Part of Weekend Classics: Animal Kingdom

GODZILLA (aka GOJIRA) 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 reeling from nuclear attack and H-bomb testing in the Pacific. Its rampaging radioactive reptile, the poignant embodiment of an entire population’s fears, became a beloved international icon of destruction, spawning almost 30 sequels. Please note: This is not to be confused with GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS, the 1956 “Americanized” version with Raymond Burr. If you’ve never seen the original, you’re in for a treat.

Programmer’s Note: Labor Day is stacked. Don’t miss the Animal Kingdom 3x back-to-back Labor Day finale of KING KONG (1:00pm), GODZILLA (3:10pm) and JURASSIC PARK (5:20pm) followed by BOOGIE NIGHTS in 35mm (8:00pm).

“Few mass entertainments have dealt so directly with a tragedy so fresh…. An urgent, earnest film, a profoundly unsettling window into national trauma.” —Christopher Orr, The Atlantic

“As crass as it is visionary, GODZILLA belongs with — and might well trump — the art films HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR and DR. STRANGELOVE as a daring attempt to fashion a terrible poetry from the mind-melting horror of atomic warfare.” —J. Hoberman, Village Voice

“A definitive, low-tech stomping of every sci-fi clone that has sprung up in the original's wake.” —Janice Page, Boston Globe