Gorgo - Widescreen Destruction Edition

I have to admit i love this movie. Growing up as a kid, i always use to love watching the classic dinosaur movies. Wether it was stop motion animation or the man in the rubber suit routine like the Godzilla movies. Wether or not you like Gorgo, this movie has the most realistic, incredible special effects out of most of the giant monster films. No stop motion animation here, just an actor in a rubber suit stomping through miniatures. You'll have to squint your eyes pretty close to tell if the London landmarks are models.

Anyways i've had an old VHS copy of this movie for years, but recently ordered the DVD, which i hope is a bit of an improvement in picture quality and sound. I have not seen the widescreen version yet, but am looking forward to receiving my copy as i write this.

Gorgo is an intelligently written sci-fi movie that runs for only 78 mins. It's basically about two men who own a freighter off the Irish Coast who capture a creature that resembles a Tyranosaurus Rex, but much larger. Smelling profit they bring the creature who they named Gorgo(Who is 65ft in height) to a London circus to put on display. What the men don't realize is that Gorgo is only an infant in his early stages of development. A scientist warns them about this, and the possibility that a much larger parent may be around. Sure enough, Gorgo's 250ft mother comes ashore and frees him from the circus after stomping through London and destroying many landmarks to get to her son in a touching seen at the end. The two then head back to the sea and the film ends.

As far as I'm concerned this was the worst movie of all time. The movie that usualy lays claim to the title of worst movie of all time ("Plan 9 from Outer Space") was at least fun to laugh at. This is a boring groaner from the get go.

This starts out with a storyline that is completely forgotten a few minutes in. This is just a lame swipe of other monster movies. The monster is poorly done and the editing is so poor it's a laugh when the explosions don't match the reactions of the monster. Furthermore continuous repetitions of the same falling rocks is just lazy. Even the ending is a lame attempt to somehow appear poigniant and put monsters in some sort of human light.

There is only about 1 minute of footage in this movie that is actualy worth watching; the scene where the monster destroys the clock tower is very well done...in fact exceptionaly well done, and it immediately stands out...then it just goes back to the same lazy repetative garbage.
I hadn't seen the film before so when I chose this movie for a group of us to watch... I didn't know what I had chosen. It was so lame we didn't even finish watching it!!! We weren't in a rush to go, it was just a boring movie. And I appologised to the group afterward. They were kind, realizing I hadn't seen it before. Even the the worst of the rediculous Japanese monster movies are more fun to watch then this lame British bulldog.

I eventualy remembered seeing the movie as a kid around 1970 and I remember even then saying it was a "Bad movie". Give me "Gammara" any day over this trogdolite.

The first thing you should know about VCI's "Gorgo-Widescreen Destruction Edition" is that it is missing about 2 or 3 minutes of footage, confirmed by the fact that its running time has been reduced to 73 minutes, although the box lists the full 76 minute version. The first problem you will encounter when watching the films is during Angelo Lavagnino's excellent opening score when there seems to be an echo effect, as if the stereo tracks where out of sync with each other, resulting in the music becoming a garbled mess. Such audio problems occur throughout the feature. Strangely, there seems to have been some additional sound effects added over the original soundtrack. Except for the missing footage, the MGM Technicolor print used for the transfer is in excellent condidtion. As a bonus there is a "behnd the scenes" documentary that, although it runs only about 10 minutes, it is very authoritative and informative. The label on the container is an excellent reproduction of MGM's original poster art. This is one of the worst DVD releases I have yet encounted. It makes me wonder if anyone at VCI bothered to insure that a complete print was being used and that picture and sound are transfered properly. Someone at the company should have at least watched one of the discs before they started shipping them out. Save your money and wait for a better release.

This is one of those films I saw as a child that stuck with me for a long time. There was some great people behind the camera on this film, Oscar winning Director of Photography Freddie Young.(Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Ryans Daugther.) Also oscar winning photographic effects man Tom Howard. A cast that works, including one of the first roles for John Wood,(Wargames, Ladyhawke.) as the man in the street saying "The End Is Near".Great music too. I just wish that someone would find a good print of this film. The one on this DVD is of the old TV print. Also I wish that the company that put it out the DVD left the audio track alone. The addition of sound effects to the original soundtrack during the ramage in London was very anoying! Who's idea was that! Over all I still enjoyed this film.

I saw Gorgo when it was first released in the movies in 1960 and I'm probably the movie's biggest fan. This 'Destruction Edition' release by VCI is the first serious print of the movie to be sold. The bonfire scene on Nara Island where Gorgo makes his first appearance is restored to visual perfection. It looks like it was actually printed from the negative as do many other scenes in this release. It seems like all the criticism heaped on VCI for releasing the atrocious previous version with its near black scenes paid off. The fans of Gorgo , which are many, deserved and got this restoration. Unfortunately the glee I felt initially with seeing Gorgo finally restored was short lived when the most bizarre thing occurred.
I began to notice the soundtrack was cheaply tampered with in an attempt to guess 'enhance it'. Now mind you I have seen probably ten different video releases of Gorgo all of which had awful print quality but the movie's soundtrack was never ruined or doctored in any way. Now finally we have a decent restoration of the print and what happens some genius at VCI instead of just enhancing the volume of Gorgo which has one of the greatest soundtracks in monster movie history
, they decide instead to do the unthinkable and tamper with it by adding the tinny lifeless roar used in the DVD screensaver and drowning out the masterful original monster sounds in the movie. They also add echoes and assorted sirens and machine gun fire. So you hear machine guns in a scene where three guys are shooting with rifles. These baffling alterations undo much of the great visual restoration VCI made an admirable effort to attain and I have to say ruin the outcome making many key scenes seem to fall out of synch. It's an annoying distraction that sabotages the robust power and flow the movie's sound is known for. A classic is a a classic because of it's special unique qualities that the public loves about them, the best we can do is preserve them not change them. Not to mention the violations of artistic ethics and integrity. Imagine changing King Kong's roar or Fay Wray's scream.
Oh well,maybe this will set up the release of a VCI corrected version. We'll buy it.