Godzilla Vs Hedorah [DVD]

This is a copy of the movie, not the original packaging. Thought people should know just in case someone wants to buy it.

Video quality was barely standard dvd quality. It was supposed to be blue ray. Looks like a pirated copy to me. No menyu or anything. Junk! Too bad. I was really looking forward to seeing this in HD. Not even close!

The original Godzilla movie was a warning about the effects of nuclear weapons. Godzilla vs Hedorah had a similar message about the threat of pollution. In America the movie was released as Godzilla vs the Smog Monster because Hedorah was the result of all the waste dumped into the ocean. That’s emphasized right at the start as the credits show all kinds of garbage and sludge floating on water. This makes the film openly political.One good thing about the movie is that it gets right down to business. A marine biologist shows how damaged a bay is by pollution and the monster appears immediately followed by Godzilla. By this time the big guy was a hero so he’s portrayed as an environmental warriors attempting to save the planet from Hedorah and waste. There’s plenty of fight scenes between the two throughout the movie.Hedorah really stands out because it came in many forms. At one time it looks like a tadpole and then the next like a flying saucer. He also emits a deadly mist of sulfuric acid that destroys everything it touches. People are forced to wear masks to try to protect themselves which is of course symbolic of the deteriorating air conditions due to pollution.The film also includes a lot of 1970s Japanese youth culture with some loud Acid Rock scenes. One occurs during a youth protest against pollution on Mount Fuji again emphasizing the political nature of the film.This really is one of the best Godzilla movies because of the action along with the message.C

Perhaps the greatest achievement in cinematic art since Chaplin's City Lights or Welles's Citizen Kane. This one has it all: clearly visible zippers in the monster costumes, a nonsensical plot, heavy-handed messaging, terrible music, and a cute kid that you just want to slap. Don't come into this one expecting the 1954 Japanese original, or even Shin Godzilla (which is really good). But if you want some camp, it's here in sludgy buckets. To be briefly serious, the transfer is actually nice and clear, if that matters to you. The language menu didn't work on my player, for which I docked the disc a star, but if I brought up the options while the movie was playing I could change the language to Japanese and add subtitles. But why would I do that, except to see if it worked? Part of the fun of things like this is terrible dubbing. (If you speak Japanese, I can see why you might want it in Japanese. Fair enough.) Anyway, this is Seventies Godzilla in his absurd prime. There are Godzilla movies that are good movies, but this isn't one of them. If you know what you're getting in for, however, it's a hoot.

I'm giving this five stars, but understand that's with the assumption that anyone watching this should be going in knowing full well that it's a "late Showa Era" Godzilla film and understanding full well what that often entails: This is an incredibly silly, campy, and at times even childish movie and while I wouldn't call it "bad" (on the contrary, I very much enjoyed it) don't expect it to be a film that can be taken entirely seriously.At the same time (and without wanting to spoil too much) the movie does have its dark and grizzly moments.To summarize, Hedorah is a walking cautionary tail about pollution, with a form that is in some ways quite goofy but that also has gruesome effects on those subjected to its toxic presence. Meanwhile, Godzilla, in this film, as he is in many films from its era, is depicted as less "monster" and more "grumpy, reptilian super-hero", in this case actually being portrayed as having a genuine and human like concern for the environment. The special effects are about what you'd expect for its era, too.So, yeah understand what you're getting into when buying a film of this genre for this era and consider carefully if that's the kind of film you enjoy. If it is, I think this is a perfectly fine film. But if you're expecting something more serious, you might want to look for a different monster flick to watch :-p.

This is by far the most eccentric Godzilla movie ever made (although Final Wars is a contenders). Made at a crossroads in the series and by a director with a ambitiously experimental bend, it's a combo children's film, ecological horror film and 1970's style Japanese monster film. It's the first Godzilla film since the first one to try and have a social message which the series by and large has avoided. The film features several horrific scenes of death from acidic pollution, mention of mass deaths and Godzilla is wounded badly on camera. Also something the series has avoided. It also was where a decision to play up the connection of children to Godzilla like the Gamera series had been doing for years already. Sound strange? Well it is. Fortunately the production has the addition of unusual animation, a hallucination sequence in a disco, odd sidebars from the story, better than average effects for the time and a decent pace to the film. Story has it that the film had a low budget and a short production time, it shows especially with some action inconsistencies but overall it's a lot better than the other Godzilla films that came immediately after. The transfer is very good (aside from a few stock TV news shots) although the legendary "Save The Earth" song is not here nor is the original version subbed for some reason. It's a strange film and people's reactions vary, I like it and still think it's one of the best in the original series.

Please, whatever you do, don't take the 5-star rating as indicating the quality of this film. This isn't one of the best Godzilla movies but it is one of the most memorable.We're in the goggle-eyed, round featured, saviour of Japan Godzilla period which means it features a cute kid (though personally I prefer cute kids roasted by Godzilla's breath) with a psychic link to Big G. We have lots of cool young adult kids, dancing to excruciating pop music containing a soupcon of psychedelia, all of whom wear the most hideous movie-cool-kids clothing -thankfully most of them get it from Hedorah while holding a protest on Mount Fuji. We've got cartoon inserts illustrating various parts of the movie -pollution, Hedorah's evolution, etc. And, of course, the message that pollution is bad is not just lain on with a trowel, it is dumped on us viewers with a giant JCB. Pollution is not cool, man.We also get the wonderful sight and one, as far as I'm aware, never repeated in any other Godilla movie, of Godzilla trying to bend double and then blasting into the air, flying backwards clutching his legs, propelled by his radiation breath. If that doesn't have you collapsing with laughter, I don't know what will.Hedorah or, as it was known in the UK on its cinema release where I originally saw it, The Smog Monster (though Sludge Monster would be more accurate) is a wonderful creation. See the giant tadpole version smash ships! See the land stage inhaling smoke from a dozen factory chimneys at once -way to get high, man! See the flying version dissolve people and metal with its sulphuric acid wind! See Hedorah drown Godzilla in a mass of poison sludge!I love this movie. For all the wrong reasons.

I have to give the usual caveat that I'm not reviewing this as a MOVIE per se, but as a Godzilla movie, which is a very different thing. My tastes for the latter run toward the absurd, and Godzilla vs Hedorah infamously has that in spades. Extended psychedelic gogo dance numbers, inexplicable Sesame Street-esque animated portions, avant garde arthouse imagery--it's honestly as if they let Andy Warhol direct a Godzilla picture.The final battle drags (and drags), but I still highly recommend it. Maybe the only Godzilla flick where the parts with Godzilla in it are less interesting than the parts where we follow the human cast, but still an interesting start to Godzilla's bizarre 1970s tenure.

This was the first time I had seen this movie and I really enjoyed. Look, if you are looking for "Gone With The Wind" you are not going to find that quality in a Godzilla film save for maybe the first one. This movie had everything a Godzilla fan could hope for. A thought out story line. Some great fight sequences and not too much over the top acting. It also touches on a theme very relivent to today and that's global pollution. Great print with nice stereo sound. If you want to check out one Godzilla film get the first one but the version from Japan not the US. This would be a good follow up. I would just like to make one poit to all those who say these films are stupid. First of all they were not made for. Second they are suppose to over the top. So if a guy in a rubber suit destroying models sounds stupid to you just move on. Oh yea the 60's special effects are Trippy to say the least.

This was one of the first Godzilla films I saw as a child - this and Son of Godzilla were my intros to the world of Toho monsters.As a Godzilla movie it's awful. Gone is the Ifukube music and Honda direction, instead we have awful comedy tunes and weird animated cutaways. Not sure who this one was aimed at - maybe teens and 20 somethings?The opening song is great, and you hear it twice more in the film... nice, but that's the only decent music.Hedorah is a clever monster concept and would work well in a new film (well it appeared in Final Wars, but was easily destroyed by our hero).However, for me the worst, the *very* worst moment is seeing Godzilla fly - I had forgotten all about that moment. I actually hid my eyes.The Japanese track is my preferred audio option, so I haven't tried the English dub, but if it's the same as the Internation version released on VHS years ago it will be average.This movie and Godzilla's Revenge are the very worst entries in the 50+ years history of Gojira (not counting the US abomination). At least things picked up when Gigan made his debut.

I think Godzilla is a hero of the Earth who protects his and human world from pollution-consuming blob-like space monster known as Hedorah, because he hates pollution and also wants human to know about Environment Protection Agency