Classic "B" Movies Part II

During the early seventies when I was about 10 or 11 years old, I got my first viewing of a strange movie imported from Japan entitled "Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster" (The picture shown in the title of my blog at the top of this page is from that movie). Again I have to thank my mother for taking me to this movie and introducing me to what turned into a lifelong love of Japanese monster movies - and what better movie to start it off than this bizarre, psychedelic, in your face rant on the dangers of pollution. This was my introduction to Godzilla (who had been in a number of movies since his debut in 1954 as "Godzilla: Kind of the Monsters"). This was also the first movie I ever paid to see at the theater more than once. It was also the first time I realized that my taste in movies didn't always measure up with the rest of the human population (as I found out a number of years ago when I read about this movie winning the "Golden Turkey Award" for one of the worst movies ever made). Apparently I'm able to see qualities in this movie that many other people cannot, or what I see as unique and eccentrically amusing, others find to be a painfully awful waste of time. However, once I realized later in life that some of my friends agreed with me as well as a huge following of people on the Internet, I finally felt vindicated in my belief. We're all different. We all grow up in different environments and are exposed to different kinds of entertainment as children. Most importantly, though, I've found that a person's imagination - the scope of it's vividness and openness to strange ideas - plays a large role in shaping that person's taste......either that, or I'm just plain weird.