Donald White (donaldwhite1)

This movie was the Japanese attempt to tell the story of World War II without admitting their own guilt in starting the war or the atrocities committed by the Japanese army. They could show the suffering of the Japanese civilians by having the cities of Japan destroyed by a giant fire breathing radioactive dinosaur that rises mysteriously from the sea. Gojira is in fact the good old US of A. No sea going dinosaur ever burned Japanese cities and spread radioactive fallout across the landscape. It was the U.S. Army Air Force. But the Japanese didn't want to offend us since we were protecting them from communist invasion from Korea. Therefore they had a giant lizard do it in the movie. Although the monster was supposed to have been created by an H-Bomb blast, the United States is never mentioned in the movie. They never even show an atomic blast. The Japanese version is hard to follow even with the English sub-titles. The Japanese actors seem so serious and occasionally angry. I guess it lost something in translation. The version released in America was totally recut and dubbed into English and extra scenes with Raymond Burr added and scenes that might offend U.S. audiences deleted. The added scenes are obviously out of place and don't fit the Japanese story. The Japanese actors seem to be acting their hearts out but the English dialog seems flat and unemotional. Godzilla is actually seen in about 30 percent of the American version. Since the Japanese version is longer Gojira is in 25 percent of the original version. In the Japanese version you get to see more of Gojira destroying Tokyo. Sometimes all you see is his head. In the U.S. version there is about 13 minutes of Godzilla smashing cardboard miniatures of a Japanese city. The Japanese version has 14 minutes of Gojira destroying Tokyo landmarks. By using black and white film and keeping everything slightly out of focus it's not as obvious as in later Japanese monster movies made in color and filmed in sharp focus.

This movie was the Japanese attempt to tell the story of World War II without admitting their own guilt in starting the war or the atrocities committed by the Japanese army. They could show the suffering of the Japanese civilians by having the cities of Japan destroyed by a giant fire breathing radioactive dinosaur that rises mysteriously from the sea. Godzilla is in fact the good old US of A. No sea going dinosaur ever burned Japanese cities and spread radioactive fallout across the landscape. It was the U.S. Army Air Force. But the Japanese didn't want to offend us since we were protecting them from communist invasion from Korea. Therefore they had a giant lizard do it in the movie. The version released in America was dubbed into English and extra scenes with Raymond Burr added and scenes that might offend U.S. audiences deleted. The added scenes are obviously out of place and don't fit the Japanese story. The Japanese actors seem to be acting their hearts out but the English dialog seems flat and unemotional. Godzilla is actually seen in less than 30 percent of the movie. Sometimes all you see is his head. In the U.S. version there is actually only about 17 minutes of Godzilla smashing cardboard miniatures of a Tokyo. By using black and white film and keeping everything slightly out of focus it's not as obvious as in later Japanese monster movies made in color and filmed in sharp focus. I guess the only reason this film was popular in America was because it was shown at drive-in movie theaters and the American people of 1954 still enjoyed the sight of Japanese getting smashed even if it was by a giant lizard. Although Godzilla was supposed to be the bad guy, Americans probably saw him as the hero. Americans who lived through World War II know exactly what this country did to Japan and why we did it. If you were to ask someone of that generation they will tell you the Japanese deserved every bit of all the damage we did to them. That was the generation that in the 1950's was having fun driving their new cars to the drive-in movies on Friday nights and watching a guy in a rubber lizard suit smash models of Japanese cities.

This is the action adventure movie all others are compared against. The story is set in an exotic Greek island location during World War II. A small group of commandos on a desperate mission to destroy a set of German coastal guns that stand between the British Navy and thousands of outnumbered British soldiers trapped on a Greek Island near Turkey about to be captured by the Germans. The movie is set in the spring or early summer of 1941 after the British had suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Germans in Greece and Crete. It is a true fact that the British barely were able to evacuate their defeated troops to Egypt before they were taken prisoners. The rest of the story is fiction. There is no Island of Navarone and the Germans never installed any big guns in Greece. Unlike many war movies, the Germans speak German to each other, not English. The violence is quick and brutal. There is no waste of ammunition for the sake of typical Hollywood action. The bullets don't explode, they just poke holes in people killing them. The special effects were good in 1960 but today it's obviously done with models. The story explores the morality of war and the duty of a soldier. When the mission commander breaks his leg his second in command must choose whether to sacrifice the life of his friend or the success of his mission. Later when a traitor is found in their mist they must decide whether she should live or die. I first saw this movie on TV when I was a kid. I have a Laserdisc version that was made with a faded copy of the film. I later bought the DVD which has a crisp cleaned up picture and is in wide screen format with much better sound. Best quote, "Are you sure it will work?" "No guarantee but the theory is perfectly feasible."

This movie is long and intense. It starts out good with an excellent battle sequence at the VC village. However, as they move upriver the historical accuracy gets lost. I don't think the American servicemen were as undisciplined as depicted in this movie. I also doubt that the Southeast Asian people were as primitive as shown in the movie. But this story was about 19th century Africa and not Vietnam. The ending on the DVD is not what I remember from the movie theater. I first saw this movie at the Cowboy Mall in Stillwater, OK. It was a strip mall north of the OSU campus that was new at the time and was the first multi-screen theater in Stillwater. This movie came out about the same time as Star Wars and is as dark and depressing as Star Wars was fun and uplifting. Redeux is Longer version of a good movie This version is longer and just as intense. Added a little sex left out of the original. The discussion about the history of Vietnam is interresting and reminds the viewer that this is a Vietnam War movie and not an African adventure film. This movie is worth watching more to remind people what was going on in the late 70's than during the real war. Oh Yea, the music is excellent.