Just watched this movie for the first time, and I was kind of confused - it kind of threw me off a bit, aren't we (the audience) supposed to like Godzilla? Why is he portrayed as the bad guy here, and more importantly, why did they kill him off? Aren't there like 20+ sequels, so how did they manage to get around that?
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The original "Godzilla" is a straight-on allegory for the atomic bomb. Throughout the film, it is made clear that Godzilla is standing in for nuclear weapons--from the imagery (the aftermath of his attack on Tokyo, including that haunting shot of a child being diagnosed with radiation poisoning) to direct references in the dialogue (the scene right before the attack, in which Ogata says, "Godzilla is no different from the H-bomb still hanging over Japan's head").
Remember, this was before Godzilla had become a pop culture icon. In his first movie, he was a metaphor for the disasters brought on by nuclear weapons, and our sympathy was not meant to be geared toward him. And, like many monster movies of the era, they killed him off to resolve the story. The film left us with that ominous speech where Dr. Yamane says that if nuclear weapons are still tested, another Godzilla may appear in the world--in other words, one nuclear disaster will lead to another, and then another, until it's too late.
And that is the explanation for the rest of the franchise. The Godzilla that is in the numerous sequels is another member of the species. Over the years, the sequels toned down the allegory and sometimes changed gears entirely so that Godzilla could be viewed in a lighter tone. But in the original, he symbolized the horrors of nuclear destruction, and that's why he was the villain.
That's a really good explanation, thank you! This movie now looks significantly better to me.
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Also, originally there was no intention to make any sequels to Gojira. It was supposed to be a one-time film, a warning against the H-bomb in the way theUnknown837-1 wrote in his excellent post above.
But as is usually the case, the success of this film eventually led to innumerable sequels...although it should be noted that while a quick sequel, Gojira no gyakushu/Godzilla Raids Again was released in 1955, after that it was another seven years before the third Godzilla movie, Kingu Kongu tai Gojira/King Kong vs. Godzilla was made, in 1962. That's the film that really started the franchise.
One other factor was that in the 60s there was a long fight between director Ishiro Honda and special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya over the basic concepts of their monsters, especially Godzilla. Honda believed they should remain scary and menacing, while Tsuburaya wanted to make them kid-friendly and heroic. The studio backed Tsuburaya and that's why in many people's opinions most Japanese science fiction films went downhill from the mid-60s on. That's when Godzilla became kind of a hero. But that's a far cry from the serious, even downbeat concept the men who created Gojira as an anti-nuclear message film originally intended.
Personally, I like the original. If you look you can even see that the monster's features were very different in later films from his appearance in this one, where his head was designed to look like the top of a mushroom cloud and his skin reminiscent of burn victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. Later on he was redesigned to look like just another prehistoric monster.
But if it was popular already, why alter his look?
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Well, the only people who could definitively answer that are the people who made him, and most of them are dead now. (Although Haruo Nakajima, who played Godzilla, is still very much alive.)
From what I've read his look was changed and softened to give him a less scary, even friendlier appearance, and a more expressive face, which was thought appropriate for the kinds of sequels they were making. But over time even newer Godzilla costumes have changed somewhat, which reflects advances in special effects abilities as well as different artists' approaches to crafting the monster. The recent US film changed him still further. The descendants of the original Godzilla are all readily identifiable as Godzilla, and I think a lot of people don't even realize there's been much change in him over time. But when you compare them all, the number of differences and the extent to which he's been altered really jump out at you.
In the original "Godzilla" (1954) the monster is not actually a villain. He is just a wild animal, without evil motivation. But he is a giant, hungry wild animal who wreaks horrible devastation and death simply by walking around. He is so gigantic and strong that there is no way to contain him, so he must be destroyed!
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