Product Description
Ishiro Honda’s Godzilla is the roaring granddaddy of all monster movies. It’s also a remarkably humane and melancholy drama made in Japan at a time when the country was still reeling from nuclear attack and H-bomb testing. Its rampaging radioactive beast, the poignant embodiment of an entire population’s fears, became a beloved international icon of destruction, spawning more than twenty sequels and spinoffs. This first thrilling, tactile spectacle continues to be a cult phenomenon; here, we present the original, 1954 Japanese version, along with Godzilla: King of the Monsters!, the 1956 American reworking starring Raymond Burr (Rear Window).

Special Features

• New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Audio commentary by David Kalat (A Critical History and Filmography of Toho’s Godzilla Series)
• New high-definition digital restoration of Godzilla: King of the Monsters!, Terry Morse’s 1956 reworking of the original, starring Raymond Burr
• Audio commentary for Godzilla: King of the Monsters! by Kalat
• New interviews with actor Akira Takarada (Hideto Ogata), Godzilla performer Haruo Nakajima, and effects technicians Yoshio Irie and Eizo Kaimai Interview with legendary Godzilla score composer Akira Ifukube
• Featurette detailing Godzilla’s photographic effects
• New interview with Japanese-film critic Tadao Sato
• The Unluckiest Dragon, an illustrated audio essay featuring historian Greg Pflugfelder describing the tragic fate of the fishing vessel Daigo fukuryu maru, a real-life event that inspired Godzilla
• Theatrical trailers
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic J. Hoberman

DVD:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005VU9LO0/?tag=imwan-20

Blu-ray:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005VU9LKE/?tag=imwan-20

Criterions are pretty pricey but anytime I break down and buy one I never regret it.

Agreed. Grabbed 3 recent Criterion Blu-ray releases for under $20 each at Barnes & Noble today during their 50% off sale (plus the member discount) -- Island of Lost Souls, The Four Feathers and Dazed And Confused. Will definitely be grabbing this one during the next sale.

Sold.

Hey Jay, I am under the impression you can preorder (and probably prepay) a Criterion release and get the discount applied. That's what the salesperson told me earlier in the week when I went "slightly mad" in my purchasing. (See my post within the Amazon sale - Here & Gone). I did this with the reissue on Blu Ray "The Rules of the Game".

See if they can do it for you, worth the try.

Rick A.