The Sounds of Awe and Terror: Revisiting the Music of Godzilla [Part 5- American Reinventions]

 

     I hope that my message to Godzilla fans is something that is stated overtly through the score that I created. And that message is that I adore Ifukube’s music and I credit him as being one of the key reasons that a Godzilla film even exists today. One of the things that people love about the legacy is its musical sound, and without Ifukube’s contributions to the franchise, I truly don’t believe it would have lasted as long as it has, and resonated with so many millions of fans around the world. ~ Bear McCreary

Welcome to the fifth and final part of my journey through the OSTs of Godzilla films. In the previous editorial, I discussed the music scores from the Shin series. Now, we proceed to the American motion pictures.
     Hollywood obtained the licence to make a Godzilla movie in the early 1990s, but development hell resulted in a lot of production teams leaving the project. The organisational mess was ultimately inherited by director Ronald Emmerich and writer Dean Devlin who were super hot in the showbiz after the release of their sci-fi blockbuster Independence Day (1996).
     To cut the long story short, the two filmmakers did not really care much about the Japanese icon and their only goal was to make a profitable pop-corn action flick. Indeed, Godzilla (1998) made its money at the box office, but was also critically panned by Godzilla fans across the globe. I will write my thoughts in a separate text devoted to this movie soon, but let me just say here that Godzilla (1998) is a zombie-like amalgam of everything epic about 90s blockbusters that insults the intellect of its viewers.

David Arnold

    The music for the film was composed by David Arnold who already worked for Emmerich on Stargate (1994) and Independence Day (1996), and also created the soundtrack for a Bond flick, Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). I find the OST for Godzilla to be very uneven. There are many interesting action cues, but nothing extremely idiosyncratic or memorable. The music is just there. It is neither awesome nor ahorrently bad.

    It took 16 years for Hollywood producers to get a grip on reality and try to make a movie that will actually appeal to the kaiju fanbase. Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla (2014) was such an attempt which received mixed reaction (I personally loved the film!). The composer responsible for providing the Big G with new sound was Alexandre Desplat. Already around the release of the movie, there were questions from the fans whether Akira Ifukube’s music will be included in the picture, but Gareth Edwards rushed to answer that Desplat’s score will be entirely original.

Alexandre Desplat

    While taking a seat at the cinema on the 14th of May, 2014, I was full of doubts about the movie and the OST, but my worries immediately cleared away as soon as the intro kicked in. Desplat came up with an amazing, intense theme for Godzilla. As of writing this now, I can vividly hear it in my mind. To me, the music seems to represent a nuclear bomb that is inevitably ticking away.

    After the box-office success of the film, Gareth Edwards was supposed to return (and presumably Alexandre Desplat as well) for the sequel, but the director went for other projects (ex. Rogue One). Enter Michael Dougherty who hired his long-time friend Bear McCreary to write the music for Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019).

Bear McCreary

     This OST is undeniably the best out of all American soundtracks! Throughout the film, we can hear a lot of rearranged Ifukube’s music (Godzilla theme, Mothra theme), but also McCreary’s original tracks which are downright awesome (Rodan chase, Ghidorah theme!). The movie is so much fun and the music only enhances this experience. Oh, and the Godzilla song (feat. Serj Tankian) which plays over the end credits… I could not feel more happier as a fanboy at the cinema. Bear McCreary’s music is, indeed, a love letter to the Showa era.

Tom Holkenborg

    With regard to Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), I managed to check out this film like literally today. Oh gosh, I am still shaking. Hands down, it is a wonderful spectacle of monster rumble. As for the OST, Holkenborg provides a wonderful addition into the franchise of Godzilla. If you liked his music for Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), then you won't be disappointed. He does his own thing most of the time, but you can still pick up some classic music cues from the very beginning of the series. If I were to pick my favourite tracks, then they have to be "Pensacola, Florida (Godzilla Theme)" and "Hong Kong". You can listen to the whole album on YouTube via Warner Bros. official music label.

    All things considered, this was my “brief” trip down the music lane of Godzilla’s Hollywood productions. Please make sure to hit the hyperlinks in order to listen to mentioned tracks.As usual, I leave you with my “guide list” of the American movies and the people who scored them. Thank you for reading and participating in this revisited series together with me. The sounds of awe and terror will live on in new Godzilla movies!

• Godzilla (1998) music by David Arnold
• Godzilla (2014) music by Alexandre Desplat
• Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) music by Bear McCreary
• Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) music by Tom Holkenborg

Sources: Gojipedia * TohoKingdom * Bear McCreary Interview.

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