Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971 Japan) (Godzilla vs.The Smog Monster)
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Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971 Japan) (Godzilla vs.The Smog Monster)
This was a Godzilla film with an unusual flavor and ended up as one of the early cautionary tales about ecological upheaval of the seventies, mostly thanks to a new, first-time director. Whereas the past few Godzilla films had devolved more & more into kiddie fests, this one was darker and featured characters that were grounded in a seventies vibe. The focus and theme of the film is on pollution - the smog monster, dubbed Hedorah by the only kid character, shows up immediately amid the polluted waters, resembling a huge tadpole. It grows as the film progresses, morphing into a land creature and later a flying one. It proves to be deadly, spreading a kind of sulfuric acid that burns and kills - it's especially corrosive towards metals. The monster is eventually revealed to be extraterrestrial, but it thrives on our pollution - that's the point. Godzilla shows up to combat it.
Since previous Godzilla films were quite juvenile, this had a horrific bent to it by comparison - several human victims end up suddenly as skeletons for example. There's an eerie, surreal tone to much of the film, and there are even flashes of animation, almost like some instructional feature on the dangers of pollution. Hedorah, though basically almost a formless sludge monster, still manages to come across with its own personality, mostly due to those large red eyes (later just one eye). Its battles with Godzilla have a strange, mournful quality about them, as we all know that the true villains in all this are the human polluters. BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10
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