I saw The Illustrated Man last night and yeah, it is hard to get into. Nice violin music though, very reminiscent of that riff from the original Trek. You might be onto something there. If our external environment is a reflection of our mental state, then I'd expect the future to be minimalist or sterile by today's standards if people learned to unclutter their minds.
Jerry Goldsmith did the score. And it's a 1969 film, from the same era as TOS, so stylistic similarities are understandable. Hey, I'm not endorsing it. It was the choice of those respective filmmakers to represent a sterile, technocratic dystopia. But it's highly symbolic, and realistically one can't expect that people would ever choose to live that way. (When I look at Krypton in Superman: The Movie, I can't help but wonder, where the hell do they sit? Where's the fridge? It's not a functional environment for living, just a movie set symbolically representing a cold and sterile place.)
If you're wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts Then repeat to yourself, "It's just a show, I should really just relax ;D
Friday, June 15th... Gojira at 8:00 PM (EST) Rodan at 9:45 PM (EST) Mothra at 11:15 PM (EST) The old Japanese movie line-up continues with... The H-Man at 1:00 AM (EST) Hausu at 2:30 AM (EST)
It's labeled as "Gojira" as opposed to "Godzilla, King of the Monsters"? I wonder if TCM is going to air the original version, without the Raymond Burr inserts? Sincerely, Bill
According to TCM's schedule, yes, it is the original Gojira. (Which is actually 16 minutes longer than the Raymond Burr version, surprisingly.)
I just popped into the TCM site and, yeah, it appears to be "Gojira" and not "Godzilla". This oughta' be fun! I've never seen the original version of the film despite reading about it for years. Sincerely, Bill EDIT: Oops, looks like I was composing as you were posting, Chris'. Thanks for the feedback.
awesome. i've never seen the original Mothra film. seems like i tried to watch H-Man last year on TCM and fell asleep.
Damn. I've only seen the Burr version as well, but I'm on vacation and the hotel cable has AMC and not TCM. AMC may be a good place for shows but it sucks for movies. Be sure to tell us how it was.
Which just goes to show how niche cable networks often change identity, since AMC originally stood for American Movie Classics. They used to be the go-to channel for commercial-free classic movies, and then it was both them and TCM sharing the niche for a while, but I guess TCM won the competition and AMC shifted its focus elsewhere.
I remember when TCM was the new kid on the block, AMC 's decline was a sad thing and now w/o TCM I might not even want cable lol...
It's striking how dark, somber, and character-driven a film Gojira actually is, defying expectations of the kaiju genre. I had some giggles at the cheesy effects, but the human portions of the story had a lot more impact, especially the scenes of the aftermath of the destruction -- particularly given that this film was made only nine years after the bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The spectre of nuclear destruction definitely haunts the film, and a character in the film essentially says as much outright. (I had a thought... given that Japan is basically an animist culture, with traditional beliefs where everything has an embodying spirit, maybe Gojira was seen as the spirit/embodiment of nuclear devastation and was thus taken more seriously within that cultural context, whereas Westerners just saw a big dinosaur.) I'm also surprised to learn that Gojira wasn't created or resurrected by the nuclear tests, as I'd thought, but merely displaced from the deeps where he already resided, a surviving relic like the coelacanth. (Although the Jurassic was a lot more than 2 million years ago, guys.) Rodan, by contrast, is a much more lightweight, superficial kaiju movie, more in keeping with what became the usual formula. There's not a lot of apocalyptic symbolism inherent in a supersonic pteranodon that generates hurricane winds, and there was no core moral dilemma surrounding the climax, just "shoot it a lot." Not nearly as interesting. (I'm recording Mothra now; I'll watch later.) And is "pteranodon" really such a difficult word to get a handle on? Robert Osborn pronounced it "pteradon" and whoever wrote the subtitles misread it as "petranodon." Though that's not as bad as Osborn thinking Gojira was actually Gojida or Gojita or something.
I didn't catch Gojira but I always liked the American version because I always imagine the other Steve Martin dealing with Godzilla. ETA: The dubbing of a 50s torch singer on a very Japanese woman in H-Man is frickin' hilarious.
They showed Rodan in the original Japanese, too. I taped Hausu. I never heard of it before and it looks pretty freaky.
So you could hear that they were actually saying "Radon," not "Rodan." I always wondered where the name came from, but it's easy to see how "Radon" is an abbreviation of "pteranodon."
I saw Gojira, Rodan and Mothra last night. - Gojira was surprisingly good. I expected some dumb cheesy action movie, but found it to be surprisingly well done. The effects weren't as campy as I was expecting and the story had substance and a good message about the dangers of nuclear technology. I thought it was well made for a 50s Godzilla movie and I'm glad that I finally saw it. I was surprised that Godzilla was destroyed in the end though. So, all those movies don't involve the same monster. - Rodan wasn't as good, but again, I can't complain too much. It was another introductory film. - Mothra was a little better than Rodan. It was a little odd with a more fanciful story, but it was interesting, especially when it all came together in the end. Anyway, it was a good 5 hours. A little tedious in parts, but good. It might have been fun to get some bad dubs, but I'm alright with the original language cuts. Apparently they weren't always easy to find. Looks like these monsters appear in a lot of movies. I thought there were half a dozen or so, but there are a lot more. I'm also guessing that the others try to capitalize on these originals and are more in line with the cheesy action that I was expecting. I see lots of titles like "Godzilla vs Whatever".
I didn't get to see the whole thing, but that makes sense. Hausu was completely and utterly fantastic. It was made in 1977, so it was a little late for the psychedelic era, but it certainly would have fit right in. I'd describe it as a cross between Laugh-In, Monty Python, The Electric Company and The Legend of Hell House. It's about a bunch of Japanese schoolgirls (and, yes, there is brief nudity) with descriptive nicknames ("Fantasy," "Kung Fu," "Prof" et cetera) who get stuck in a haunted house with one of the girls' aunt, who... Spoiler: auntie ...turns out to be, as far as I can fathom all this, a cannibalistic ghost. But there's also a ghostly or demonic cat. And what the fruit vendor is, well, your guess is as good as mine. This is the trippiest thing I've seen in a while. If I'd known it would be this far out, I would have gotten some Twisted Tea for accompaniment. If it's on DVD, I'm buying it.
The TCM host explained that the movie's name was changed to Rodan to distance itself from radon gas as well as a product with the name "Radon". I didn't see Hausu. It sounds interesting, so I'll have to check it out next time it comes around. Gonna have to google "Twisted Tea" as well.