Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
Also known as Godzilla vs the Smog Monster this movie is what you get when the writers of Godzilla start to worry about pollution. Now Godzilla has always been social commentary, but this one seems a bet heavy-handed, and the monster...well Hedorah is just silly. Still, I had good memories of this one as a kid and the battles for the most part hold up.
The teens in this one seem like some nihilist hippies. Thinking the world will end due to pollution (we will burn ourselves up first!) and deciding to have one last party on Mt. Fuji. Plus we get a rare spotting of Godzilla's ability to telepathically communicate with children.
No, it is not good, even by cheesy late 1960s, early 1970s Toho standards. But it is still fun.
I still can't get that "Save the Earth" song out of my head from the English dubbed version. I watched the subbed version and it has the equally ear-wormy original version, "Return the Sun."
Mother Nature Strikes Back: All of the Godzilla movies are this at some level. After all The Blue Öyster Cult sang "History shows again and again, How nature points out the folly of men." in their song "Godzilla." This movie turns that message up. Hedorah is like a polluted titan rising up to attack those who harmed its mother Gaia. Honestly, when reading over the list of themes this is the movie I thought of for today. So this works out well.
October Horror Movie Challenge 2023
Viewed: 4
First Time Views: 2
2 comments:
I remember seeing that one on Saturday afternoon when I was a kid. I thought it was pretty good then but would probably be disappointing now.
I watched it lately. There was an absolutely gutwrenching moment in it when the small kid fights off a small Hedora and then realizes his dad was gone. (He turns out mutilated but alive in the next scene)
That scene hits different now that I have kids.
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