Fifty years ago, Toho tried to end the Godzilla series on a high note. Destroy All Monsters brought the King of the Monsters and ten kaiju co-stars to the brink of the 21st century, threw alien invaders and gun-toting astronauts into the mix, and invited viewers around the world to enjoy the ensuing mayhem. Director Ishiro Honda, special effects supervisor Eiji Tsuburaya, and composer Akira Ifukube reunited for one last adventure, with a straightforward, action-packed script by Honda and Takeshi Kimura. Though the film failed to turn a profit, at least in Japan, Godzilla soldiered on, enduring ever-dwindling budgets for six more entries until going on hiatus.
Today, its shoot-for-the-moon approach has earned it a sterling reputation in the Western fandom; the most recent G-Fan readers’ poll in 2014 ranked it third in the series, behind the original Godzilla and Mothra vs. Godzilla. Even factoring in non-Godzilla movies, its 8.3 rating was only equaled or surpassed by the Heisei Gamera trilogy, the original King Kong, and Rodan.
G-Fan didn’t provide demographic breakdowns for its respondents, but I’d wager the best ratings for Destroy All Monsters came from the people fortunate enough to catch it in theaters. For a Monster Kid in 1969, chasing TV airings and Famous Monster of Filmland issues for more exposure to those beasts from the East, few thrills could be greater than seeing so many of them on the screen at once, tearing the world apart. It was the Avengers: Infinity War of its day, requiring thorough knowledge of the Toho oeuvre to recognize all the returning kaiju. The rare fan who didn’t discover at least one new kaiju watching the film would had to have seen Gigantis the Fire Monster (1959), Varan the Unbelievable (1962), Atragon (1965), Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster (1965), Frankenstein Conquers the World (1966), King Kong Escapes (1968), and Son of Godzilla (1969) first, or have the aforementioned Famous Monsters of Filmland fill in the gaps. Small wonder that G-Fan’s Destroy All Monsters issue (July/August 1999, natch) dedicated five pages to first-viewing memories.
I’m about half the film’s age, and while I still haven’t seen it in theaters yet, I remember my first viewing too. A bootleg tape loomed large in my Easter basket of either 2003 or 2004, and I immediately raced downstairs to watch the whole thing. I don’t know why Dad didn’t opt for one of A.D.Vision’s official releases, but years later I would find myself glad that he did. That a fullscreen, faded bootleg could provide a better experience than a licensed product is a microcosm of how bizarre and unfortunate Destroy All Monsters’ treatment in the U.S. has been since it left theaters. Only King Kong vs. Godzilla (Japanese version still unreleased) and The Return of Godzilla (American version banished indefinitely to VHS and LaserDisc, Japanese version unreleased until 2016) have suffered more.
