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| Calling the film "Rhedosaurus" would have been a bit less marketable. |
Dear Internet,
I would
like to think that by now you have realized that I enjoy giant monster
movies. In the very least, I have a lot
of them on my backlog. I have gone
through King Kong to Godzilla and his foster son. With "The Beast from 20,000
Fathoms," I am beginning to unravel the backbone of giant monster movies
and why they are either enlightening works of fiction or action packed drivel. Placing them into two categories might be a
bit much, especially considering that giant monsters can have a foot in each
camp and still stand well enough. There
is also the need for the occasional drivel, for if there was not, nursery rhymes
would be shot down as the ranting of bad parenting. Or am I too late for that? No matter, today is reserved for a giant
lizard bent on New York's destruction, not the child endangerment issues with
"Rock-a-bye Baby."
"Beast"
starts out with a nuclear test in the Arctic blowing up tons of ice and splitting
glaciers. Two researchers go out to examine the fallout data. One trips and falls, breaking his leg. When the other finds him, a giant lizard knocks
loose a mountain of ice that buries the injured researcher. The survivor, Nesbitt, is rushed to a
hospital in the States and recuperates.
He tells his story of a massive creature but no one believes him until a
few ships are destroyed with similar tales.
The giant lizard, Rhedosaurus, makes its way slowly to New York City,
all the while destroying as it goes. Dr.
Elson, a paleontologist decides to use a diving bell to examine the fossil
remains of similar creatures but is killed by the monster. Eventually, the creature makes landfall on Manhattan. More destruction occurs until the military
shows up. Nesbitt devises a way to exterminate
the creature by means of a radioactive isotope.
The beast is killed, and everyone rejoices. The end.
I do
not want to make it seem like the plot is barebones, but if I were to include
the terribly unneeded romantic subplot or the filler for how Nesbitt is able to
convince other that the monster is real, I would spend too much on unneeded
fluff. The romance occurs between
Nesbitt and Elson's assistant, Lee Hunter.
Their relationship is originally founded by looking deep into each
other's eyes, the signal to the audience that these two are meant for each
other. Her presence in the second half
of the film is nearly non-existent, only participating in one scene to bring
closure to Elson's death and to kiss the hero in another. On a positive note, it is she that first
believes Nesbitt, at least enough to further question him. The whole thing feels forced, out of place
and pushed onto the audience. The scene
where Lee goes to Nesbitt's office sticks in my mind. The secretary makes sure that when telling
Nesbitt that there is a woman to see him to mention that "She's very
pretty." Does the audience not
realize this or do we need to be reminded?
Not to mention that the secretary almost forgot that Lee was waiting
outside the office. Maybe that is partly
because of how dry the acting is in this film.
The
acting ranges from laughter that feels so canned that it should be labeled SPAM
to actually believable. The worst
offender can easily be the terrible jokes that the scientists make at the beginning
of the film regarding Geiger counters and radiation. It all feels so 1950's public service announcement,
especially with a narrator spouting facts like a documentary. The only one that I felt has any sort of
presence on the screen was Jack Pennick as Jacob Bowman, the seaman who gives testimony
of the Rhedosaurus. When we find him, he
is bandaged in a hospital. His panic and
pained expression of being thought of as a madman is the only genuine acting in
this film. It really does not help that
everyone is playing a stock character at this point. No one is a full character really; they are
just shallow roles. There is the hero
scientist, the female, the military men, the scientist that only believes in
proof which leads to his death, and the screaming hordes of people. They are more singular tropes than well
rounded people.
The monster
is well made, and every time it appears on the screen there is actual terror. People die on the same shot as the monster
and buildings topple like sandcastles. I
do not think I need to say anything other than that Ray Harryhausen was in
charge of the creature. For those who do
not recognize the name, go look him up and watch some of his movies. I do not have time to go though all his movies
even in brief. Just remember that his
work is well enough made that some CGI still had to play catch up with him
until a few years ago.
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| One of only about 5 scenes worth watching. |
The
biggest problem of "Beast" is that it has nothing to say. The beast is released from atomic testing,
not made from it. Never again does the
notion of nuclear tests, power, use, etc. come up again. Is the film trying to say that we should
leave the Arctic alone because it has untold secrets that bombing would destroy? No, because there is no condemning of the tactic
used or the use of the place. The way
that the hero destroys the monster is by using similar radioactive material. So, nuclear is supposed to be our destroyer
and redeemer? It might be if it did not
feel so shoehorned in. The only reason
that they were forced to use the isotope is because the lizard started to spew
germs only after it was bleeding. If the
beast was truly a germ bomb waiting to happen, why did it not release some of
those bugs when it was breathing, salivating or excreting beforehand? The movie spends no time in reflecting on
what the monster is more than the scientific explanation. Instead it spends more time on the believability
of the first witness and how the truth does not change despite the availability
of witness to it. The monster fills a
role of being a terror but falls short of being a metaphor.
"The
Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" is average.
The only times it was entertaining or thought provoking was when the monster
shows up, and even then it is juxtaposed by unmoving acting. When the police show up to shoot it, they
behave like they are taking marksman shots at a shooting range, not being confronted
with a four story, multi-ton lizard. In
some way it is the forerunner of Godzilla and other Kaiju films, and for this
reason it should be watched. But that is
about as far as it goes. I spent more
time trying not to fall asleep in the middle of the film because it slows down
to the point where even a real fight between a shark and octopus was needed to
pick it back up. "Beast" can be watched mainly for the scenes with the Rhedosaurus, but do not watch it for anything else in the film. You will be disappointed.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
Tomorrow is "Akihabara@Deep."
Tomorrow is "Akihabara@Deep."
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