GHIDORAH, THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER (1964)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *cosmological, sociological*


GHIDORAH is often cited as a turning-point in the Godzilla franchise. The Big G had remained the heavy in his first four appearances, but in this fifth movie, he, his former opponent Mothra, and Rodan are all united against a common menace, the three-headed dragon-creature of the title.

Though the movie is named for Ghidorah, the monster is more of a catalyst than a primary menace. With his three heads, two wings, two rear legs and no forelegs, Ghidorah is a marvelous design, but that design-complexity makes him hard if not impossible to identify with, whereas the other three creatures benefit in that department from a simplicity of design-- though, as I've said earlier, I've never really cared for any version of Rodan.

This is the first film in the Godzilla series to strongly push a human-centered subplot that isn't devoted to stopping a monster or monsters. In this case our viewpoint character Detective Shindo becomes involved in trying to figure out what has happened to Selina, princess of the far-off country Selgina. Initially she seems to perish in a plane-explosion, in theory ending Shindo's involvement in her story. However, Shindo beholds a woman who looks just like Selina, making predictions of catastrophe to the Japanese press and claiming to be a denizen of Venus.  Shindo investigates her more thoroughly when her predictions come true: that both Rodan (resuscitated from his "death" in his initial appearance) and Godzilla will attack Japan. In addition, an assassin attempts to take Selina's life, demonstrating that the explosion of the plane was no accident. In addition, scientists are investigating a mysterious meteor shower, which turns out to be the means by which the titular outer-space monster arrives on Earth, and the Fairies of Infant Island just happen to be in town, appearing on a local TV show. The latter development feels like a 180 degree turn from their previous feelings on modern-media exploitation in MOTHRA, but maybe they considered it a cultural outreach program.

All three monsters-- Ghidorah, Rodan and Godzilla-- converge to attack Japan. The locals implore the Fairies to call upon Mothra, who previously protected humanity from Godzilla in 1964's MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA.  Though the last Mothra-egg gave birth to two giant larvae at the end of that film, only one of them answers the Faeries' summons: for the rest of the 1960s, Mothra's remaining appearances will abjure his winged moth-form. Meanwhile, Shindo gets Selina examined by medical experts, who find her sound of mind, and convince Shindo that while she isn't literally from Venus, she is a genuine descendant of a Venusian colonization of Earth, which explains why the trauma-shocked princess has reverted into a persona derived from her psychically-endowed ancestors. For good measure, we learn from Selina that her distant ancestors were ravaged by an attack from the vicious hydra-headed space dragon. Thus it's fitting that Selina, like the Faeries, plays a role in bringing about Ghidorah's defeat this time out.

As it happens, just as Mothra arrives, Godzilla and Rodan have crossed paths and started fighting one another. The humans and the Faeries watch as the caterpillar-creature strikes up a dialogue with the giant reptile and the humongous pteranodon-- a dialogue translated by the Faeries. I'll comment more on this later, but suffice to say, Mothra initially fails to convince the two bigger monsters to oppose the space-born menace to Earth. The Mothra-larva proceeds to engage the three-headed dragon in battle, and gets his annelid ass kicked. This misfortune, however, shames Godzilla and Rodan into belatedly entering the battle. The result is that Ghidorah is driven back into space, the Earth-monsters go their separate ways, and Princess Selina, having speedily regained her memory, returns to her home country, bidding farewell to her Japanese protector.

The most striking sociological trope of this script is Selina's development, as she provides the strongest female role in the series since Emiko in the original film-- and even then, Emiko's most riveting dramatic scene was pruned from the American-made, internationally distributed version. Less striking, however, are the comic bits with the monsters talking to one another. I've seen it argued persuasively that this was a vital strategy in keeping the franchise appealing by giving Godzilla and his fellow critters more positive, almost heroic personalities. I can appreciate that, but I still find the "monster-talking" scene pretty egregiously juvenile, and its only virtue is that it's confined to this one section of the film.