MovieChat Forums > The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) Discussion > Did anyone else feel sorry for the beast...

Did anyone else feel sorry for the beast?

posted 12 years ago by ruffian82
11 replies | jump to latest

It doesn't know why it woke up...no one says, "hmmm let's take a bunch of nontoxic vegetation and some meat already slaughtered and see what it prefers"...no one really gives any thought to the idea that it is wandering the streets with a look in its eye "what happened to all the earth stuff; what is all this...rock that looks non edible?"

And it's got radiation poisoning...that can't feel good. They couldn't just calculate how to put it under tranquillizer and then go from there?

Wow...on one side...we sure have changed...now we find the host and get a sample of the blood and make a vaccine...wait...didn't we do that with smallpox?

Oh that's right. He's radioactive.
Okay...how about some compassion for a huge compromised by man dying from radiation poisoning beast.

Nope.
Never mind.

I just felt compassion when it was surrounded by wooden sticks designed to make fun and it only felt trapped. It would have been kind to put it to sleep as well as kill it...
I know...I'm crazy.
I keep thinking how this could easily be Gulliver's Travels with the Beast as the large Gulliver; would we have felt his loneliness more keenly then?

[–] cdjunkee-1 12 years ago

This post is a delight! Poor old Beast! I felt sorry for it in a way.

~I love the rhythm it is my methoood!~

[–] nickm2 12 years ago

Me too. I think the magic of stop motion seems to be able to actually to produce emotion in an imaginary creature.

[–] KRhetor 12 years ago

The director, Eugene Lourie, actually wound up feeling sorry for the Beast. His daughter cried when the Beast died at the end, so he made Gorgo in order to have a movie where the monster would not only live at the end but be thoroughly sympathetic to the audience.

[–] gerrywos 12 years ago

Well i sure as hell didnt feel sorry for the humans

[–] mam13143 11 years ago

Hard to hate a beast that was just trying to survive I agree.

[–] rmcap965-982-388208 10 years ago

Who knew I would live to see The Beast from 20,000 fathoms have pity thrown at by peta types who care more about reptiles than humans........

[–] mam13143 10 years ago

Lol ! Time softens our perceptions.

[–] Sulaimone 9 years ago

Yep and I still get a pain every time I watch it die. Then again, that was the 50's mentality...allegedly.

[–] nickm2 9 years ago

It's like Kong; he is dangerous & has to be put down but he didn't ask to be brought here (or awakened) so there is a poignancy to the story.

Why can't you wretched prey creatures understand that the Universe doesn't owe you anything!?

[–] MTBan717 9 years ago

Oh that's right. He's radioactive.
Okay...how about some compassion for a huge compromised by man dying from radiation poisoning beast.

For the record, it's only implied - not specifically stated - that the Beast is radioactive. There's a lot of ambiguity regarding the disease that the creature is carrying in its blood.

This is, of course, a concept that was addressed much better in "The Giant Behemoth", where the scientists specifically state that Behemoth cannot be blown up with bombs, torpedoes or rockets because the dispersion of its radioactive remains would lead to radioactive contamination far more dangerous than the monster itself.

[–] ronaldt49 8 years ago

Beasts From 20,000 Fathoms have feelings, too!!!