boomer! I'd roll my eyes harder but "no politics" and all that. <3

(Eat the rich.)

[lhb412]

Nothing delights me more than "boomer" becoming an insult.

[kiryugoji04]

It's pretty great.

[H-Man]

I'd argue the damage we do to the planet isn't so easily reset for or by the non-human lifeforms that also inhabit it. So even if one believe that the planet itself would be fine (I'd like to see the science on this), it may be correct to say the Earth in "Save the Earth" could refer to its living beings as well.

[lhb412]

'Save the Humans' just doesn't sound as good. Sounds a bit conceited, too.

'Godzilla: Save the Earth' would be a great title for a MonsterVerse rematch between Godzilla and Hedorah.

[Benjamin Haines]

[canofhumdingers]

[lhb412]

^ It's funny because there's such a mythology that's built up around that generation (that, in my experience, many members buy into to various degrees of self importance) that using it as a term of utter dismissiveness is just... really funny. It gives me a hearty chuckle.

[canofhumdingers]

Hmm, I guess I don’t know of any mythology about the boomers. Maybe their parents (the “Greatest Generation”), but then I’d argue that title was earned and deserved.

[kiryugoji04]

It's a response to Millennials constantly getting spoken down to and insulted by the same Boomers that caused, uh, well, most of the problems that are now threatening to end the world as we know it. Obviously it's gross oversimplification for the sake of humor - my dad's a boomer and he's super chill and very left-leaning - but I would say it speaks to a greater truth.



Relevant to the movie this thread is ostensibly about, the one thing that does kind of annoy me is Banno's attitude towards the younger generation and his portrayal thereof comes off as dismissive, especially given how much political and social change is borne out of youth movements, much like is happening now.

[lhb412]

^ But it might be a cogent commentary on the youth counterculture of the time: big ideals that they failed to live up to and would eventually betray totally.

... look up their birthdays: the kids in Godzilla vs. Hedorah are boomers!

[kiryugoji04]

[kiryugoji04]

The thing that really gets me about this movie is how people look at it as some cute, "don't pollute!" parable of a bygone age, when really it was a dire situation that basically had some cosmetic work done so we could ignore it and now here we are on the brink of an apocalypse because the deeper issues were never truly addressed.

People want to pretend this franchise is apolitical but those people need to grow up.

[tbeasley]

I typed this up then realized 'no politics' but thought I'd share it anyway...