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With special regard to Godzilla though, the mutated dinosaur is unique since unlike Michael) he can be hero or villain, or whatever else a storyteller might need.
Says Carpenter, “Godzilla has been everything. He’s been an arch-villain. He’s been a savior, a hero who saves the Earth. He’s an all-purpose monster. Anything you need, he’s there for you. If you need him to be a vicious world-ending creature, he’s there. If you need him to save the earth, he’s there. That’s why we love him. There’s something great about any big reptile who destroys a city, he is in our hearts.”
Still for Carpenter, the appeal of Godzilla is of a specific vintage: the original Showa Era films released between 1954 and 1975. Those are the Godzilla movies that matter most to the They Live filmmaker. And what of the recent American attempts to make Hollywood-sized Gojira movies?
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“Oy, well, the first one was horrifying,” Carpenter says. “It’s pretty good. It’s a spectacle. They just don’t have the same charm of the original Godzilla movies, the cast of the Godzilla movies. Even though they brought over old has-been American actors to be in [the originals], the actors were great. I guess most of them were under contract at Toho. American Godzilla movies are a computer-fest. They lack charm, and I’m just not that interested.”
With that said, Carpenter is very interested in showing audiences the Godzilla he knows, the Godzilla he cherishes, and the Godzilla who really is the king of the monsters, beginning on Thursday when Shout! Factory TV will stream the original Japanese language version of the 1954 film, Gojira. That will be followed with Rodan (1956) on Friday, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) on Saturday, and War of the Gargantuas (1966) on Sunday.
And come back to Den of Geek tomorrow for our full chat with Carpenter about which is his favorite Toho monster, why the 1954 film reigns supreme, and if we might ever see his unreleased short film, “Gorgo Versus Godzilla,” from 1969…
