Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)

I would love to have been in the writers’ room for this movie and seen what they were thinking and tripping on. Let’s make a monster environmentally conscious because it eats pollution. Far out! But it also sprays concentrated sulfuric acid on people and shoots toxic waste out of its belly button. Cool! We should also have some cartoons mixed in with the action. Groovy! And go-go dancing and singing randomly thrown in. I can dig it! Don’t forget some trippy dream sequences! Right on! We gotta have a guy hallucinating at a concert, too. Lay it on me!

In fairness, this was a fun Godzilla movie with a formidable enemy for the big guy. Hedorah can grow and change shape the more he feeds on pollution. He flies, Godzilla even flies!

Even though there are some psychedelic moments, there are also real stakes in this movie. Main characters are maimed and killed by Hedorah. The stakes were also high for the environment. Real images of the disturbing amount of pollution in Tokyo Bay are shown as the theme song is sung. Pollution was becoming a very real concern and, in this story, spawned a deadly monster.

There is plenty of monster-on-monster wrestling. They might have spent too much time taunting each other and Godzilla takes a beating more often than not for most of the movie, but we know we can always count on him to rally in the end and take care of business. If you are a fan of the old school Godzilla, this is one of G’s more unique films. Outta sight!

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