Justin W

OAR for Godzilla

I was wondering if anyone knew what the OAR for the original Ishiro Honda Godzilla was. I've seen versions in Scope, 1:85:1, and Full Frame. They need to standardize it so all DVDs are in OAR, so we don't run into this problem.

Jeffrey Gray

The OAR is 1.33:1. However, the old OOP Simitar DVD is matted to 1.85:1, for some odd reason.

AlanBrom

The original aspect is actually 1.85:1. It's soft matted.

Damin J Toell

Actually, it isn't. The OAR is 1.37:1. The film was never meant to be shown matted, despite Simitar's DVD.

DJ

Patrick McCart

The American version was released in 1956, so THAT version may have been shown at 1.85:1.

However, in 1954, it's unlikely for this film to be meant for widescreen matting.

Tell The Weinstein Company to release Richard Williams' animated masterpiece The Thief and the Cobbler on DVD in Panavision widescreen and uncut! See and hear what you're missing from their Bitsy Award winner of Worst Standard Edition DVD of 2006 on YouTube!

Sean Campbell

The official Toho DVD is in full frame ( and all Godzilla releases from Toho are OAR )
I'm not sure if the ratio was altered for the US re-edit in 1956

Justin W

Thanks. Full frame it is.

Eric Paddon

It's worth nothing that I have never seen a video release of Godzilla that has the cast list at the end. The Simitar DVD restored the "Transworld Pictures" logo on the fake widescreen side 2, but the cast list that finally tells us that Raymond Burr was in this movie remains elusive.

AlanBrom

1.85:1 was around since 1953 or 54, the American version was for sure 1.85:1. Not a "fake" letterbox.

BruceKimmel

The Japanese version of Godzilla was 1:37. Why do people argue with this? The American version certainly could have been matted or reformatted (remember, the American version has additional scenes with Burr, and they used a dupe neg for the Japanese footage - quite obvious because the Burr footage is much sharper and better contrast in the American version). I don't know that Japan went to 1:85 until quite late. Just look at any of the Criterion Kurosawa releases from that period - they're either 1:37 or Tohoscope.

Furthermore, doesn't the Simitar DVD have BOTH versions? I do believe Toho, at some point, showed the Burr version in Japan (there is a Japanese poster for it, which I have) and I think they reformatted the movie not for 1:85 but for scope - I'll have to pull out my wonderful Japanese special edition laser of Gojira, because they show a few scenes from the reformatted version).

Eric Paddon

No, the Simitar version is like the other releases in their series (save "The Terror Of Mechogodzilla" which is only offered pan/scan and it's the truncated version, not the longer version that first played on US TV in 1978) with a full frame on one side and a widescreen on the other side. This is great for "Godzilla vs. The Thing" (Godzilla vs. Mothra) and "Monster Zero" and "Godzilla's Revenge" but on the original Godzilla we're just getting a slightly cropped on the top and bottom version that only restores the "Transworld Pictures" logo at the beginning in terms of being different from the traditional full frame version.

The mystery of the missing cast list in the US version is what sill has me puzzled.

Patrick McCart

1954, yes...in the U.S. Widescreen processes were delayed somewhat for Japan, so they were still shooting for Academy.

It's likely that the newly shot scenes for the American version were made for 1.85:1 (or more likely, 1.66:1) matting... but not the original 1954 footage.

Tell The Weinstein Company to release Richard Williams' animated masterpiece The Thief and the Cobbler on DVD in Panavision widescreen and uncut! See and hear what you're missing from their Bitsy Award winner of Worst Standard Edition DVD of 2006 on YouTube!