T w e n t y S i d e d

Unless you are a particular fan of the minutiae of “the Golden Era” of giant monster movies, Toho’s production of King Kong vs. Godzilla from 1962 can be a confusing watch. In many ways, it fails, despite its accomplishments, in exactly the same way Legendary’s 2021 release of Godzilla vs. Kong fails. That is, whatever your doubts about the previous movies were, the combination of big-name monsters and a decade of FX improvements would SURELY produce *something* of worth. And I mean, it DOES…just generally not in a way people expected or wanted. At least, looking back we see that. But at the time, and here’s the other truly ASTOUNDING fact that causes so much modern consternation: King Kong vs. Godzilla is the most successful Godzilla movie ever in Japan, even today. Of course, that’s only from a certain point-of-view; this placement is based solely on theater attendance. Theater attendance fell steadily throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s, but the numbers still roughly correlate to both profit and general popularity with the Japanese public. KKvG is followed by the original Gojira and the sequel, Godzilla Raids Again; and the mid-60’s movies that quickly followed King Kong vs. Godzilla. The only later movies to intrude on the upper echelons are 2016’s Shin Godzilla and 2023’s Godzilla Minus One. But as usual, we need to look at the factors that led to one of the most popular Godzilla movies ever.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “A Confusing Second Volume”

Paige Francis He/him

I have posited Gojira as the culmination, and arguably the pinnacle, of the giant monster movie genre for decades. While arguments can be made for various titles in the Twentieth Century, you really have to wait for the new millennium to see movies that credibly achieved the same effect as Gojira, but also upped the level of achievement or quality in some substantive way. And yet, there were dozens, if not hundreds of monster and giant monster movies through the 1950’s and 1960’s, even into the 1970’s. The movie that set the pattern for many of these, at least in America, was

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Years of Infamy”

Paige Francis He/him