Gojira (aka Godzilla), a giant monster springs to life in the wake of heavy nuclear weapons testing over the Pacific Ocean, and before long, it makes a beeline for an unsuspecting Tokyo. This is, without a dought, the best of all the Godzilla films. The film takes a casual tale - a large monster that destroys a city - very seriously and it should. Mixing solemn drama with dramatic action scenes, Gojira was the only film in the series to be nomination for Best Picture, but lost to Shichinin No samurai (The Seven Samurai). However, the film did win the award for Best Visual Effects. It is the only Godzilla movie to receive an award. Also, the human characters, particularly Doctor Serizawa, were well done and their story is as important as Godzilla trashing Tokyo. This is also one of the few Godzilla films to (1) be in black and white and (2) to show bloody bodies. As stated before, this film had a serious message to it which, interestingly, was inspired by a true story. On March 1954, a Japanese fishing boat was accidentally splattered with radioactive particles from a U.S. hydrogen bomb test. After a crewman died of leukemia, protesters demanded a halt to testing. Concern over nuclear weapons was especially intense in Japan, where tens of thousands died when U.S. pilots dropped two atomic bombs during the Second World War. The Japanese version contained references to both atomic bombings, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, plus the fire bombing of Japanese cities during the Second World War. These scenes were cut from the American verison. Only this film and the 50th anniversary film have any quality to them. This is a great mix of monster footage (even if it's only Godzilla) and human drama. It's also unique to the saga. In 2004, for his 50th anniversary, Godzilla was given a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.