Another month over, another movie to lay to rest. We hope you’ve enjoyed our foray into the wild world of Gojira as much as we have.

To wrap it up this month, we want to leave you with some additional recommended viewing, both our favorite Godzilla films and some of the media the giant monster has inspired.

So, what kind of music does your imaginary Godzilla magnum-opus feature? Nope, not an entire Blue Oyster Cult album.

We present to you our imaginary sountrack for the greatest Godzilla film that never was

If you consider yourself a fan of Godzilla (or kaiju in general) and you haven’t at least heard of Kaiju Big Battel, you may want to re-evaluate everything that you’ve ever thought or perceived in your life up to this point. Pardon my language but Kaiju Big Battel is, quite simply, the shit. Take the bone-crushing showmanship and pure entertainment of wrestling, then put those fantastic athletes in foam latex instead of spandex and bam, you have the greatest thing that may have ever happened to the United States of America in the last half a century. The show is quite literally men and women, dressed in outlandish monster costumes, beating the snot out of each other. I feel that attending a live performance of the show would quite literally fix disease and end famine worldwide.

You will walk out reborn.

Filled to the brim with interviews (including the legendary Godzilla series composer, Akira Ifukube), behind the scenes looks and trivia, this fantastic Godzilla documentary produced by the BBC dates back to 1998. While we can’t be sure, allegedly this was the Beebs attempt to cross promote the American Godzilla film. Finally, something good has come from that horrible debacle! Some kind soul was nice enough to upload the entire thing to YouTube in four separate pieces.

Watch and enjoy! Just be sure to skim the last few minutes if you’re not interested in a lot of schilling for the 1998 film.

Back in the 90s, the closest I ever came to the designer toy scene is when I ripped the head off a skull topped pez dispenser and grafted it onto another action figure. After a quick coat of paint, I had my very own Ghost Rider figure. What can I say? It was a different time. One where comic book properties weren’t being shoveled onto the silver screen each and every summer. The idea that a Ghost Rider movie, let alone an action figure, would exist seemed completely out of the realm of possibility.

Contemporary movies are chalk-full of tremendously-spectacular “in-your-face” effects reflecting the moviegoing public’s current obsession with CGI high-tech visuals that are stimulating to the senses but hollow for the soul — quickly seen and quickly forgotten, all polish and no spit — but Gojira has a lot of spit. The film has a primitive and elemental quality to it like a rough-hewn handmade tatami mat, brutally frank and direct. The fact that there are occasional blemishes found in some of the effects work does nothing to destroy the spirit of the dedication, ingenuity and professional integrity that went into its production. If a movie could be a meal, then Gojira is a porterhouse steak, bone and all.

Inspired by the success of The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953) and influenced by King Kong (1933) the film that resulted is singularly Japanese. Gojira is a film less about a giant dinosaur running amuck and more about the psychological recovery of a people trying to rebuild their cities, their culture, and their lives threatened by radioactive fallout.

I found it tucked away in a box of vintage photos at my local antique store: a picture of Godzilla dusting a teapot on top of a shelf. The back of the photo said “Upstairs, Downstairs, Series 5, 1977.” Did Godzilla really appear on the acclaimed British television drama? And more importantly, did Godzilla work on any other films outside of his work for Toho Studios? The answer to both questions: yes. After a bit of research, I’ve uncovered interesting tidbits about Godzilla’s film career, tidbits that are usually overshadowed by his work in his monster movies.

Over the years, various filmmakers have thought up clever new monsters to test the limits of our reluctant hero’s abilities. While this months
focus is squarely on the original Gojira film, we thought long and hard about how to best honor the myriad of other monsters the big green guy has fought in the ensuing sequels. Thanks to Topher’s Godzilla Movie Monster Listings, we were able to put together this complete list of every Godzilla film and the monsters he fought in each. Our contribution? We added in links to articles and pictures for each and every film and movie monster, most culled from the excellent Wikizilla.

It can be hard to reconcile the Godzilla of my childhood with the searing portrait of nuclear mutation and devastation presented in the original Gojira. This was the cute and friendly monster who was given the MTV Lifetime Achievement Award by Patrick Stewart! At worst, he was a charmingly frightening throwback to movies of a bygone era — the kind of terror that made you laugh right after you screamed.

But that image has evolved over 55 years and a whole string of commercial properties. Revisiting the franchise before it was a franchise, back in 1954 when it was just one terrific monster movie among a very few, is a startling experience. There’s no trace of a monster with humanity here. There’s only an immensely anxious reaction to historical fact and a poignant critique of Japanese naval engagement.

Enjoy these various posters for Godzilla films from around the world! Who knew one monster could inspire so much art?

Virtually all the sound most of us associate with Godzilla and the Toho kaiju series of films is the responsibility of one man: comoser Akira Ifukube. Born in 1914 on the island of Hokkaido in northern Japan, Ifukube lived in the village of Otofuke and was exposed to the music of aboriginal Japanese people as well as folk songs brought into his town by travelers from all over Japan. All of these influences, plus his formal education (which included studies of music and forestry, as well as the vibratory strength and elasticity of wood) contributed to the more than 250 film scores he wrote between 1947 and 1995. Ifukube had already written more than 70 film scores before he wrote the music for Ishiro Honda’s Gojira in 1954 (ironically, Ifukube himself had been diagnosed with radiation exposure during his forestry work). Although colleagues advised him against scoring the monster movie, Ifukube took the assignment and created one of the most enduring musical scores of the 20th century while working under enormous time and budgetary pressures, even beginning his writing before the film was finished shooting.