Godzilla - any good?

In light of my relatively new-found love of Japanese cinema, it occurs to me I've never seen the original Godzilla. I saw bits of later films on TV as a youngster and thought...well, they didn't look terribly good, but I hear the original is still a bit of a classic. As it features Takashi Shimura, too, I'm a little intrigued.

So, is it any good as a film?

Admin wrote:In light of my relatively new-found love of Japanese cinema, it occurs to me I've never seen the original Godzilla. I saw bits of later films on TV as a youngster and thought...well, they didn't look terribly good, but I hear the original is still a bit of a classic. As it features Takashi Shimura, too, I'm a little intrigued.

So, is it any good as a film?

Actually yes it has a whole allegory of anti-nuclear rhetoric that makes it quite interesting. Just make sure you watch Gojira (Toho has a good release) and not the American Godzilla (which is fun, but no where near as interesting as the non-tampered with version).

Admin wrote:So, is it any good as a film?

Absolutely, and it's a key film from its era as well. Just make sure you get the original Japanese version (preferably on the excellent R1 2-disc DVD set. You're actually in a good position to approach the original version first, having not seen the heavily altered American version most westerners had to live with for decades. Certainly the film enough has had enough written about it that you could easily enhance the viewing.

The sequels run the gamut, though, and are probably less essential, although if you're looking to sample the best cross section of them (including the original), this hefty box set is currently a reasonable $25.99 on Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VXWK86/

The 2-disc set (which includes the Japanese and American edits) is currently $9.99, which is also quite fair:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FA4TLQ/

Thanks guys, I've ordered the original

In case anyone's interested, the Godzilla Collection boxed set I linked to earlier has dropped to $18.99 at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VXWK86/

Thanks for the info again - watched this last night and enjoyed it. I thought it was way ahead of its time and felt quite modern with the Shimura character wanting to save the creature, which I didn't really expect. The only effects I really had a problem with were the aeroplanes!

Did anyone else think Emiko looked like a young Maggie Cheung?