Godzilla will be showing on the TCM Classic Film Festival

[Gwangi]

[lhb412]

Fantastic. It certainly belong alongside the roster of classic sci-fi that TCM keeps in healthy rotation on TV and in festivals.

[Gwangi]

It is the Rialto version that has played before and which some have already seen. But it is the first time it is appearing on the TCM Film Festival (along with other great classic films). I think it is quite fitting.

However, it is a little pricey:

I’ve always wanted to go to a TCM Festival, but money was always the issue. However, with Godzilla and a restored version of “A Hard Day’s Night” playing, maybe this will be the year?

Here is their synopsis, which I don’t entirely agree upon, but it is still an interesting read.

Godzilla: The Japanese Original (1954) – World Premiere Restoration
Reconstructed from the original camera negative and presented in collaboration with Rialto
While the great Japanese films of the 1950s like Rashomon, Ugetsu, and Seven Samurai have been revered in the U.S. as works of art, Japan’s biggest domestic hit of all, Godzilla, has been fondly regarded here as a classic of “cheesy” moviemaking. But that’s because it’s long been known only in an American version known as Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which deleted 40 minutes of the Japanese original –its very heart – while adding poorly matched, shot-in-Hollywood scenes of Raymond Burr watching the action from the sidelines. Leaving less than an hour of the original’s 98 minutes, the cuts eliminated entirely its strong anti-nuclear theme – with Godzilla seen as a metaphor for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – and, oddly, all of its strong black humor. Directed by Ishirô Honda, who later went on to make such other classics of kaiju eiga ("strange creature movies”) as Rodan, Mothra, and The H-Man, often collaborating with special effects legend Eiji Tsuburaya, Godzilla’s human star is Kurosawa regular Takashi Shimura (who played the Seven Samurai leader the same year). Both the Japanese and American versions spawned six decades of sequels, remakes and rip-offs and fans. In honor of Godzilla’s 60th anniversary, the TCM Classic Film Festival is proud to present the uncut Japanese original.

[Reaper G]

KInda hard on KOTM, but I'm glad the original is getting its just due.

It can't be said enough: Thank you, Turner Classic Movies, for staying true to your theme. Unlike MTV, SyFy, Bravo, A&E, IFC, TLC, the History Channel, etc.