REVIEW: GODZILLA IL RE DEI MOSTRI
REVIEW: COZZILLA
REVIEW: LUIGI COZZI [ 1977 ] 106' (theatrical)
REVIEW: COZZILLA S.R.L.
CAST: GODZILLA, RAYMOND BURR,
CAST: TAKASHI SHIMURA, AKIHIKO HIRATA
WTFFILM RATING:
CRITICAL RATING:
WTF-FILMOMETER: SEIZURE-INDUCINGLY STRANGE

Luigi Cozzi is nothing if not a fan of film. Director of such knock-offs as STAR CRASH [1979] and CONTAMINATION [1980], he is a long time associate and close friend of legendary Italian director and producer Dario Argento. The two have worked together on many projects, with Luigi Cozzi serving as an assistant director on THE STENDHAL SYNDROME [1996] and the Argento directed segment of TWO EVIL EYES [1990]. Cozzi even has the distinguished position of operator of Argento's horror film wonderland Profondo Rosso in Rome. He has written a multitude of books on Italian and other international horror films and is still very active in the Italian film community today.

That said, fan or not, none of Luigi Cozzi's more derivative films (try as he might) have ever been particularly good. CONTAMINATION seems to be forever confused as to whether its a gore film, ALIEN [1979] rip off, or action flick. STAR CRASH is full of enough inept dialogue and sub-par special effects to nearly overshadow the fact that it stars the human-salami David Hasselhoff. Though recognition of many of his films as cult classics has begun over the past five to ten years, no one can argue that they are more than a little lacking as far as quality of any muster is concerned. Two notable exceptions to the quality of his later work are his early films THE KILLER MUST KILL AGAIN [1975], a wonderful little giallo film, and THE LAST CONCERT [1976], an honestly good romantic drama about a young woman dying of cancer - both of these films come highly recommended from me.

But back before he gained infamy for the films listed above and others like THE BLACK CAT and PAGANINI HORROR [both 1989], he tried his hand at an absurdist revamping of one of his favorite films of all time; GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS (1956). As his 1989 book GODZILLA & COMPANY shows, Cozzi had always been a fan of giant monster films, but Godzilla, like he does for so many others, obviously held a special place in Cozzi's heart. His production syndicate was, for a time, known as COZZILLA s.r.l. (or 'Società a Responsabilità Limitata', the Italian version of 'ltd.') and he is even known by some under the nickname of Cozzilla.

In 1977 he set out to show his love for Godzilla by re-releasing the 1956 version of the film to Italian audiences but with a few telling differences. First off, the film would be colorized using a technique known as Spectrorama 70 - this involved placing colored gels behind the 35mm film print to produce a bizarre color effect. This added various colored hues to the film print whenever it was either projected or reproduced on 16mm or 35mm color stock. Armando Valcauda, a long time associate of Cozzi, oversaw this part of production. The film was also to be presented in a stereo Futursound format. Futursound, the Italian equivelant of Sensurround (a precurser to the surround sound of today), caused the theater to vibrate with every explosion and every crashing of Godzilla's enormous foot.

Most importantly, Cozzi had readily recognized the anti-war and anti-nuclear themes of the 1956 film and set off to make them even more prominent. A new prologue was constructed for the film that related the bombing of Hiroshima through a variety of stock footage from WWII. More stock footage of explosions, fires, and human casualties from the war were also incorporated throughout the rest of the film, especially during Godzilla's second appearence in Tokyo. Cozzi hoped that this would help people realize that the film was more than just a fantasy tale of a giant monster, but a biting allegory for all that was wrong with the world. Indeed, the film's advertising touted it as "LA PIU GRANDE APOCALISSE DELLA STORIA DEL CINEMA" (cinema's greatest story of the apocalypse).

Somewhere along the line, however, something went horribly, horribly wrong.

As previously mentioned, the film opens with a new montage of footage relating the events of the Hiroshima bombing. While admittedly out of place, the montage works well to set what could have been a very apocalyptic tone for the film. The images of scorched bodies and the empty shells of buildings set to an eerie and synth laden opening theme by three composers, Fabio Frizzi, Vince Tempera, and Franco Bixio, help make this one of the most effective sequences in the film. Then come the opening credits. Cozzi takes care to give everyone involved in either his version, the 1954 Japanese version, or 1956 American version of the film credit. While this is a nice gesture, we are essentially viewing a credits sequence for not one, but three different films. Worse yet, the Akira Ifukube theme that originally played over the opening credits of the Japanese version has been replaced with a loop of footsteps, roars, and blowing wind. At nearly three minutes, this sequence really kills the pacing of the film and really does nothing but dull the interest of the viewer.

The credits dispensed with, the film finally begins with the familiar pan shot of a decimated Tokyo. The date on the super tells us that it's the sixth of August, placing Godzilla's attack on Tokyo on the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. This is an interesting notation by Cozzi, and I'm still not entirely sure of his meaning for it. It comes across as an unnecessary reminder of the link between Godzilla and atomic destruction. If I were to want to give Cozzi too much credit, I would say that the super is present simply to dictate that, in essence, the story of Godzilla is nothing but an allegorical extension of the story of Hiroshima and WWII itself. While I prefer this latter explanation, I'd say it's giving Cozzi's vision of Godzilla infinitely more credit than it duely deserves.

The film progresses quid pro quo for a while, with Raymond Burr awakening to a smoldering Tokyo, giving a brief monologue, and finally passing out again in the rubble. He is taken to a shelter/hospital, which is where he begins to relate his story. The colorization here is pretty garish throughout, though it actually works in a few spots (namely the deep reds and oranges used to depict the burning ruins of Tokyo). This version proceeds normally up until the rescue ship is sunk. The majority of Eiji Tsubaraya's effects work for this sequence has been replaced by stock footage of various ships exploding.

The two trips to Oto Island are condensed into a single venture for this film, with much of the storm sequence 'enhanced' with footage from real hurricanes and floods from the 50's and 60's. The final shot of the wreckage of the helicopter cuts straight to Yamane and his associates checking the island well for contamination. They find the trilobite and Godzilla appears in short order. The conference over what Godzilla is and what should be done with him proceeds normally. Emiko meets up with Serizawa, is shown the Oxygen Destroyer, and heads home, shocked and unhappy. The difference here is that the music cue that plays at the beginning of the visit with Serizawa (from KOTM) also plays when she arrives at home. Why? Who knows.

The JSDF's depth charge attack on Godzilla is nearly completely replaced in Cozzi's version with footage from various WWII era news reels. It fits well enough in retrospect, but its addition in the first place was unnecessary to say the least. Godzilla eventually appears in the bay in the presence of some evening party-boaters. Much of this footage is slowed beyond reason and additional footage is added to show Godzilla apparantly destroying the boat (we see sailors falling overboard as lifeboats collapse and the eventual explosion of the boat itself). Godzilla's first assault on the bay area of Tokyo is also minced to pieces, with his destruction of the train suddenly becoming a destruction of five or six steam locomotives through the glory of stock footage.

His second assault, however, is edited beyond words. Stock footage runs amok, featuring shots of anti-aircraft fire, London in flames, and various unrecognizable explosions. As well, a scene of a live person being roasted to death as they flee a burning house has been added quite tastelessly. Much of the attack footage here is slowed as well, apparantly to have more of a dramatic effect. It just comes off looking and, more noticeably, sounding silly. Many of the music and effects cues are looped endlessly, leading to many repeats of various sound effects. Ifukube's score is pretty much butchered beyond remorse throughout the second assault.

The JSDF attacks Godzilla in the end, just like in both other versions, with the crowd at the docks cheering them on. But this time there is a wealth of stock footage of RAF planes taking off and crashing as well as recycled shots of Godzilla shooting his deadly radioactive heat ray. The entire second assault sequence, as colorized and edited here, is nearly seizure inducing. On the upside, some of the colors used here work very well, especially the bright reds, oranges, and pinks used during the shots of Godzilla and his fiery rampage.

The sun rises over a decimated Tokyo in this version. Corpses wash ashore and lay smoldering and rotting in the streets as the survivors pick up the pieces. Footage from Dresden, the D-Day invasion, and an extended pan-shot of a city literally wiped off the map by the Nazi regime is all present. This is all interspliced with various shots of Godzilla and his death rays, all tinted a dark red. The overall effect is deeply disturbing, as it is painfully obvious that all of the scenes of human destruction depicted in this sequence are quite real.

Eventually Serizawa is convinced to use the Oxygen Destroyer on Godzilla and the navy sets out to find him. Ogata and Serizawa are witness to the octopus and shark 'battle' from THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS [1953] here, which does nothing but kill the pacing of the film overall. When the Oxygen Destroyer is finally activated and Godzilla rises to the surface of the ocean in his death throws, he is met by a barage of stock footage shots of naval cannon fire. Eventually he sinks back to the bottom of the ocean to disintigrate.

It is here that the only copy of this version of the film in existence aside from one or two 35mm prints ends. It's a 16mm print that made a couple of rounds on Italian tv in the 80's. While I have a feeling that the film extends beyond the abrupt end of this print of the film, I'll never be sure until I can talk to Cozzi myself (which I'm working on). According to Cozzi, the original film ran nearly two hours (other sources have indicated that the original theatrical running time was around 106 minutes, backing up Cozzi's claim), but the video version only runs a little over 88. My assumption is that the theatrical version of this film contained considerably more of the original GODZILLA - particularly the several minutes cut from the end as well as the large chunks of footage that go missing prior to the Odo Island sequence of things. This is all just idle speculation, however, and its doubtful that the increased running time for the film would make it any more appealing than it is already

I'll admit it. I tried hard to like Cozzi's re-envisioning of Godzilla. And there are certainly things about it that I do find likeable. The sad truth of the matter is that for every single thing Cozzi does right in his version, he does another ten or twenty wrong. The result is a tangled nightmare of fantasy and reality where real people explode into flames in the path of a lumbering man in a suit. It's all incredibly strange, often disturbing, and, ultimately, unenjoyable. That doesn't keep COZZILLA from having its more effective moments - notably the opening Hiroshima sequence and the aftermath of the climactic assault on Tokyo - but they suffer greatly from the shear distasteful absurdity of the rest of the film.

I have to agree with Max Della Mora in calling COZZILLA 'a freak and an oddity' and can't really recommend it to much of anyone. Even the most ardent of Cozzi film buffs should probably steer clear of this, as there is nothing charmingly hoaky about the proceedings. But for those obsessed with collecting the rarest of the rare in odd entertainment (myself included in this bunch), they don't get much more unknown than this. It was a major failure at the box office and has been all but entirely forgotten since it's release in 1977. COZZILLA is a rarity to be sure; but for the first time in my experience it quite probably deserves to be.