Gojira Godzilla, king of the monsters

Unleashed by U.S. military hydrogen-bomb testing, the titular fire-breathing monster tosses trains, crushes cars, and generally wreaks havoc on a skittish postwar Japan forced to rely on its own doomsday weapon for self-defense. A cautionary tale about the side effects of nuclear weapons, Ishiro Honda's classic creature feature found its message blunted in the 1956 Hollywood "reworking" (thankfully included as an extra), starring Raymond Burr as a reporter inserted into the English-dubbed original. For retro-movie aficionados. [See Trailers, LJ 12/11.] (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.