I make no apologies for being a Kaiju kid. Watching monsters level cities was simply what was on TV when I was growing up, and one of the earliest I can remember is Rodan. I think I was probably in kindergarten or younger when I first saw it. I remember learning that films were on long strips that would run through a projector with a light behind it, but it still hadn't occurred to me that the strip needed to be somewhat CLEAR for the light to pass through it.... And I made an attempt to create a Rodan 'film' by drawing individual cells on the movie onto a strip of manila paper and asking my parents to show it on the little Super 8 projector we had. Those 'cells' were not in sequence, they were just individual scenes, but... I was too young to actually know how movies worked. Even if it had, it was more like a filmstrip.
Needless to say, my early Rodan opus never got showed. I remember my mom handing me a flashlight and telling me that if the light shined through the manila paper, we could watch my production... and... imagination aside, manila paper is a poor substitute for celluloid.
But I remember the real film fondly.
Rodan (1956) was in frequent rotation on Superhost's Saturday Mad Theater, on Channel 43 in Cleveland when I grew up. I vividly remember watching it, and being enthralled by the colors of it. The blue of the skies, the yellow outfits of the miners, the bright red of the lava... It was, and still is, mesmerizing. And the monsters? Really perfect, and a close, early favorite to the "big guns" of Godzilla and Gamera.
I think one of the keys here was that there was no sense of malevolence in Rodan and his mate. They were confused animals. Even as a child, I couldn't really blame them for the destruction they were creating... they were simply animals, confused and panicked, reacting as animals would. That made them less scary. And the end of the film was pure pathos, and was genuinely upsetting to 6 year old me. It was SAD to see Rodan and his mate perish in the volcano.
You can't fault Ishiro Honda for his direction in this. Its brilliant. he managed to wring genuine fear and sadness out of a film with men in rubber suits destroying miniature sets.
Watching the film again recently, there is something else I can point to as being something that is almost unique in the Kaiju genre... a compelling story about the human characters.
Its something of a truism that in a Kaiju film, we just don't care about the human side of the story most of the time. There ARE times when its compelling... such as in the original Gojira (1954) when the love triangle of Ogata/Emiko/Serizawa was such an intense and meaningful counterpoint to the monster, and it was skillfully woven into the story so that eventually the humans' and monster's story connect at the end. But most of the time, the human side of the story is almost a separate, and vastly inferior film to that of the monsters (I'm looking at you Godzilla Vs The Sea Monster (1966)).
In Rodan though... the human story WORKS. I REMEMBER the Human story from when I watched this as a child... I remember it almost as vividly as the monster scenes. Maybe its because the trauma that happens to Shigeru is relatable to a child. He is separated in the mines from his companions and lost for a time, and suffers from something he is unable to explain. The idea of separation and loss is something every child can relate to. While its unlikely a child getting separated from his parents at the mall will encounter Meganulon larva or baby Pteranadons, they will likely still have a fear of monsters waiting for them.
I can't speak for others really, but this is a more compelling human story for me than one involving Interpol officers hunting aliens...
I am also shocked that this is the first time I connected Rodan to 2000's Godzilla vs Megaguirus. I have no excuse.
Another interesting bit of trivia... The dubbing of Rodan into English was accomplished by only about 4 people. George Takei (in his first professional 'acting' job), Keye Luke, Paul Frees (frankly the hardest working voice actor in Hollywood in those days), and a woman, who's name is sadly lost to us these days. Takei was actually the first Japanese-American to provide voiceover work for Toho films released in America.
Curiously, I see Martin Scorsese, of all people, praised the imagination of this film. Curious then that he is so negative about the current trend of superhero films, and can't see the imagination there. He is someone who really confuses me. It may be an article for another time, but he is one of those film makers who is acknowledged as a genius.... but whose works have NEVER 'spoken' to me. He gets a lot of praise for his gangster films, but... honestly? What is there to admire about gangsters? Sure, you can make a film about them feel 'real'... but what good is 'real' if its telling you a story that still feels hollow?
As I said, a post for another time, and possibly a different blog. I connect more with giant monsters. superheroes, and supernatural and science fiction menaces than I do ordinary criminals. I am not the person Martin Scorsese is making films for, and he tends to look down on the people who make films for me.
Let's talk about this poster for a moment. This is one of my favorite posters of the 50s... its an Australian one for Rodan. The drawing of Rodan looks NOTHING like the one in the film, but has a weird sort of charm to it. The tag line is also fantastic: "More Startling than Jules Verne!" Well.... yes, I suppose a giant supersonic monster who flattens cities with hurricane force winds WOULD be more startling than ... uh... 19th Century Steampunk visions of technology... I mean... what do Rodan and Verne even have in common? At least Wells and Burroughs WROTE about dinosaurs, I can't think of a single mention on them in Verne, unless you want to count the Squid in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or the giant animals in Mysterious Island.... but I don't...
