Gamera (film)
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| Gamera | |
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| Directed by | Noriaki Yuasa Sandy Howard (US scenes) |
| Produced by | Hidemasa Nagata Yonejiro Saito Masaichi Nagata (executive producer) Kenneth Barnett (executive producer, US version) |
| Written by | Nisan Takahashi (screenplay) (as Fumi Takahashi) Yonejiro Saito (original idea) |
| Starring | Eiji Funakoshi Harumi Kiritachi Junichirô Yamashiko Michiko Sugata Yoshiro Kitahara Bokuzen Hidari Jun Hamamura Brian Donlevy (US scenes) Albert Dekker (US scenes) Diane Findlay (US scenes) |
| Music by | Tadashi Yamauchi Wes Farrell (US title song) The Moons (singers of US title song) |
| Cinematography | Nobuo Munekawa |
| Editing by | Tatsuji Nakashizu |
| Distributed by | Daiei, Harris Associates (original US version), Sandy Frank (second US version) |
| Release date(s) | November 26, 1965 December 15, 1966 (USA) |
| Running time | 80 min. |
| Language | Japanese English |
| Followed by | Gamera vs. Barugon |
| IMDb profile | |
Gamera or Gammera, the Invincible (大怪獣ガメラ Daikaijū Gamera?, Giant Monster Gamera) is a 1965 daikaiju eiga (giant-monster movie) about a giant turtle named Gamera. The film is similar in nature to the popular Godzilla films, and is also the first in a series of films about Gamera. It was one of the five Gamera films to be featured as episodes of the movie-mocking television show Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Gamera opens with Gamera's awakening from the unintentional detonation of an atomic bomb during a dog fight between American and Russian fighters. Like other "giant monster" movies, Gamera wastes no time in causing a rampage of destruction, first destroying a research ship, then making his way to Japan to wreak havoc. In an attempt to stop the monster, Gamera is sedated and vast amounts of dynamite are placed under him. The explosion knocks the monster on his back and it seems as though the problem has been solved. This is not the case, however, as Gamera reveals his ability to fly. A second plan is devised to stop the monster, this time by baiting him into a rocket that is to be launched to Mars. The plan is successful and Earth is safe from Gamera.
While Gamera does share many similarities with other "giant monster" films, especially the Godzilla series, it does contain one notable difference. At one point in the film, Gamera saves a small boy named Toshio Sakurai (renamed "Kenny" in the English version from Sandy Frank Productions) from death after knocking down a lighthouse. This leads the young boy to conclude that Gamera is not really destructive, but merely misunderstood and out of place in the world. This is a concept that would be seen in many monster movies to come.
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[edit] American releases
This was the only film in the original Gamera series to be released to American theaters. It was originally presented in America by World Entertainment Corp. and Harris Associates, Inc. who named the star Gammera, the Invincible, with two "m"s. All subsequent entries in the series spelled the main character's name "Gamera," and were released directly to television by American International Productions Television (A.I.P.-TV). Gammera, the Invincible's American premiere was in New Orleans on December 15, 1966.
During the 1980s, Sandy Frank re-dubbed and distributed the Gamera series on VHS for home video (This was the version used for the Mystery Science episode).
[edit] Trivia
- A tribute/spoof of Gamera was used in an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, when Billy and Irwin go to Japan to see monster fights. The monster's name was "Kragera" in the episode, though most of the features remain the same.
- The Invader Zim episode "Hamstergeddon" is a parody of Gamera in which the respective attitudes of the boy and the soldiers are reversed, with catastrophic consequences.
- This was the last giant monster movie to be filmed in black and white.
- This film is the only film in The Gamera series where Gamera does not fight another monster.
- In 1963, Daiei originally planned to make a low-budget monster film about an onslaught of giant rats rampage through Japan, using live rats feasting upon human dolls in a miniature set. In the end, the studio was infested with fleas before production started, and this convinced Daiei to make a man-in suit giant monster film.
[edit] External links
- Daikaijû Gamera (1965) at the Internet Movie Database
- Gammera the Invincible/Daikaiju Gamera - Cast List, Synopsis, History, & Photos at MIN
- Free download at MightyZIM's Public Domain Classics
[edit] References
- Variety Weekly. December 27, 1967.
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