War of the Gargantuas

 (1966) ***1/2

This was a channel 56 Creature Feature favorite. My sister always made fun of me for watching the Creature Double feature and in particular I have a strong memory of her picking on me pretty harshly for watching this film. I’m not sure why the gargantuas chapped her ass so much but I can tell you that all the teasing in the world couldn’t have stopped me from watching it.

 The film opens with a fishing boat being attacked by a giant octopus, suddenly a hairy green apelike creature emerges from the sea and battles the mollusk. However, this creature is no hero. He finds he has a taste for humans and decides to travel to the land for a little snack. Once inland he is mistaken for the brown Gargantua that a pair of scientists raised. The two scientists refuse to believe that their gentle giant would harm any human so they set out to seek answers. When the humble brown gargantua finally makes an appearance it is clear that they have an oversized problem. The brown one tries to stop the green from eating people but the green one likes them too much and continues to gorge himself. It all escalates into a final battle in the ocean while an underwater volcano begins to erupt.

War of the Gargantuas is a unique giant monster film where the monsters appear to be ape/human like yet unlike King Kong or Mighty Joe Young they are not giant gorillas they are clearly creatures not of this world. The dilemma here is that the green one is so destructive and even though the brown one is gentle and harmless they are not sure if there are more and concerned that they might actually breed. Since the green one is so attracted to the taste of human flesh the people feel they must destroy both of them to ensure the safety of the human race. It is a complex moral decision that weighs heavy on the minds of the scientists involved. I do so love this movie for all those reasons even if I could see the string on the top of the helicopter that dangled in front of the green gargantua. CGI is innovative and wonderful and I do appreciate what it has done for modern cinema but I also miss the simplicity of these old films and I cherish them dearly.