When a disaster occurs, it rarely happens in any one way. Reporters saw the aftermath of Katrina differently than people trapped in the attic of their houses. New York City firefighters saw 9/11 differently than those who watched it happen on TV a thousand miles away. Everything happens a thousand different ways. The only time people’s reactions seem to be unanimous is when they’re crawling out from under the same rubble.
When Gojira was brought to America as Godzilla, King of the Monsters, it easily could have been slapped on the screen with overdubbed dialogue and some creative edits to make it more readily consumable for the public. We saw that with Godzilla Raids Again, and we’ll certainly see it again. Godzilla, King of the Monsters, though, thankfully is the Americanization Gojira deserved. Yes, there’s overdubbed dialogue; yes, edits were made. But in the end, those are merely distractions from what Godzilla, King of the Monsters does right.
Instead of the taking the easy way out (or the high road, which would have been presenting Gojira unchanged with subtitles as it should have been seen and still should be seen), the American studio shows Gojira from a different perspective. We see the exact same story told from the point of view of Steve Martin, an American reporter who was on his way to Cairo when Godzilla’s first attacks at sea occurred. He’s a friend of Dr. Serizawa and an acquaintance of of Dr. Yamane. Instead of heading on to Cairo as planned, Martin stays to cover the Godzilla story for his paper.
While it might not sound like the best idea and the it’s strained here and there, by and large the concept works remarkably well. Martin is a stranger in a strange land, someone who needs to be guided through the country just like American audiences did (and many still do). He doesn’t understand Japanese (“I’m afraid my Japanese is a little rusty”), and besides the principle characters, not much of the dialogue is dubbed. Instead, Martin’s guide interprets for him, which gives it a more authentic feel than many of the subsequent kaiju films.
A few plot points are changed, but that can easily be ignored in a reinterpretation that is for the most part very faithful. Godzilla’s attack on Tokyo is changed a little, but the tone and power remain intact. Godzilla is just as destructive as he was in Gojira, and Tokyo stands just as insignificant a chance. We still see the mother and her child preparing for death; we still see the reporters falling to their deaths; we still see the irradiated aftermath the next day.
The scenes of family drama and moral questioning which separated Gojira from so many other movies we’ve seen and will see are still there. It’s never explained how Martin knows about these scenes, but one can imagine he interviewed Emiko and Ogata later. This is the story of Godzilla told by a witness. One can imagine like Cornelius Ryan did for D-Day or John Hersey did for Hiroshima, Martin tells us this story so that we can see something we didn’t see for ourselves. Instead of an Americanization of a Japanese film, Godzilla, King of the Monsters is an American retelling of a Japanese event.
For 48 years, Godzilla, King of the Monsters was all that available of Gojira in America. It’s a shame, because it certainly isn’t good enough to replace the original. It’s a great companion, but doesn’t come close to holding a candle to the power and sadness of the original. But while the reality is that it was made the way it was to make a few bucks off a successful foreign film by adding an American star, in retrospect, now that we can see the original and compare the two, it has become more than a simple adaptation.
