Blackmoor Vituperative

I spent some time today piecing together the cinematic history of Godzilla. I have about a dozen Godzilla movies on DVD and Blu-Ray. Most are available in English. A few are not. Some were brutally mangled for US release, but I think many of those have since been re-released by distributors that actually care about the film (most notably Gojira and Godzilla Raids Again).

With that in mind, I have compiled a list of the Godzilla films and what I consider to be the important Godzilla-related films (I included Rodan, for example, but I did not include movies like War of the Gargantuas, which are ostensibly set in the same universe but which never cross over with Godzilla), and linked them to what I consider the best versions of those films on DVD or Blu-Ray. Unfortunately, some are very difficult to find at a sane price (or unavailable entirely, in the case of Return of Godzilla).

I hope that other people find this list useful.

Showa era

• Godzilla (1954)
• Godzilla Raids Again (1955)
• Rodan (1956)
• Mothra (1961)
• King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
• Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
• Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
• Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)
• Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (1966)
• King Kong Escapes (1967)
• Son of Godzilla (1967) This is currently quite hard to find at a sane price. I do not know why anyone would pay more than $20 for this.
• Destroy All Monsters (1968)
• All Monsters Attack (1969) aka “Godzilla’s Revenge”.
• Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) I suggest that you watch this in Japanese with English subtitles.
• Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
• Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) This is another one that is difficult to find for a sane price.
• Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)

Heisei era

• The Return of Godzilla (1984) Unfortunately, there is no English version of this film on DVD. That may be a blessing: the Americanized version of this film (“Godzilla 1985”) was an abomination. You may be able to find a region-free copy of the Japanese film on Ebay, though.
• Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)
• Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) This is a huge improvement over the DVD release: widescreen, with both the Japanese and English audio tracks.
• Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992) This is a huge improvement over the DVD release: widescreen, with both the Japanese and English audio tracks.
• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)
• Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994)
• Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)
• Rebirth of Mothra (1996)
• Rebirth of Mothra II (1997)
• Rebirth of Mothra III (1998)

The American knock-off

• Godzilla (1998) No, it isn’t really a Godzilla movie, but Zilla does show up in Final Wars.

Millennium era

• Godzilla 2000 (1999)
• Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000)
• Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
• Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002)
• Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)
• Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)

“Fat Godzilla” era

• Godzilla (2014)