It is the season of GODZILLA. What are your 5 favorite Godzilla scores?- Mine are-GODZILLA-54-GODZILLA VS THE THING-64-GODZILLA 85-85-GODZILLA 2000-2000-GODZILLA-2014.
GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA - my all time favorite. It encompasses all the great Ifukube themes, adds a lyrical Mothra chant and has some very nervy keyboards to top it all off.
GODZILLA 54 - Some very somber and haunting cues remind us that the film is way more than just a run of the mill monster flick.
KING KONG VS. GODZILLA - as heard on disc, because what is in the American dub is merely okay and not nearly as evocative and exotic as Mr. Ifukube's masterful score.
I'd also add some notable non-Godzilla scores by Ifukube:
Not being an expert, in the late 70s I saw Godzilla vs the Cosmic Monster, which 'co-starred' Mechagodzilla and King Cesar, the latter had a catchy little piece sung to him by a girl in front of a lake. Does this movie also have another title?
Now please forgive me as I now digress. In the same double bill was a 1973 movie called Beyond Atlantis. I presume it used stock music because, and this is something only my fellow Brits here of a certain age will appreciate, as a fight scene between two women was brewing I felt I knew the scoring from somewhere. Until this moment where I suddenly realised it was the same music used for the opening theme to the UK's commercial channel's national News at Ten!!!!
GODZILLA VS THE COSMIC MONSTER was called GODZILLA VS THE BIONIC MONSTER, But from sources I heard and there might be something on that which if my memory serves me correctly was mention in A OLD VARIETY ISSUE.It stated that do to a fact there was at that time a popular TV show with bionic in the title starring LINDSAY WAGNER, there might have been legalities, WE ALL KNOW WHAT THAT TV SHOW WAS, DON'T WE?
But it's not like I have lots to choose from. I've only seen that and the recent one. I've never had any interest in the old Japanese films, although I may have seen a scene or two here and there as I was growing up.
Interesting since seeing your old thread on space movies where you tried to see as many of those as possible.I guess it was not your type of SCIENCE FICTION.
Interesting since seeing your old thread on space movies where you tried to see as many of those as possible.I guess it was not your type of SCIENCE FICTION.
True, it wasn't. I do like monster movies, but once you go past a certain point in history, the interest becomes mostly academic, if that. It's a genre that relies so much on effects, and when they aren't up to today's standards, I'm usually put off. Call it a limitation, if you will.
KING KONG VS. GODZILLA MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA (1964) MONSTER ZERO SON OF GODZILLA DESTROY ALL MONSTERS
Hear, hear to SON OF GODZILLA. It's absolutely unique, from the crazy syncopations of the giant praying mantis music, to the Herrmann-on-speed chugging for Godzilla himself. Impossible in Hollywood. Marvellous!
I love Son of Godzilla, particularly because the "Praying Mantis" cue is one of the first pieces of music my little son learned to recognize. I don't know if it's possible to pick a favorite--the original 1954 Gojira is incredibly powerful and King Kong vs. Godzilla almost equally so despite the comedic aspects of that film. Probably my favorite individual cues are the Godzilla vs. Rodan and climactic fight cues from Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster--I just love that fantastic, epic trumpet line, so spectacular it would have fit in wonderfully in the new movie with all its immense scope. That theme is actually derived from Ifukube's opening music to Varan the Unbelievable, and that arrangement with its chanting choir is one of the most powerful things Ifukube ever wrote IMO. I also absolutely love the Godzilla scores by Michiru Ohshima--Godzilla vs. Megaguiras, Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla and Tokyo SOS. Her Godzilla theme is the best since Ifukube's and her action music is lush and exciting--I would rank her as the finest female film composer currently working (or at least my favorite).
