U.S Release: 5/20/1998
Directed by Roland Emmerich
Written By Dean Devlin & Roland Emmerich
Distributed by TriStar Pictures &Toho
Cast:
Matthew Broderick - Nick Tatopoulus
Jean Reno - Phillipe Roche
Maria Patillo - Audrey Timmons
Hank Azaria - Animal Palotti
Kevin Dunn - Col. Hicks
Harry Shearer - Charles Caiman
The Skinny:
The American remake of the iconic movie monster from Japan, as imagined if the creature arrived in the USA instead of Japan. An opening montage shows the many nuclear tests conducted in the south pacific during the 1950s, with an ominous closing shot on a lizard egg after all the mushroom clouds dissipate.
Fast forward to present day (1998 in this case) where a Japanese cannery ship and a trio of American fishing trawlers sink under mysterious but obvious circumstances. Nick Tatopoulus (Broderick), who is cataloging earth worms in the region surrounding the Chernobyl reactor, that suffered a massive melt down in 1986, is snatched away from his work in the field, almost literally, under the pretense of re-assignment.
A short breakaway sequence shows what appear to be french doctors, assessing the lone survivor of the downed Japanese canning ship. Their leader, enigmatic Phillipe Roche (Reno) manages to get the poor man to speak, only for him to utter one word: "Godzilla".
Nick soon finds himself attached to an American brigade under the command of Col. Hicks (Dunn) who doesn't care about Nick's field of expertise, as he just wants Nick to use his expertise to study organic evidence left behind by an unknown animal that gives off high amounts of radiation. In cinematic fashion, Nick doesn't realize he's standing in the middle of a massive footprint until the colonel makes this obvious to him.
Soon after, the creature makes its destination of New York City. Understandably, the regular citizens are frozen in fear at the sight of a monstrous lizard being real, then run in terror as the creature stomps its way through NYC and even through the many buildings.
Col. Hicks, along with Nick the rest of the brigade arrive in New York to attempt to contain the situation. The destruction left in the creature's wake is everywhere, but it has seemingly disappeared. A platoon of soldiers on patrol find that the creature can burrow underground, and evade the army's surface patrols. Nick however, is convinced the creature has not left the city, and surmises the city itself is familiar to its natural habitat.
The Army's attempts to bring down the creature prove unsuccessful and cause about as much damage as the creature itself. Nick, while studying blood left behind from the 1st attack, runs into his ex-girlfriend, Audrey, who's struggling to become a big city reporter, but lies to Nick that she really is a reporter. Nick soon discovers that the creature is pregnant, and realizes it stopped in NYC to lay eggs. In a rush to inform Col. Hicks of this, he leaves Audrey alone in his tent, where she takes the opportunity to "borrow" top secret video tapes about the creature.
Audrey enlists the help of her friends, one being camera man Animal(Azaria), to cut a short expose about the creature which she gives to the station manager. As Nick is presenting his findings of the creatures pregnancy to the Army commanders, Audrey's expose is aired. Only to find out her manipulative boss (Shearer) stole the tape, edited her out and dubs himself the sole finder of the information.
Audrey is devastated, and Nick, thought to be careless, is throw out of the operation. While leaving the city, Nick is abducted by Roche, who reveals himself to be French Secret Service. He convinces Nick to help them find the creature's nest along with a small team of commandos. Animal, who was able to tail Nick and learn of Roche's true reason for being in NYC, rushes back to Audrey and convinces her to accompany him into the city to find Nick and the French special forces team as they search for the nest, and be the reporter on site to catch the career making story and hopefully absolve Nick of careless action.
The team does indeed find the creature's nest, and countless that start to hatch. Without enough ammunition or explosives to dispatch the hatchlings, the team must contain the creature's offspring to prevent them from spreading throughout the world, and eventually reach the same monstrous size of their parent, which would mean the end of humanity.
This film is one of the many examples of the big budget summer flicks that became popular during the 90's. A big marketing campaign was launched right before Christmas of 1997, complete with promotions at major food chains like Burger King, tie in gimmicks, songs written and performed by popular artists specifically for the film and even a few music videos to keep this film at the forefront of movie goers minds come Memorial Day weekend of 1998. Its been said this film was the most financially successful film of Matthew Broderick's career, as the film stood at number 1 in ticket sales a for a few weeks after its release, but did not make as much money as hoped for by the producers, especially after all the hype and budget given it.
The film did not fare well with critics. Famed film critic Roger Ebert, who gave poor reviews of Emmerich's previous films, thought the characters of the incompetent NYC Mayor and his wimpy aide were quips at him and his colleague Gene Siskel. Many critics thought the film had no real story or characterization and relied solely on its CGI and big budget special effects to carry it along.
Executives of Toho, the Japanese production house that owns the Godzilla franchise, publicly voiced their dislike of the film and the design of Godzilla. They would later adapt the creature into several of their films, only for it to be killed off rather quickly. Fans of the original Godzilla movie's thought this film was an attempt to "Americanize" the Godzilla character.
Production wise:
A much hyped summer flick, "Godzilla" had the big production budget, a big time director with Emmerich (fresh off his success with "Independence Day") and many professional VFX artists, compositors, model makers and set dressers to make Godzilla appear on the screen as well as within the New York City landscape. The film made extensive use of CGI, and miniature sets, both of which Emmerich was familiar with from working on Independance Day. Independence Day and this film seemed to cement Emmerich as a disaster movie director, though he would try his hand a few times with other genre films.
Patrick Tatopoulus pretty much made his name with this film in the movie industry as a creature designer and a special effects director. His design for the Godzilla creature was meant to make it different and unique, setting it apart from the original design from the iconic Toho films from Japan. Toho, who have held the rights to the Godzilla character since its inception, did have to approve the design per the agreement with the American producers, of which they eventually did approve saying it had the "spirit" of the original design, but rumors were the Toho executives didn't like it very much.
CGI was put to more use with this film, and rain was used in almost every outside shot of NYC to hide the finer details and help Godzilla blend in with his background more smoothly. Miniatures of famous New York structures, like the Chrysler building, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Flatiron Building, and Madison Square Garden,were creating and rigged with many pyrotechnics for the big explosive destruction sequences in the film.
The film had a big feel and big visuals to it. Emmerich and crew wasted no opportunity to show how big Godzilla was supposed to be, with the many skyscrapers of NYC used for visual reference in the film, and many of those skyscrapers were destroyed to show that Godzilla was indeed a monstrous lizard protecting it's "territory."
I remember seeing this film while on a camping trip over Memorial Day weekend, which was an annual tradition while growing up in Northern California. We were joined by a lot of family friends, one of which was a big fan of Japanese monster movies. I remember liking this movie for trying to do its own thing instead of straight copying the original films. I had seen a few Godzilla films, with the bad English dubbing they had become famous for here in the states, so I was excited to see a much more clean and updated version of the character.
I thought it was awesome how the creature could move so fast and jump over tall buildings with ease while being chased by modern war machines unloading a lot of ammo at it. I thought the design of the creature was cool, I didn't see it as the "American" Godzilla, I saw it as the updated and contemporary Godzilla, ready to join Hollywood as a major franchise next to "Alien" and the like. I anticipated a lot of destruction, but thought it was very creative and original, because its a giant lizard stomping around equally giant man made structures, and the film makers did a good job showing how that meeting would actually look and the end result of it.
A lot of the sequences were criticized for being unrealistic. Its true longbow Apache helicopters wouldn't be able to move in between the typical skyscrapers of New York, or that a typical New York cab could survive almost being eaten and still speed away, but again, its a monster movie, suspension of belief is needed beyond just Godzilla himself. Maybe cheap thrills in the end, but I still see this movie as an important stepping stone in film VFX history and the use of CGI. Not to mention another fine example of Pat Tatopoulus' artistic and practical prowess.
I had a post production teacher in college who worked on this film, and pretty much annoyed him with all my questions about what it was like to work on this film specifically.
This film is rated PG-13 for language, some sexual innuendo, a lot of destruction and "Sci-fi elements". Stream where available or rent, if you're in the mood for big visuals, a lot of destruction, CGI effects, or even if its just for some mindless entertainment. I think this film is worthy of a better place in film history, even if its overshadowed by its predecessors or successors.
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