AMERICANIZATION: GODZILLA'S TRANSFORMATION
With much success in the Japanese film industry, Gojira’s director, Ishirô Honda, sought an American distributor to take the newly developed monster to the mass market through the growing Hollywood film industry. Joseph E. Levine, Hollywood producer and director, purchased the rights and began undertaking the task of changing the “dark and broody, subtitled art-house release” (Tsutsui 38) into a thriller American audiences could not only understand but also enjoy. In doing so, the original Gojira was drastically changed. Many of the original scenes were cut out and replaced with American studio-shot scenes that introduced new characters or information. In addition, the few scenes of the original that remained were dubbed or overlaid with English so that the audience would not have to read their way through the movie. Granting all of the changes, the film had lasting popularity throughout America and Canada, introducing a new genre of monster to Hollywood production that impacted America’s overall view of monstrosity.
In general, the movie follows much of the same story line as its Japanese original counterpart. It introduces Godzilla as a beast spawned, in one way or another, from underwater nuclear bomb testing only to rampage the cities of Japan, killing tens of thousands of innocents in its wake. The original trailer for Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, as seen on the right, shows clips of the film paired with exciting narration explaining less of the story line and more of the “dynamic violence, savage action, and spectacular thrills” (Tsutsui 40) intended for the audience, even stating the film's title six times. Though it never mentions its adaptation from Gojira, even the trailer depicts many of the same ideas and interpretative fears as the original.
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Because the American release was heavily adapted from the Japanese production, the two movies share many of the same scenes, often just presented in different ways. The opening sequence of both films, for instance, was based on the Lucky Dragon Incident of Spring 1954 which is discussed in detail on the Origins page. The scenes depict a fishing boat full of crewmen sunk by some sort of nearby explosion in the water which we later discover to be an atomic bomb test that caused Godzilla to rise from the depths of the ocean. Though the scenes are the same, the two films depict the awakening of Godzilla in different lights. Throughout Gojira, Godzilla was characterized as the child of the hydrogen bomb, whereas in the American adaptation, Godzilla is merely a prehistoric relic resurrected from the Jurassic age by its detonation (Tsutsui). In addition, the American adaptation opens in the aftermath of the destruction, examining the incident and Godzilla’s subsequent rampage throughout Tokyo through flashbacks from the hospital that housed many of the injured.
One of these injured, Steve Martin, was one of the new characters introduced in the film in order to appeal to American audiences. Martin, played by Raymond Burr, was the American “foreign correspondent for United World News” (Morse, Godzilla, King of the Monsters!) visiting Japan on a social call on his way to Cairo, Egypt for a story. Caught in the midst of Godzilla’s destruction, Martin stayed in Japan in order to document the tragedy. With the help of another newly introduced character, a security officer known as Mr. Iwanaga who was investigating the mysterious oceanic explosion, Steve Martin was allowed access to many of the meetings and information that he used to inform the world of Godzilla’s existence. As an integral character dynamic, Martin and his relationship with Mr. Iwanaga allowed for translation of many of the Japanese scenes without the need for dubbing, producing an interesting mix of English dubbed scenes and English or Japanese dialogue scenes. Creating legitimacy to the overall reality of the characters and situations, this mix of language and culture added to the effectiveness of the movies as a Hollywood adaptation.
The depiction of an amicable relationship between Mr. Iwanaga who was Japanese and Steve Martin, the American, also contributed to making Godzilla, King of the Monsters! the first post-World War II movie to depict Japan in a positive light (Tsutsui). Even though the movie was released in 1956, almost 10 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many pop cultural creators were still hesitant to address the Japanese culture in a positive, or merely agreeable, way at the risk of losing audiences. The connotations of this film had much to do with the fact that the original Gojira was written and created in Japan with America as the enemy; and, when America bought the rights and edited the production, the monstrosity of America was removed but the morality of Japan could not be changed. In making the film more appealing to American audiences still scarred from the devastation and tensions of the war, American adaptors created this dynamic working relationship between the two new characters they introduced. This, in many ways, helped shift the American public’s view of monstrosity off of the Japanese culture depicted in the movie and forced it on the destruction of an even bigger monster: Godzilla.
The depiction of an amicable relationship between Mr. Iwanaga who was Japanese and Steve Martin, the American, also contributed to making Godzilla, King of the Monsters! the first post-World War II movie to depict Japan in a positive light (Tsutsui). Even though the movie was released in 1956, almost 10 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many pop cultural creators were still hesitant to address the Japanese culture in a positive, or merely agreeable, way at the risk of losing audiences. The connotations of this film had much to do with the fact that the original Gojira was written and created in Japan with America as the enemy; and, when America bought the rights and edited the production, the monstrosity of America was removed but the morality of Japan could not be changed. In making the film more appealing to American audiences still scarred from the devastation and tensions of the war, American adaptors created this dynamic working relationship between the two new characters they introduced. This, in many ways, helped shift the American public’s view of monstrosity off of the Japanese culture depicted in the movie and forced it on the destruction of an even bigger monster: Godzilla.
The American adaptation, in addition to creating new, relatable characters, also focused more on the destruction caused by Godzilla rather than the monster itself. For instance, because the beginning of the movie is told through a series of flashbacks to the devastating images of a trampled Tokyo, Godzilla does not appear until almost thirty minutes into the film (Morse, Godzilla, King of the Monsters!). In contrast, Gojira slowly builds to the destruction while focusing on the monster. Much of the motivation for this is grounded in an attempt to appeal to the growing viewer demographic of 1960s America. American audiences of the 1950s and 1960s were used to action packed war dramas and wanted to be entertained. Hooking them with destruction under the pretense of a looming monster engaged in a more thrilling, suspenseful way than the original. In addition, the creators did not want to deter potential viewers by provoking unnecessary emotions. This led to the cutting and editing of many of the scenes that implied the monstrosity of America, especially when considering nuclear testing. The Japanese originally created Godzilla as a symbol of the destruction American atomic bombs caused to the country. Producers on American soil, however, did not want their audience to feel guilty or victimized when recognizing the connection, forcing them to use the original’s destruction content rather than many of the monster scenes.
As consistently addressed, the film going audiences of the late 1950s and early 1960s were drastically and constantly changing, motivating many of the differences seen in Godzilla, King of the Monsters!. With rising global nuclear threats, around the time Levine purchased the rights to the movie, the Cold War and its concerns were becoming more and more applicable to American daily life. Nuclear tensions were very high and the US found itself “caught between peacetime euphoria and perceived threat to homeland security” (Guthrie-Shimizu 57). The original Godzilla movie focuses heavily on themes of nuclear war and radiation’s harmful consequences. However, because of the paranoia of potential audiences, under Americanization “radiation became a gimmick rather than a moral crisis” and Godzilla was transformed into a pop-culture “monster-on-the-loose” (Tsutsui 41). The producers wanted their audiences to feel safe, while paying money to escape the tensions of Cold War America rather than fueling political paranoia.
In addition to nuclear advances of the mid 1900s came rising technological advances on a much smaller scale, as well. Televisions, for instance, were becoming more affordable for average, middle class Americans. More and more households were purchasing television sets and not wanting to spend their money going out to the movie theater. As a result, the potential audience demographic grew in size as the younger generations gained access. After Godzilla, King of the Monsters! was aired in small release in New York, Boston, and other major US cities, the film was released to be played on television during Saturday afternoon monster specials. This spike in audience density caused potential for merchandise that appealed to the younger audience’s love for monster movies. This lead to the production of a franchise in which profits consistently increased and added drastic amounts to the original base value of two million dollars grossed from ticket sales.
With a new found audience, Godzilla, King of the Monsters! spiked interest in monster culture and, eventually, lead to the popularity of a new genre of monster known as kaiju eiga. The term kaiju eiga refers to a genre of Japanese cinema that involves giant monsters. King Kong, the monster from which the phrase “King of the Monsters” was coined for Godzilla in order to relate the new movie to the popularity of the earlier beast in order to attract audiences to the box office, was also later considered to be a part of this growing category. Though Godzilla is one of the longest running series in world movie history, perhaps its greatest achievement was the creation and influence of a major modern Hollywood genre that has influenced not only later Godzilla adaptations and expansions but also movies like Pacific Rim as explained in the Pop Culture tab.
As consistently addressed, the film going audiences of the late 1950s and early 1960s were drastically and constantly changing, motivating many of the differences seen in Godzilla, King of the Monsters!. With rising global nuclear threats, around the time Levine purchased the rights to the movie, the Cold War and its concerns were becoming more and more applicable to American daily life. Nuclear tensions were very high and the US found itself “caught between peacetime euphoria and perceived threat to homeland security” (Guthrie-Shimizu 57). The original Godzilla movie focuses heavily on themes of nuclear war and radiation’s harmful consequences. However, because of the paranoia of potential audiences, under Americanization “radiation became a gimmick rather than a moral crisis” and Godzilla was transformed into a pop-culture “monster-on-the-loose” (Tsutsui 41). The producers wanted their audiences to feel safe, while paying money to escape the tensions of Cold War America rather than fueling political paranoia.
In addition to nuclear advances of the mid 1900s came rising technological advances on a much smaller scale, as well. Televisions, for instance, were becoming more affordable for average, middle class Americans. More and more households were purchasing television sets and not wanting to spend their money going out to the movie theater. As a result, the potential audience demographic grew in size as the younger generations gained access. After Godzilla, King of the Monsters! was aired in small release in New York, Boston, and other major US cities, the film was released to be played on television during Saturday afternoon monster specials. This spike in audience density caused potential for merchandise that appealed to the younger audience’s love for monster movies. This lead to the production of a franchise in which profits consistently increased and added drastic amounts to the original base value of two million dollars grossed from ticket sales.
With a new found audience, Godzilla, King of the Monsters! spiked interest in monster culture and, eventually, lead to the popularity of a new genre of monster known as kaiju eiga. The term kaiju eiga refers to a genre of Japanese cinema that involves giant monsters. King Kong, the monster from which the phrase “King of the Monsters” was coined for Godzilla in order to relate the new movie to the popularity of the earlier beast in order to attract audiences to the box office, was also later considered to be a part of this growing category. Though Godzilla is one of the longest running series in world movie history, perhaps its greatest achievement was the creation and influence of a major modern Hollywood genre that has influenced not only later Godzilla adaptations and expansions but also movies like Pacific Rim as explained in the Pop Culture tab.