Legion1979 wrote:I think it's pretty funny how this question is being asked on a GODZILLA forum. Like the majority of people AREN'T Going to vote for the original Godzilla? Seriously, a bunch of Godzilla die-hards are being asked which is better, the original Gojira or the first King Kong. That's like asking a bunch of Looney Tunes fans which is better, Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny.
Godzilla is a very important film in Japanese cinema, but the original Kong is a very important film, period. Probably one of the most important in cinema history, and certainly the reason why Godzilla himself even exists.
I think it's a little unfair to predict that most posters here don't have a critical eye too.
(Okay, it might be fair.)
I have to give it to
Godzilla, though, and not because we're on a Toho forum. It's a little unfair, because
Kong does indeed represent an industry sea change and
Godzilla wouldn't exist without its direct influence. On a level of cultural significance and special effects innovation, it's no question --
Kong takes it. It also has a tightly written, emotionally evergreen story.
But
Godzilla has more than that. It has urgency. It's both universal and distinctly political. This silly monster movie tapped into the formula for using these giant creatures as giant, loud metaphors, and it was this movie that firs communicated to me the real horror of the use of the atomic bomb. The simultaneous guilt and victimization of the filmmakers and their struggle to grapple with the identity of a post-nuclear wold and post-war Japan is all over the film, and its characters become actors in a much larger allegory, while never losing their own threads to it.
I can easily see someone picking
Kong here, because
Kong is better spectacle, and may be a better film. But
Godzilla is more affecting art, and that's worth much more to me.
Kaiju King42 wrote: and so were to you ask this same question on another forum, I can guaran-damn-tee you that a lot of people would automatically pick Kong over the "sweaty Japanese guy in a rubber suit".
Maybe. Not on a film forum, though. It'd be contentious, but
Godzilla's been getting its due recently.