Surprising facts about the first "Godzilla"

On November 3, 1954, the premiere of the film “Godzilla” took place in Japan for the first time. The picture turned out to be so successful that the next year a new version of it was released, and subsequently the film took its rightful place in the "Top 100 Best" in the history of cinema.

We decided to recall the history of the creation of this monster movie masterpiece: we offer you entertaining photos and facts.

(Total 10 photos)

According to kinopoisk.ru

1. The idea of creating a film about a radioactive monster belongs to producer Tomoyuki Tanaka: he was previously banned from filming the film project “Behind The Glory” based on real events, which was supposed to tell about Japanese fishermen from the ship “Lucky Dragon 5” who found themselves in the area of American nuclear tests and received a serious dose of radiation. Meanwhile, the beginning of Godzilla is a direct reference to this story.

The social significance of the film is such that Godzilla, awakened from a thousand-year sleep due to explosions in the ocean, is a symbolic warning to unreasonable humanity in the form of a radioactive beast, whose thermal breath will sooner or later overtake people who play with fire.

2. The name "Gojira" ("Godzilla") is a combination of the Japanese words "gorira" ("gorilla") and "kujira" ("whale"). This gorilla-whale hybrid was also an early Godzilla prototype proposed by Tomoyuki Tanaka himself. But after watching the American film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Tanaka came to the conclusion that Godzilla must be a dinosaur. The monster's old name is nonetheless preserved.

3. VFX supervisor Eiji Tsuburaya originally envisioned Godzilla as a giant octopus. This octopus, named Oodako, was created, and subsequently even lit up in some films. Another early version of Godzilla was a creature with a nuclear "mushroom" head.

4. The technique of time-lapse shooting of the Godzilla model (as in the old American "King Kong") was rejected due to its cost in terms of money and time. In addition, Eiji Tsuburaiya stated that at that time there were simply no masters in this area of animation in Japan.

5. It's hard to imagine, but the first Godzilla costume weighed as much as 91 kilograms! Accordingly, causing serious inconvenience to the stuntman (Haruo Nakajima) when moving: he could walk no more than ten meters in it, after which, due to gravity and heat, it became impossible to be inside Godzilla. Fortunately, subsequently the costumes were somewhat lightened.

6. 60 years ago, it was not easy for filmmakers to find ways to implement their literally fantastic plans: the eyes and mouth of the monster in the first film were controlled by three cables passed behind Godzilla. In the second film, separate batteries were built into the suit for this purpose, due to which it became even heavier.

In the role of the operator of the first version, pulling the power lever to kill Godzilla with a current of 300 thousand volts, the director Ishiro Honda himself starred. And right before this scene in the room you can see Haruo Nakajima himself, who also appeared in the film and as one of the reporters.

7. Another couple of extremely original solutions from the filmmakers: to voice the frightening roar of Godzilla, the composer of the film, Akira Ifukube, drove a thick leather glove along the strings of the double bass, after which the reverberation effect was superimposed on the recorded sound. Godzilla's footsteps were sounded by a rope, which was beaten on an iron cauldron!

8. The power towers that Godzilla melted with his radioactive breath were made of wax and melted by applying a spotlight and a jet of hot air to them.

9. Circumstances also played a positive role in the filming process: the soldiers that can be seen in the film (heading to the coast to fight Godzilla) are real Japanese troops who were on maneuvers during filming and successfully got into the frame.

10. Photo from the set of "Godzilla" in 1956.

Oddly enough, the original version of Godzilla in Japanese and with English subtitles officially took place in the United States only half a century later - in 2004. In the same 2004, Godzilla received his well-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Stars.