I never really understood Rodan’s popularity. He looks rather goofy with his extended neck and drooping beak. And until he added tail biting and head pecking to his repertoire in Ghidrah the Three-Headed Monster, his attacks simple consist of flying around and flapping his wings. But I had a Rodan figure when I was but a wee lad and would always list him as my second most prized possession. I never said I didn’t feel the Rodan love for myself, I just said I didn’t understand it.
Aside from Godzilla and Mothra initial forays, I’ve always found it to be a stretch to think that there was any message in the series other than for Toho to make a buck, and that’s the only message to be garnered from Rodan. Which is ironic cuz the studio passes the savings off on the audience by giving them the price of two monster movies for the price of one!
With any kaiju-flick, there’s always that risk of having to suffer thru some tedium until titular monster shows up. The Rodan’s don’t make their presence known until about thirty minutes in, but we’re treated to a decent monster flick in itself with the miners having to fight to survive in the megasuris-infested tunnels. That ’s enough action for movie on its own, and oh how that mess used to creep me out as a kid.
Bugs are nasty, especially when they’re six feet long and bust into your living room and jump from cliffs taking out suckers with the Vulcan neck pinch. Having your city destroyed by Rodan is a small price to pay if he’s going to eat them all for you first.
For the best viewing experience, it’s hard not to recommend the original, subtitled version which thanks to modern technology and distribution deals can now be experienced in all it’s crisp vibrance. But if you want to feel some HEART, then suck it up and get down with the grainy dub. For while the dub lacks in clarity and cohesion, it makes up with an overdubbed narration that embolden one’s soul.
THE NARRATION adds to the gravitas. While searching for survivors in the tunnels, you’d think the police were venturing thru Middle Earth.
On it’s own, Operation: Rodan is but a mote processional where the army shoots the Rodan while they sleep until the mountain is blow’d up real good and the end credits roll without as much as an epilogue. With THE NARRATION the fate of the world is layed on the line!
THE NARRATION at the end is worth the viewing alone, as the hero (and that’s being lose, because aside from ramming a cart down a bugs mullet, the most he does is inform the authorities that Rodan hatched from an egg underground, but by that time they were already flying freely about and a 500foot tall prehistoric lizard bird is going to go hardly unnoticed) contemplates lessons to be learned by watching the one Rodan succumb to the same fate as it’s mate.
“They seemed to almost welcome the agonies of death. I wondered if I, as a 20th century man, could ever hope to die as well.” Damn! That’s either poetry or the lyrics to an unreleased track from The Cure, and it gets me right here every time. I’m getting emotional! By the narrowest of margins, man may have proven to be the the stronger this day, the moral victory goes to the monsters.
Those strings! That piano strike. Those deep, guttural horns… It’s just all so… murky.
To discount Rodan as a simple prehistoric bird is to discount that he’s practically a sentient Category 5 hurricane, so show some respect!
From recovering amnesiacs to newlyweds who pose for photos at the base of an active volcano LIKE A COUPE OF IDIOTS, there’s a lot of love on display. Good ol, genuine love.
I don’t know whether it was the male or female Rodan that imitated the attack on the city, but the other joined in without hesitation, and such toxic co-dependency will lead to the ruin of us all!
Humans are eaten by big bugs which are in turn consumed by a much bigger predator. That’s how the food chain works. You won’t find a finer display of the food chain on film to this day.
The terror of mines filled with marauding megasuris could have been a story in itself, but it’s just the lead to the literal bigger threat. So you get the price of two monster movies for one. And when you throw in the love story between the young miner and his best bud’s sister, you got three narratives at play. That’s a helluva bargain for your 1956 drive-in dollar!
Be careful who you date! Bonnie and Clyde. Sid and Nancy. A life of raising hell may seem romantic, exhilarating, and hot, but not as hot as your molten demise when the bill for all that fast co-dependent living comes due.
