by pocketmego » Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:16 am
Ok,
I haven't seen Godzilla vs the Smog Monster since I was a kid. I just got a chance to watch it again.
When I was a kid, I HATED this movie and it has caused me to not really be one of Hedorah's biggest fans for years.
However, as an adult and someone who is MUCH more familiar with the late 60's/early 70's counter culture, I actually found this movie pretty good. Yes, it was trippy, weird, and so psychadelic it made the Monkey's "Head" movie look normal. Even Godzilla's atomic breath was that trippy green color. I felt like i should be taking a toke of something while watching this thing.
My question though...
Who was this movie made for?
Not for children certainly. If you ignore all the Dennis Hopper stuff, the fact is that this movie is exceedingly violent and the deaths are very nasty. The monster melts people and the kid weilds a knife he shouldn't even be carrying.
Follow it up with the OBVIOUS drug-culture film style and you have a movie that not many kids will probably like or understand. Just as I didn't when I was young.
It couldn't have been made for the conservative Japanese Adults of the time, I'm doubting many of them were even in the theater watching this movie.
So they obviously made it for teens right?
Would counter culture teenagers have been going to see what were considered kids films at the time?
Who was this movie's target audience?
-Ray