Godzilla(1954)

Prepare to be transported through time as Anthony and Dakota honor the colossal legacy of the 1954 Godzilla, the film that thundered in the age of Kaiju and left an indelible mark on cinema and society. We'll unravel the dense tapestry of its political nuances and trace the reverberations of its influence into the modern MonsterVerse. Then, Anthony will let you in on his thrilling escapades within the updated world of Persona 3 Reload, blending nostalgic affection with a critical eye for the enhancements that breathe new life into a beloved classic.

Our conversation takes a creative twist as I divulge my web development escapades with plans to craft a digital hub for our podcast—a testament to the power of passion projects. Dakota, in turn, peels back the curtain on his intricate Monsterverse timeline creation, a labor of love for his Geekritique audience. We pay homage to the Criterion Collection's stellar efforts in film preservation, emphasizing the importance of safeguarding cinematic treasures like Godzilla for generations to come.

As we wind down our exploration, we reflect on the shadows of World War II etched into Godzilla's storyline, pondering the ethical mazes entwined with Dr. Serizawa's character and the daunting specter of nuclear power. We chart Godzilla's transformative journey through the film annals and leave you with curated picks from the Godzilla and Kong archives, specially tailored for Max streamers. Don't forget to join us next time as we set our sights on Kong Skull Island, and make sure to connect with us for enriching dialogues that celebrate iconic tales.

Twitter handles:
Project Geekology: https://twitter.com/pgeekology
Anthony's Twitter: https://twitter.com/odysseyswow
Dakota's Twitter: https://twitter.com/geekritique_dak

Instagram:
https://instagram.com/projectgeekology?igshid=1v0sits7ipq9y

Geekritique (Dakota):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBwciIqOoHwIx_uXtYTSEbA


Twitch (Anthony):
https://www.twitch.tv/odysseywow

Music:
Eric Godlow Beats: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRpkcYps82PdSo0tK5rEIPA

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to episode 70 of Project Geekology, where we are nuclear tested and ready to go. I'm one half of your host, Anthony, and joining me as always is Dakota.

Speaker 2: 0:16

And yeah, actually we are nuclear tested, but we're also like we're full of oxygen guys and we're ready to be destroyed.

Speaker 2: 0:24

Oxygen destroyed, that is, yes, oxygen destroyed. So we're gonna be covering Godzilla 1954, the original film that started off the huge Kaiju trade. Kaiju trade, we're gonna be. We're gonna be covering the film that started off the big Kaiju craze, godzilla or Gojira, from 1954. Obviously, we had, you know, king Kong that came out in the 30s, but from Japan's side of things, this was the big movie that just stemmed that entire franchise of Toho monsters, the universe that we love today about like giant monsters fighting each other that all started here with Godzilla.

Speaker 1: 1:05

Right, this is the movie that kicked off the beloved giant lizard, radioactive lizard.

Speaker 2: 1:11

Yes, so we're gonna be covering everything that we can think of within an hour of Godzilla, whether it comes to the political or socioeconomic ramifications of like what they were trying to get across from that movie.

Speaker 2: 1:25

Yes to comparisons to newer movies, because I don't know about you, anthony, but there was a lot of parallels between not only Godzilla, minus one, which we covered last week the monster verse. Like there were certain character names that were just totally ripped from this original movie, that were inserted in the monster verse that we're gonna talk about, and we're gonna compare and contrast all of the different little things that make up this original movie. But, anthony, before we start any of that, what have you been up to lately?

Speaker 1: 1:53

Well, you know, you better not say persona. I went to the theaters to actually watch this original Godzilla movie. No, I didn't, I did watch Godzilla 1954 and that was.

Speaker 2: 2:05

It would have been cool if you went to the theaters.

Speaker 1: 2:06

for that, though, that would have been insane.

Speaker 2: 2:10

Yeah, that would actually have been cool.

Speaker 1: 2:11

But it was really cool revisiting that movie. I hadn't seen it in so long, so it was almost like rewatching it again for the first time. But also very similar because after seeing Godzilla, minus one. But you know, other than that, that game that you know.

Speaker 2: 2:29

The game that we've decided you weren't gonna talk about Absolutely. It starts with a P, ends with a Ersona.

Speaker 1: 2:35

A P Ersona.

Speaker 2: 2:37

Yes, persona three reload. Tell me about it.

Speaker 1: 2:41

So for those of you and I'm not sure if you know what persona three reload is, persona three reload is a remake of persona three, which was out on PS2 and they had it out for PSP, or no? Yeah, it was on PSP because it was persona three portable. And then they came out with another version that is called FES that adds like a whole other protagonist to it. This took the base game and remade it, but it kept the core story. It kept a lot of the really yeah the story beats and the characters. Honestly, it's been a really good time.

Speaker 1: 3:19

I had played a little bit of persona three on a PSP but I didn't get too deep into it. Especially when this was announced I was like, oh, let me play this version and I do want to go back and play the definitive version of FES. I think is the version that a lot of people really love. So I do want to go back and play that eventually, maybe as the other protagonist. There's like a male and a female protagonist in that, but persona three reload just focuses on the male protagonist.

Speaker 2: 3:52

Cool, so I'm assuming you're enjoying it because you know it's the big game that you're playing right now.

Speaker 1: 3:57

Absolutely. I mean, yeah, dude, how many times have I talked about persona on this podcast? Like a lot.

Speaker 2: 4:04

An abnormal amount of persona. Discussion over the past couple of years years plural. So I'm a big fan of persona five royal especially.

Speaker 1: 4:15

I got my foot in the door with persona for golden, so I've been a persona fan at least since the PSV of the days.

Speaker 2: 4:23

So, as someone who is not familiar with these games literally at all, is persona five royal the name of the game?

Speaker 1: 4:31

So there's persona five and then there's persona five royal. Royal is the updated version of the game where there's updated visuals like avatars and minor things, but then it adds a whole extra character to it, the group within the game. They're called the fans of thieves. They go into this metaverse and that's where they fight all these creatures and it's like the dungeon crawling portion of the game. And so this persona five royal adds a new Phantom Thief and like an additional, I think like 20 to 30 hours to the game.

Speaker 2: 5:08

And you said you also mentioned persona for golden.

Speaker 1: 5:12

Is that the same concept?

Speaker 2: 5:13

Yes, Like an additional aspect of persona for. Okay, all right, cool. So persona three this is like an updated version of that persona three game.

Speaker 1: 5:23

Yes, Well, this one is majorly updated. It's not like you're getting a remaster or minor updates. The original was a lot of like kind of point and click type until you actually got into the like. When you got to the actual dungeons you could actually walk around and interact with stuff. But everything else was kind of like point and click and a lot of you know you would read and interact with people in that kind of way. So this one updates it to make it where you're kind of you're running around, you're interacting. The game is seen in more of a 3d world than the 2d aspect that this one would. Original persona three was 2d and 3d, like you know some segments and so yeah, this one is like an overhaul. I wouldn't say it's. It's not like Final Fantasy 7 remake where they took Final Fantasy 7 and expanded like the whole. The whole first part of Final Fantasy 7 remake is maybe a couple hours in the original. This one is closer to the original game but they updated it to where it looks. You know it's more modern.

Speaker 2: 6:33

So yeah, I've really enjoyed it.

Speaker 1: 6:35

Yeah, it's really cool seeing how the game was and then seeing how it is now. Persona 3 is the most popular for a lot of long term persona fans, mostly because persona three is the game that really is the mold for the rest of the persona games. But it's still tied to its roots. Persona is a spin off of a series called Shin Megami Tensei. The roots of persona three is a lot closer to Shin Megami Tensei and some of those roots kind of leave the game as the games go on. But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I just think that the persona games kind of established their own identity and so they're breaking away from the Shin Megami Tensei, but they still have the heart of it. Persona are these creatures in Shin Megami.

Speaker 2: 7:29

Okay, yeah, all right. What is it available to play on?

Speaker 1: 7:34

So persona three reload. It's available on all the major consoles. It's not on the Switch. I don't know if they've made any announcements as far as making a version of it for the Switch, but it is for Xbox, it is for PlayStation and it is on PC. For the Switch, you can play the original persona three, persona four golden and persona five royal.

Speaker 2: 7:58

Okay you can play the reloaded? Is it because the graphics engine available on the Switch?

Speaker 1: 8:04

I'm honestly not 100% sure, because the Switch runs persona five royal pretty decently. It's a lot more animated. The graphics aren't really like heavy. It's not realistic. It's not like you're trying to play Final Fantasy 7 remake on the Switch. I think if you ever try to play a game like that on the Switch, your Switch would probably literally explode. So, maybe down the line we'll get that version on the Switch, but At least you do have a version of it that you can play on the Switch. Do you recommend?

Speaker 2: 8:37

playing the first two games in the series before jumping into three.

Speaker 1: 8:41

It's not necessary. It's almost like the persona games are very similar to how Final Fantasy is done, where the only thing that's really connecting them is maybe like a couple of characters, but it's not connected story-wise. Like you know, the protagonists, they're all different, the stories are all different, the world building is all different, but the personas are shared. You know how Final Fantasy you have Chocobos and all the magic is like the same. You might have the Mugles or whatnot. There's stuff that's shared within this universe, but the stories are different.

Speaker 2: 9:17

Okay, all right, I'm thinking about. I mean, you've been talking about it for so long. Every time you say it, I'm thinking like maybe. I should get into it.

Speaker 1: 9:25

Hey, you might like it.

Speaker 2: 9:27

You know, I might jump on like places in five.

Speaker 1: 9:30

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:31

All right, cool. Do you recommend Persona 3 Reloaded as a?

Speaker 1: 9:35

starting point. I mean it's so, it's so tough, because I know a lot of people would say like yeah, definitely, definitely. But I feel like the one that has grabbed the most people is Persona 5. You know, because, like I don't know, have you heard of Persona before, like outside of me talking about it? No, no. So I mean I've heard, so I know people who have talked about it, but like I never really knew about Persona 3 and 4 until, like you know, just by chance, I picked up Persona 4, golden for the Vita, so that's something that I didn't know. It's almost like Monster Hunter. Monster Hunter is very niche, I think, in a way, persona was niche, but it's like kind of gone to the forefront. So maybe five, you know, five might be something that grabs you a little bit more, but it all depends because, like Persona 3 Reloaded is a lot darker, theme-wise and there's, you know, it even warns you in the beginning about stuff like bullying and you know, just like that, there might be some sensitive things.

Speaker 2: 10:42

The disclaimers yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Those disclaimers, okay, all right, so I'll think about it.

Speaker 1: 10:47

Yeah, definitely I'll see which one, but you would be safe on jumping on either one. You don't have to worry about missing anything. Story-wise.

Speaker 2: 10:54

All right. So if I jumped on Persona 4, golden, you'd be cool with that.

Speaker 1: 10:58

That's where I started, so perfect, cool.

Speaker 2: 11:01

Anything else you've been up to? Ah, nah, man.

Speaker 1: 11:03

You know, just doing my thing, working on my stuff, working on my projects, continuing to learn my web development stuff. You know it's a slow process, but it's getting there Eventually. I've told you many times I'd love to build us a proper website for our podcast and I think that's going to be my big personal project when I actually get to a place to where I can do stuff either on my own or I know where to go to figure out stuff. But that's definitely something that's on my heart. I really, really want to do that and I think it would be cool.

Speaker 2: 11:35

Yeah, I think that's important. I think any creative goal, whether it's creating a website or creating some sort of art piece, writing regularly, drawing regularly I think it's a cool thing to work towards. And, yeah, I think that the podcast definitely needs a new home. Yes, besides just a hosting platform, basically I think we need something a little bit stronger, a little more catchy.

Speaker 1: 11:59

Absolutely Something that. It's something that you know I want to establish. And then when we actually update, when we release these episodes, that it's you know. I don't have to go in and add it every time. It's like automatic, it's like boom, it's there.

Speaker 2: 12:15

Yeah, definitely. I think that's a super strong goal, especially creatively. I think that that is something that is easily I mean all right, it's not easily attainable, it's obviously a lot of work, but it's a cool goal to have. Eventually, I would like to write a novel. It's not going to happen overnight.

Speaker 1: 12:31

Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 12:32

I think eventually it probably will happen, you know, if I keep writing regularly. So that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 12:37

Definitely, that's kind of what I've been up to. What about you? What have you been up to?

Speaker 2: 12:41

I've been busying myself with work. Otherwise I've been working on my own projects for my GeekRoutique YouTube channel Specifically. I think I spoke about it last week. I'm pretty sure I have. I'm working on the Monsterverse timeline.

Speaker 2: 12:54

I have pretty much done all of my timeline notes for pretty much everything. I've done all the films, all the comic books that are tied into the Monsterverse, and now I'm working on the TV shows. I've finished the Netflix release, a single season of a Kong anime show. I've done all the notes for that. And now I'm working on the Monarch Legacy of Monsters, season one, and I'm halfway through with that. I'm almost done with all the note taking for the Monsterverse and then I can begin my writing process of the timeline. That's kind of how my process works For the most part. I take all the notes that I can first, then I jump into writing and then I record and start editing.

Speaker 2: 13:38

But for the Monsterverse, this was a more tedious project because I've never taken any notes for it. I've always just been an observer and an enjoyer of the movies, the shows, whatever. So I had to go back and be meticulous about like okay, I want this to be mentioned in my video. I don't want this to be mentioned in my video. So it takes a lot of work on that end, which is not something I'm used to because, like with Marvel, which I'm very in tune with, like Okay, this is a very important thing to write down.

Speaker 2: 14:08

I'll do that immediately, yeah you know, that's just how my brain is hardwired with Marvel, with other franchises. I'm still kind of working my way up towards that so that I can create big timeline videos that have not only like one. Like you know, I can easily say this movie happens here, this show happens here, this comic happens here. But to have a narrative that like sweeps throughout all of that, that's a lot of work. You know. I have to really know my stuff for something like that. So that's what I'm working on right now. It's it's a long time coming. I've been doing the notes for this for a little over a month at this point and I'm almost done. So I'm actually very excited about how this video is turning out.

Speaker 1: 14:46

I think it's gonna be a good one very nice man and when that video comes out, we'll definitely plug it in the show notes. We already we have your YouTube in the show notes. So if any of you all are interested any new people coming in, dad, they're interested in seeing your YouTube channel. It's in the show notes. Go check it out. There's a lot of really cool stuff. Expert. So you know you're officially unofficial, you know.

Speaker 2: 15:12

I Appreciate it. Should we jump into Godzilla?

Speaker 1: 15:15

Absolutely so, absolutely. It was interesting going back and watching this movie because you know they've definitely done a lot to Clean up the look of it, especially like I watched it on max, and I know that obviously, had I Seen this movie back then, the clarity of the picture wouldn't look like the way it was.

Speaker 2: 15:40

I see what you're saying, yeah. Yeah, it's definitely gone through a couple of remasters over the years. The version on max actually is a version only available to Criterion. Oh yeah, it's in criterion a collection right.

Speaker 2: 15:56

Yeah, so the criterion collection. They make DVDs. I mean, that's that's how they started. They find niche videos or, you know, like movies that Don't necessarily lend themselves to big blockbuster release, that are generally on the more artsy side of the entertainment value that you know I get from. You know movies and they they sign deals with the studios, with the directors, to Make physical media for you know, some of these films I have a couple. I have like probably seven or eight on my shelf over there. I have I'm looking at them right now I have citizen Kane, I have a hard day's night, I have the whole in drive twin peaks, a couple of them. I have a princess bride.

Speaker 2: 16:41

They're all like criterion collection versions of those releases and Alongside them they usually have, you know, a couple like special DVD extras that you wouldn't normally get on a normal DVD extra. And I think that's that's kind of what sets criterion apart is they really try to give you as much as as much value as possible with each release, because the Godzilla stuff that we were streaming for Godzilla 1954 was over max. I don't know that they have any of the extra stuff that would normally come on Like a criterion DVD or that criterion streaming service. I'm happy that it was on max to begin with, just in general, just because we were able to you know cover it for our you know production of this episode, so that that was really cool.

Speaker 1: 17:28

Yeah, it was really cool and, man, you know, there's a lot of things that kind of was sitting in my mind and that I was a little excited to talk about. There was a lot about this film that While I was watching it, you know, I kept on thinking about Godzilla minus one and it really made me appreciate Godzilla minus one a lot more, because it showed that the creators of that one really appreciated the original Godzilla and they, you know, there was a lot that it felt like. Like I said, it was almost like watching this movie again for the first time, but there was a lot familiar about it because we had seen Godzilla minus one.

Speaker 2: 18:11

I totally agree. And it's funny that you said that, because while I was watching it yesterday, jen was working on her laptop for, you know, for her job, for school or whatever, and she was telling me today that, like every time she looked up, she was just like, oh, this scene reminds me of Godzilla minus one, and I was thinking that throughout the entire thing I was just like man, is Godzilla minus one just kind of like a really modernized adaptation of the original 1954? And I think it is in some ways, you know, I think it's meant to be.

Speaker 2: 18:40

Obviously it's its own thing, I don't think anyone's gonna, you know, argue that but it is meant to emulate the feel, the terror, the overall Sentiment of post-war Japan that you had with the original film and something that Really sat in my mind about the original is that you know, yes, that movie definitely has that post World War two field.

Speaker 1: 19:05

You know this original one and the insanity is that everybody in that film Lived through that period, lived through World War two.

Speaker 2: 19:14

I know this was not even ten years after the end of it.

Speaker 2: 19:17

Yeah so let me put it this way, the people making this movie were closer in time to the bombs dropping in Japan. Then we are to Godzilla coming out in 2014, the Gareth Edwards movie that we covered not so long ago. It's just like to think about that. Difference kind of puts time into perspective and the time span of films and Hollywood and all that. So, yeah, anyone going through this movie, anyone filming this movie, anyone creating this movie and experiencing it at that time Would have those memories of war, you know bombs.

Speaker 1: 19:53

Yes.

Speaker 2: 19:54

H bombs, yeah, so it's.

Speaker 1: 19:56

There's an interesting scene on the train that a woman talks about. She's like you know, I just barely survived the bombing in Nagasaki. Now I have to deal with this Godzilla thing. I was like dude. How many people in this film actually had to survive actual bombing stuff like how close to home did that? You know, is this stuff hitting? When they're talking about this post-war stuff, they're talking about Nuclear testing, h bomb testing. You know, it's like dude. It's insane how close to World War two this movie was and how much that war Influences me. It's all. It's written all over this. It's so prominently Featured in this movie because how close it was. Man Dude, like that movie, dude, that movie it that movie after World War two. It was closer to World War two than you and I are to high school.

Speaker 2: 20:52

Yeah, dude, it's absolutely insane and I consider myself a young person, like, I don't consider myself like an old Old-folky at this point. But yeah, it's dude, it's nuts. How much World War two is written all over this movie, absolutely Even like. There's one scene where there's a mother and her two children like, and they're cowering from the destruction that is Godzilla tearing through Tokyo, and she tells her kids will be with your father soon. And I'm just like, dude, that's deep, that's heavy, you know.

Speaker 2: 21:25

She's basically telling her kids we're gonna die and it's gonna be okay because we're gonna be with your dad and that's dude it. I got choked up with it because I don't know how war feels. I'm a 32 year old dude who's never been through any type of battle like that. But these people experience that firsthand with the fire bombings and literally every Japanese city outside of Kyoto, as well as the nuclear bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Speaker 1: 21:52

There's no way anyone watching that movie in Japan did not have that background information going on at all times and it's hard not to watch Godzilla and Think about how it's directly influenced by World War two, because Godzilla Really is. I mean, he represents Nuclear power. That's really what he was based off of, you know. Yeah, that was the inspiration. He's, this creature that was created by bomb testing in the water and I thought it was really cool when Godzilla was showing up and he's bringing up all these like little Trilobites. Yes, these were extinct millions of years ago and Now these things are coming up in Godzilla's footprint. What is down, and it's like little, like he's like in this, like Ravine in the water or like valid, like deep point in the water.

Speaker 2: 22:48

Basically, like he's been dormant for so long that I think, like Currently, our understanding of like the Godzilla mythology from pretty much like a number of different Mythologies that have popped up over the years, is that Godzilla is an ancient creature that Existed at a time when our atmosphere in general was much more nuclear and or like there's much more radiation in the atmosphere, like prehistory basically. And I think that is the idea of Like him bringing these ancient fossils that are like 200 million years old up as if they were new creatures. You know, I think that he was dormant for so long because there was nothing radioactive enough to wake him up until the nuclear tests basically woke him up.

Speaker 1: 23:41

I think that's what the what the story was trying to say you know something that I was really impressed by the acting in this movie. Like it, you know you, like I said, it been a long time and then you think Godzilla movies had kind of been, you know, made fun of Over the years that you're thinking that they're all kind of corny, when not all of them are. But like you know, in this original, like you got some really, really good acting, even for a Japanese film where sometimes it could be a little overboard. What some of the acting? They weren't really all that crazy overboard. They had some really, like you know, serious scenes. They Interacted.

Speaker 1: 24:22

It didn't seem over the top. I was really impressed how well everything was acted out. It made me think that even with the way that they were able to Scale things up with miniatures and even with people with Godzilla in the background, like that they even were able to. They had the technology and even the thought process to like be able to create this stuff Really like blew me away watching this. Like I had such an appreciation for the limited technology that they had that they were really able to do a lot.

Speaker 2: 24:54

I was really impressed by you know there was a, there was a couple scenes. I was really impressed by now that you bring it up in terms of like how they were able to superimpose Two images onto each other. One of them, I mean there was, there was a couple when he was walking through Tokyo and you could see the people running in the streets below and he was in the distance and there was fire all over the city.

Speaker 2: 25:16

Yes excellent dude. Like there was so many scenes, I was just like that's an album cover right there, like that's, that's beautiful, like it looked really good.

Speaker 1: 25:24

Yeah, I was. This movie really does hold up very well and the fact that you know it has been taken care of, you know you have like the criterion collection, that like really it just you know that and with, yeah, like you said, you know the what, what they're able to do with you know, super imposing. And you know, honestly, when I saw Godzilla, you know obviously I chuckled a little bit but it really did bring a smile to my face because I was like this is, you know, godzilla. You know this is a man in a rubber suit right here. This started at all.

Speaker 1: 25:56

I was like you know there was a couple moments where you like, looking over the suit doesn't look amazing, but I guys still love it, man.

Speaker 2: 26:04

I still.

Speaker 1: 26:08

You know, in his atomic breath was pretty much just a blow dryer dude. Yeah, I started laughing when he was doing it, like when he was like doing the, but I was impressed because of, like you know, he was doing that and then they were able to like give it that melting like a fact and it looked really yeah, I think they were going more for like radiation.

Speaker 2: 26:28

Yeah, holy, got that it glowed when he was blowing on it.

Speaker 1: 26:32

That's like, yeah, it's not like I would call that Definitely atomic breath. It makes more sense to call that atomic breath. The current Godzilla definitely shoots out like an atomic beam. You know now.

Speaker 2: 26:44

Yeah for sure. Yeah, and then when you come, when it comes to like the legendary Monster verse stuff, it's more of like blue fire and I'm sure there is some radiation involved in there, but yeah, it's not the same as when it originally came. One thing I was pleasantly surprised by that I didn't remember from the first time I watched this, was the opening credits. I thought it was funny and also kind of cool that they had like different Roars from Godzilla throughout the opening credits and they were playing the like the theme song.

Speaker 1: 27:15

Yes.

Speaker 2: 27:16

I meant to this. I meant to this and it's.

Speaker 1: 27:18

It's insane because you listen to the theme in that movie and you listen to the theme that they play and Godzilla minus one, pretty much identical, except obviously Godzilla minus one and it sounds a lot better, but it's literally the same thing it's the same orchestration, it's the same notes on the same paper.

Speaker 2: 27:38

It's just a new recording. Yeah, so that that was impressive.

Speaker 1: 27:41

That was definitely impressive, you know it's a shame that these people that were in the original film couldn't see. You know, maybe some of the younger ones might have seen Godzilla minus one, but it's sad that a lot of people didn't get to see like what they inspired, because Godzilla minus one you have all these Godzilla movies, but Godzilla minus one is definitely a love letter to the original Godzilla. It's so good.

Speaker 2: 28:08

There's some interesting parallels that I think are more like thematic as opposed to like a one-for-one. So like a one-for-one for me is the obvious. Like the reporters, yes, when they were reporting the destruction of Tokyo.

Speaker 1: 28:22

Yes, dude, I thought it's the first thing. First couple lines.

Speaker 2: 28:25

I thought they were this, the exact same like lines from the original movie as in Godzilla minus one. I was like this it seems like it was like a one-for-one sort of thing.

Speaker 2: 28:35

Yes, there were some things changed because they were on like a tower versus like the top of a building. But so, for those of you who don't remember or who haven't seen Godzilla minus one, there's a scene where there are like four reporters, like one of them is capturing video, one of them is capturing audio and one of them is actually talking into the Microphone, is explaining like what Godzilla is doing and he's tearing through Tokyo and he's destroying and leveling buildings and Destruction is rampant. We don't know if we're gonna get out of here. Blah, blah, blah. They have that exact same scene in Godzilla 1954. It's on a radio tower instead of the top of a building and I don't remember what happens to the radio crew in Godzilla minus one. But in Godzilla 1954, godzilla, you know, tears down the radio tower and that's that for them.

Speaker 1: 29:27

Yeah, yeah, the evacuation announcement was yeah, like the same, absolutely the same. That's cool. Yeah, man, like, like I said, watching through this film dude, they, it really does it gave me, so, like I said, so much more of an appreciation for Godzilla minus one, because I'm, like dude, like they really took a lot of inspiration from this film and the Godzilla and Godzilla minus one is Literally the Godzilla in this movie, but obviously not like Lopsided looking. They, like you know, give them more of a symmetrical look, but the texture and like the look is so close to the original man connection.

Speaker 2: 30:07

An obvious like one-for-one connection between Godzilla minus one and Godzilla 1954 is Oda Island, which is a fictional island. We talked about it briefly on our last episode. That's the island that has the mythology or the legend of a Godzilla type creature. Yeah, I looked it up. It's not an actual Japanese island, it's an island created for the 1954 film that on that island they have a legend of a Godzilla type creature. So it's not a new creature. Godzilla isn't a new thing. He's been around for a very, very, very long time and the nuclear testing will come up. That's basically the story of Oda Island and that's an easy connection between Godzilla minus one and Godzilla 1954, because obviously Oda Island doesn't exist, but it exists in both of these versions of the movies and both of these versions of movies have that legend of an ancient creature called Godzilla.

Speaker 1: 31:01

So I think that's pretty cool and you know about 20 years later, you know, get Oda, the creator of one piece.

Speaker 2: 31:09

How can you forget?

Speaker 1: 31:10

Yes, there's the connection right there, you heard it here, folks Godzilla and one piece are connected by this little piece of information.

Speaker 2: 31:24

I was actually just telling Jen, like we were having dinner, we're at a Mexican restaurant and I was thinking about like one piece and I'm just like man, I stopped reading the manga, I stopped watching the anime, but I have this strong urge to watch one piece. I have this strong urge to continue reading the story. I know that the story gets better and different and it's it's stranger moving forward and I want to experience that. So I went ahead and I ordered the next five Volumes of the manga should be getting them soon. But, yeah, I'm excited to jump back into the one piece world just because you know, I've been following like random, like people on tech talk who are like fantasy Aficionados and people who've read one piece consider it amongst their top five Fantasy stories ever and I want to experience that. You know, like I've only experienced the East blue side as of this point, like I haven't experienced anything past East blue or low town. I haven't even gotten to low town technically.

Speaker 1: 32:21

Do you get to the Grand Line man? Grand Line, that dude. That's where Oda Island is. You get to the Grand Line. You get to Godzilla man.

Speaker 2: 32:29

Is that okay, All right. Well, that's good, All right. So Back back to God.

Speaker 1: 32:34

There is actually a lot of large creatures when you get there.

Speaker 2: 32:37

But yeah, yeah, no, I don't want to get back into one piece like legit. Like I've been thinking about it, it's been like in the back of my head for a bit. Now I'm excited to dive back into that universe. But we're talking about that tiller here. We have a lot to talk about with Godzilla. There's a lot of scenes where they discuss his radio activity. You know like everywhere he goes they have to bring a Geiger counter to determine his radioactive signature is or whatever to make sure it's safe to be where he has been, and that in itself is part and parcel of life.

Speaker 2: 33:11

After the nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan, because there was a period after the end of the war where those two cities, hiroshima and Nagasaki, were unlivable because of nuclear fall. Obviously that's not the case today. They're very livable now. It was a very short period of time, but it was dangerous at the time, you know, and there are people around that area who weren't directly affected by the bomb immediately had effects later on. So that was in the public consciousness at the time when this movie was coming out and that's another one of those things that this movie is commenting on.

Speaker 2: 33:47

But the biggest commentary that I can think of in terms of World War II ramifications is near the end of the movie they really start to dig into the oxygen destroyer as this next big super weapon. They mentioned A-bombs that's what was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They mentioned H-bombs, which is the next big thing after A-bombs. H-bombs were never like dropped on any civilian cities or anything like that, but they were used in testing and they tested all the way up through the 50s and 60s. They even mentioned some of the testing in the movie as like as woke up Godzilla, dr Serizawa, a character who has a cool little eyepatch, creates what's known as the oxygen destroyer and introduces it to Emiko, which they don't really explain like their relationship too much, emiko and Dr Serizawa. But it's kind of implied that Emiko and Dr Serizawa were once a thing or almost a thing, like they were close enough where, like introducing Emiko's fiancé in Ogata was kind of weird, to a point where they didn't actually introduce themselves as a couple to Dr Serizawa. Emiko is introduced to Dr Serizawa's oxygen destroyer in a little contained test within a fish tank and she freaks out because obviously that's a very terrible power to be exposed to and throughout the rest of the movie Dr Serizawa was very adamant that he does not want this going out into the world.

Speaker 2: 35:23

And you know, in 2024, watching this, in 2024, post Oppenheimer, post Godzilla minus one, I have to like use that knowledge or preconception of what it would be like to create a weapon of this magnitude in a movie like this and I think that's what they were commenting on like, dr Serizawa was kind of an Oppenheimer type character where, like he didn't want his bomb to blow up civilians, he was doing it because he could. He was doing it because it was the next step in scientific knowledge. It was a breakthrough, but when it came down to using it to take out life, that was obviously something Oppenheimer did not want. You know if you watch the movie yeah he kind of drew the line there.

Speaker 2: 36:11

He was very adamant that maybe we should, you know, stop. He tried to stop the military at that point with Godzilla 1954, dr Serizawa tried to stop anyone from even knowing that he was working on this device, because he realized the effects that the A bomb, the H bomb, had on the global socioeconomic system where, like, just because they use that, that changed the world forever. Like, they realized at that moment that every superpower in the world is going to try to attain that power and they're going to leverage it against each other. And that's what ended up happening with the Cold War, even after this movie was released, you know.

Speaker 2: 36:50

So, at this point in 1954, when the Soviet Union was still fairly weak comparatively to like when they were like the 60s, 70s and 80s, the directors of this movie had the foresight to like, really dig into that mindset of, like, what would happen if we created a bomb that's even worse than the H bomb. And that's what they kind of did with the opposite of destroyer. They didn't want that getting out into the world. And I think that's such a cool narrative, you know, it's just like we saw firsthand what a bomb could do on our domestic soil. We don't want to be the creator of the next big thing right, that's dope.

Speaker 2: 37:29

Destroy all his notes and stuff on it too yeah, and I think Dr Serizawa is probably the most interesting character of this movie for a number of reasons, not just because of that. Obviously, he's the one who has the plot device that ends the threat, so that's interesting in and of itself, but when it comes to a parallel between this movie and Godzilla minus one and this movie and Legendary's Monsterverse, there's a lot to talk about when it comes to Dr Serizawa, because he sacrifices his life to destroy the monster, but in Godzilla minus one, the main character does not sacrifice himself, even though he wants to. He plans to. He does not, though, and I think that's the big difference between Godzilla minus one and Godzilla 1954 is that, like, life is valuable, there's no point giving it up even though there is a desire for this weapon, the oxygen destroyer, to not get out there, he didn't want to use it on life 100 percent.

Speaker 2: 38:30

I think in the context of this movie it makes more sense for him to take his own life, because he's afraid that some other organization is going to get him and use his knowledge to create another one of these devices which is valid?

Speaker 2: 38:43

I mean honestly in that time probably yeah, I 100% agree with with that sentiment and I understand his fear about, like it being used for, you know, something other than destroying a giant lizard creature. But let's talk about if, if you'll allow me, dr Serizawa versus the Dr Serizawa of the monsterverse yeah so I think that's a really interesting comparison because, for those of you who remember Dr Serizawa in the first Godzilla movie Godzilla 2014, the first American version of this you know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 2: 39:17

Godzilla 2014, they had a Dr Serizawa. He was famously quoted as like let them fight. You know, he was the guy who told the US army to basically let Godzilla fight the Muto's the Muto's because he knew that Godzilla could win and he's like a natural balance for nature and all that. Well, in Godzilla king of the monsters, which is the third movie, so Godzilla 2014 and there's Kong skull island and then there's Godzilla king of the monsters. In that movie, a rogue party releases King Ghidorah, or they call it monster zero. In this movie, they release Rodin and they release Mothra. Blah, blah, blah. It culminates a big monster fight.

Speaker 2: 39:57

But there's a point in the midway point of the movie where the US army uses an experimental weapon known as the oxygen destroyer to blow up Godzilla and King Ghidorah. Only Godzilla is like mortally affected by this bomb called the oxygen destroyer, which is obviously a parallel to the original 1954 film. But the interesting thing about that is that Dr Serizawa did not want him to be blown up. He did not want him to use the oxygen destroyer on Godzilla. There's a parallel between Dr Serizawa and Godzilla where in the original 1954 film, dr Serizawa sacrifices himself to explode the bomb in front of Godzilla, killing both him and Godzilla.

Speaker 2: 40:45

But in the newer movie, the 2019 movie Godzilla King of the Monsters, to bring Godzilla back in action, after the oxygen destroyer, the Monarch team dives into Godzilla's lair the earth's crust basically and they release a nuclear bomb. Dr Serizawa himself walks up to Godzilla to basically like, ignite this nuclear bomb, which is what Godzilla feeds on. So it's actually something that will like basically wake him up. Dr Serizawa in the 2019 Godzilla King of the Monsters actually sacrifices himself using a bomb to wake Godzilla up, versus Dr Serizawa blowing himself up to kill Godzilla in 1954. I just think that parallel is super cool and it's all based around the oxygen destroyer. Did that make sense, see?

Speaker 1: 41:38

no, no, no. I think that's really cool and you know, it's been a while since I had seen those movies and even longer since I had seen this. So honestly, I wouldn't even have been able to put two and two together. But if I had watched those movies again then I would have been like, oh my gosh. I remember this from the original.

Speaker 2: 41:56

Yeah, it's just cool that, like Dr Sarawazawa of the 1954 film is there to blow himself up as well as Godzilla, versus the 2019 version of Dr Sarawazawa is there to blow himself up to resuscitate Godzilla. You know, it's almost like a, it's like a roundabout. Thank you in a way. I don't know. I haven't even explained it, but it's cool. It's a cool parallel.

Speaker 1: 42:19

No, no, that definitely is. That's cool and I'm glad that you brought that up, because it really shows how much this original movie has permeated throughout these different films and you know, I mean 2014, one obviously kicked off a monster verse, you know, kind of its own contain universe, whereas, like all these other Godzilla movies were kind of like one offs or you know like very small, like not like a universe in this kind of way, Though I mean, we have had, you know, Godzilla versus King Kong.

Speaker 2: 42:51

Yeah, so the early Toho films, like up until the late 70s, they were all one universe, starting from like Godzilla 1954 up and I think it's the late 70s, and then there was like a 12 year period where they didn't do anything. And then in the 90s they started it up again where there was like a new universe. More recently, within the past 20, 25 years, all the Japanese films have been one off stories. If I remember correctly, godzilla minus one is one of those one off stories, just like Shin Godzilla is so on and so forth.

Speaker 1: 43:25

It's definitely, like I said, man watching through this film really gave me an appreciation for the series.

Speaker 1: 43:35

Like you said, you know there's been some really good movies and then there's been some doozies, but I'm glad that this movie that kicked off the Gojira series and the Kaiju, the whole genre, really, you know, yeah, exactly that it was a strong start and it went from anywhere from the man in the rubber suit to the people you know, just everybody Like it really seemed that they really put their all into this movie and I applaud them even more because, dude, it hadn't even been a decade since World War Two happened.

Speaker 1: 44:09

10 years is not enough time to clean up all of that. They're still dealing with a devastation from World War Two and the fact that a film like this, that time kicked off an entire genre, a character that is transcended and just it's relevant. It was relevant with our grandparents and it's relevant now today. You know, to us, we all know these characters, it's something that's just going to keep going and it's insane how you could ask anybody. Everybody's going to know who Godzilla is. You could live in a cave your whole life and still know Godzilla, godzilla.

Speaker 2: 44:42

I was even thinking, like in the intro, before they even showed any footage of the movie, they had like the credits of the movie, there was like a playlist of the different roars that he did throughout the movie. It all sounded like Godzilla, like the Godzilla that we know and love today. It's crazy how much nothing has changed. I mean even the scales on his back when he would like do his atomic breath, even those lit up. It's just like the basic DNA of this giant, angry creature has stuck around for almost 70 years.

Speaker 1: 45:15

Dude, the look of Godzilla has practically stayed the same too. I mean, they've obviously updated the look, but you know and we've had a couple, you know they try to change him a couple of times. You know that one American Godzilla movie where they try to make. Godzilla slash. It was like a T-Rex slash Godzilla. I don't know what they were going on.

Speaker 1: 45:34

But I mean for the most part for the most part it's just been this bipedal lizard creature thing that has looked the same, almost like chunky destructive force dude, like I mean you look at Godzilla now and you look at Godzilla in the legendary universe and it's the same, just not a man in a rubber suit and updated graphics, you know.

Speaker 2: 45:59

What's cool is that, like you can take someone who's like you can take someone from the 50s who's just watched this Godzilla movie and you put them into 2014, 2019, whatever. There was a Godzilla movie that was recent. There's no way that they think that that's a different monster. It's just like a bigger, better version of it. This is the original, this is the one that all of this is based off of, and I think that's so cool. I agree, man.

Speaker 1: 46:21

There's one shot that I wanted to talk about briefly.

Speaker 2: 46:25

There's a scene where they had like 300 Asian schoolgirls singing.

Speaker 1: 46:30

Oh, I remember that.

Speaker 2: 46:31

And it takes like the scene you know it kind of like spends a whole minute panning through the room as these girls sing and I'm just like what a beautiful shot, because it's one take. So there's a couple shots in this movie that like are weirdly cut. So there's a couple of scenes where, like Emiko in particular, like you can tell they like spliced two cuts together. Emiko being the girl in the movie you can tell that they spliced two cuts together because it'd be like she would be looking sad. And then the next scene, like literally less than a second later she'd be like screaming and crying and there was a couple like jump cuts like that. That just didn't work, but maybe they worked back in the 50s.

Speaker 1: 47:12

Today they wouldn't work.

Speaker 2: 47:13

You know it would be bad editing today. Even that, like seeing that early in the film, I was just like the editing is going to be kind of blah. It's not going to really allow me any. But seeing the scene with, like, all the schoolgirls singing and it was just panning through them slowly as they sang this song to, like you know, uplift Japan in this dark time yeah, I was really touched. Dude it was. It looked beautiful, Like it was clean. It was clearly on like a dolly in a way that like there was no shaky camera or anything. It was just like it felt like a very modern scene, like a long-take modern scene, and I thought that was so cool.

Speaker 1: 47:51

Yeah, I thought that there's that one scene that was really interesting, remember, like Island was being attacked and it looked like a monsoon that was going on, but it was Godzilla dude.

Speaker 2: 48:05

They did a really good job of like creating monsoon effects. Yes, A model village, because that's where it is. It was a model village that they were destroying Dude. It looked great, Like it was. It was crazy, Even like some of the ships that they had like bobbing up on the water and being destroyed slowly. I was really impressed by it. There's even some shots where they had the Japanese Navy clearly bomb the water and they filmed that. I don't know if you noticed that Like they're like oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 48:34

They were like obvious real bombs in the water which I was like not expecting at all.

Speaker 1: 48:39

And, considering the fact that they had a limited budget, they had to create this film essentially about destruction, which there's a lot that goes into that. You know they had constraints with making this film. It wasn't an easy film to make, but they did it, man. They overcame whatever they had. I'm not going to like you know crap on it, obviously, but obviously some of the budget didn't go into the suit, but I love it anyway.

Speaker 2: 49:05

You know, what I was surprised by talking about budget is like all the extras that were involved in this movie. Like there was a lot of extras. After the village is destroyed, there's the scene I think it was after the village is destroyed and it was like before. But there was a scene where, after a couple of ships have been destroyed, there's like a group of like 100, 150 people on the beach like looking out at the water, and I'm just like that's a lot of extras that they just got for this scene. And there's another scene in Tokyo when it's being destroyed that you see, just like hundreds, hundreds of people like moving all at once, and I'm just like they literally got a whole village to act for this movie. Like how did they do that? I'm consistently like surprised by like old films like this. Like how do they manage such huge groups? And it's impressive. I'm glad we did Godzilla 1954. Honestly.

Speaker 1: 49:56

Yeah, yeah, it was nice, like I said, going back and and being able to watch this film and just really being delighted to see that there's a lot about it that does hold up and it starts off strong. Man, it starts off this series very strong. It doesn't just throw Godzilla right at you, it builds up to Godzilla just like Godzilla minus one, like it. I mean, you do get Godzilla in the beginning in that one, you know, but when he's younger, like you know, like a smaller Godzilla, but it builds up to like the actual Godzilla that we know throughout the film and that's what this original does. You know You're hearing a lot about Godzilla, you know you have that moment where he kind of like pops his head over that mountain like people were running from him.

Speaker 2: 50:42

He's like it looks really funny, but it was also. It was also kind of cool, yeah, yeah yeah, no, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 50:48

You know, it was like in that moment I'm like you know, got those like popping up, like hey, what y'all doing over there, yeah.

Speaker 2: 50:53

Anthony, what do you say? We continue our giant monster discussion next week, maybe not with Godzilla, but maybe with another movie, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 51:07

All right, we will cover the Phantom of the Opera.

Speaker 2: 51:16

I'm 100% down. Speaking of Phantom of the Opera, no joke. Maybe about a month or two ago, my wife Jen watched Phantom of the Opera. I think it was 2003 movie.

Speaker 1: 51:28

I remember when y'all had that like soundtrack on repeat.

Speaker 2: 51:32

Dude, it's a good movie like. It's actually like really good Jen had, only she'd never seen it before. But anyway, I'm thinking more like giant monster, not just like you know.

Speaker 1: 51:44

You know small Phantom. What do you think?

Speaker 2: 51:46

about Kong Skull Island, the 2017 film, the follow-up to Godzilla 2014, but it's about Kong instead of Godzilla.

Speaker 1: 51:55

I suppose, man, I suppose, no, I'm just kidding. Yeah, definitely that'd be cool.

Speaker 2: 52:00

All right, all right, let's keep this. Let's keep this monster jam rolling, this monster mash, you know. I could see it in Anthony's face that like ice and monster mash before he was able to say it and he was pissed.

Speaker 1: 52:22

It's like Dakota beat me to the punch, you know All right, guys.

Speaker 2: 52:26

Thank you so much for listening to us here at Project Geekology for our 70th episode, all about Gojira 1954. Next week we're going to be covering Kong Skull Island, the 2017 film by Legendary and Toho. We're very excited about that. Just to jump into another monster. But yeah, anthony, anything else to say about Godzilla 1954.?

Speaker 1: 52:48

If y'all are Godzilla fans and you haven't seen this film or haven't seen it in a while, definitely go watch it or revisit it. It's a delight to see. It's a delight just to watch the movie that kicked it all off and honestly didn't just kick off the whole Godzilla series, but kicked off the entire giant monsters fighting each other era the series, the Kaiju's fighting.

Speaker 2: 53:11

Yeah, 100%, and I couldn't say it any better myself. So, yeah, definitely check out Godzilla 1954. If you have Max the streaming service, if you have that, it's available there as well as a number of Godzilla movies. They have a whole bunch of oh yeah, so many.

Speaker 1: 53:25

I was like, oh my gosh, I was scrolling through that. I was like, oh my gosh, dude, there's so many Godzilla movies.

Speaker 2: 53:30

There's more Godzilla movies than I remember there being, but, yeah, definitely check them out, specifically that first one, because it's probably considered among the best, and for good reason. But anyways, we will see you next week for our 71st episode, specifically Kong Skull Island. So be there or be square. If you want to check out anything outside of the podcast, be sure to check our show notes, where we have all of our socials individually and you know as like the podcast socials and stuff. So follow us there and we'll see you next time.

Speaker 1: 54:00

Alrighty bye.