by lhb412 » Sun Nov 24, 2013 9:42 pm
Just re-watched this - been thinking of watching the US versions of the entire Showa series.
Again, the picture quality on Criterion's Blu-Ray is astounding. I see all sorts of visual details I doubt would have read had they not dug up this great print of the film.
I'm amazed the film works at all. It's extraordinarily clever, the way they put it together, and while astute viewers can see through the charade the fact is that this patchwork movie works, narratively speaking. The flashback sequences, the way they have a reasons for Burr to be in on the action and to observe the real main characters. The real masterstroke is having Godzilla topple the building on top of him. That's a great moment, and a great direct interaction between a human character and Godzilla, eclipsed only by the ending with Serizawa and Ogata's dive. Burr himself is a big reason for this being pulled off, because he takes his performance completely seriously and adds a great deal of gravitas that one needs when making a film of such apocalyptic scope. However, the extras in the English production are uniformly pretty bad.