General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy Godzilla matters
While some may never be able to see past the image of those 1970s movies and cartoon show, Godzilla is in reality a literary metaphor of nearly unmatched relevancy and power in today's world. Others have written of Godzilla in literary or cultural terms, well before me.
But I think the symbol of Godzilla is an apt one for this particular era of history and its issues.
This is not about the new film coming out in a few weeks, although, if it proves a hit, that may get people talking about Godzilla, and the symbolic resonance of what he represents.
Hopefully, the film will trigger a lot of conversations beyond just the special effects and production values.
As an ideal emodiment of a particular and persistent human theme, Godzilla matters in today's world, far beyond just the action-movie excitement and box-office receipts.
The Japanese established kaiju (giant monsters) as a film genre, but real-life
kaiju are part of the Japanese DNA. Puzzled? Go check out some actual kaiju on youtube---The 3-11 tsunami at Kessenuma, or Minamisanriku, or Sendai, as an unstoppable giant monster spread it's unimaginably powerful limbs across the land, tossing trucks, ships and buildings around like Cracker-Jack toys, making a mockery of puny human barriers built for the foolish illusion of security, and ultimately laying all to waste.
But Godzilla, the king and biggest star of all the kaiju, is distinctly American-inspired, and so in essence,
a co-creation of Japan and America.
We gave Japan the nuclear connection tragically via Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and later, through Fukushima reactors #1,2,3 and 4---All built at near sea-level (against some Japanese objections at the time), as insisted upon by General Electric in the 1970s, in order to sell their reactor design without costly modification.
And this was after the recent tsunamis of 1946, 1960 and 1964!
Human folly provided the opening through which Fukushima was ripped-open, literally, by the earth's own kaiju.
America gave Japan the dark gift of radiation, and Japan fused their own ancient mythologies, their seismic heritage, and recent history together in a burst of inspiration, and gave the world Gojira (Godzilla)---The radioactive super-dragon that cannot be killed or stopped, and that humanity helped create.
The theme that Godzilla embodies, is deeply colored by the age-old issue
embodied in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein---Has humankind taken on too much power---More than our limited wisdom can handle?
This is a theme that haunts the human race more and more with each passing year.
Perhaps Godzilla is the new, and even more topically relevant,
Frankenstein, for our age.
Godzilla represents everything we fear, that we cannot control, and that can destroy us all. This includes phenomena of nature (tsunami, typhoons, earthquakes), as well as things we are partly responsible for (climate change? Pollution? Fukushima?).
The primary theme behind Godzilla as a metaphor is something many people simply avoid thinking about, but is the thing that all human beings, as citizens of Earth, NEED to be thinking about.
It is a question.
Actually, it is the question:
Will the human race survive?
Put that in your action-movie and smoke it.
For many people choosing not to look, or think, too deeply, Godzilla will continue to be merely an action-flick phenomenon,
a social event, a punch line.
But for the more philosophical among us----Those not afraid to look
at The Big Picture of human life on earth, even via a piece of popular mass-entertainment,
Godzilla matters.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dmovies-tv&field-keywords=godzilla
intaglio
(8,170 posts)First please link to the film trailers or the website
Second as long as there is no Godzuki I'm happy
JHB
(37,122 posts)AceAcme
(93 posts)sakabatou
(42,070 posts)Unfortunately, there are humans.
Berlin Expat
(946 posts)of American-inspired backstory to Gojira was the Castle Bravo nuclear test of March 1, 1954, which yielded a far larger explosion than expected..... if I recall correctly, in the 15 megaton range, whereas a six megaton blast was what had been anticipated. The unfortunate crew of a tuna fishing boat, the 'Lucky Dragon #5', was exposed to fallout from the Castle Bravo test, and one of them died as a result with the rest - along with a good many others - suffering from radiation sickness as a result. This real-life tragedy inspired the opening scene of the original Gojira in which the crew of the fictional fishing boat 'Eiko Maru' is obliterated in Godzilla's first attack.
I'm looking forward to this new film; the director has said that in this version, the kaiju Godzilla will be a "force of nature". Certainly, it has a top-notch cast including Ken Watanabe, Juilette Binoche, Bryan Cranston and Akira Takarada - who also appeared in the original 1954 film.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)The pace of the race we are running is not sustainable.
It will run out of cheap energy in time. Probably soon. That end of cheap energy coupled with the pollution, altered seashores and possible nuclear weapon responses to rising land and resource grabs, will knock us off our pedestal and leave us crawling. The race will be over, the dog will have eaten the dog, the rats will have won.
The survivors will be the new cavemen and women who will begin anew the race our society has been running for going on a thousand years now.
Probably with an altered genome which in evolutionary history will denote an end of one race of humans and the progression of another new race of homo E.
And that's being optimystic (sic) and hopeful.
TampaAnimusVortex
(785 posts)Or... the price of renewable energy continues to fall along its current path, overtaking petrofuels over the next decade, thanks to advances in nanotechnology. I suggest you start with this book.
http://www.abundancethebook.com/
People have been predicting the end of the world since it started. It's a lot easier to imagine everything falling apart then it is to imagine inventions that haven't been imagined or invented yet.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)True, on Sept. 11, a couple of buildings did appear to just 'Fall Apart'.
It will cease because our Godzilla tears it apart.
At the core of our Godzilla is technology. Einstein had something to say about what would happen to humans using tech combined with our continued mindset of war and inequality. It wasn't good.
Could not those jets flying into the towers be considered a modern Godzilla? The jets were modern tech used to create 'apartness'.
Ok, done pushing this envelope, i will close with this: Making sure our great and powerful tech resides only in the hands of honest caring people is how this society can be continuous.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)yuiyoshida
(41,736 posts)Kaiju from Mothra to Rodan. I loved Gamera but there will only ever be one king of the monsters, and I don't mean the Raymond Burr version. I was lucky to be surrounded by Japanese culture in my house including Gojira toys...One of the first phrases I learned was..
Maa nante koto nanda!! Gojira itte imasu!!!
まあ なんて こと 何だ!! 五十ら 行って います!!!
nikto
(3,284 posts)For:
Maa nante koto nanda!! Gojira itte imasu!!!
まあ なんて こと 何だ!! 五十ら 行って います!!!
??
yuiyoshida
(41,736 posts)'
OH MY GOD!!!
GODZILLA IS COMING!!
Exposethefrauds
(531 posts)It is the only one I really liked of the Godzilla movies the others were OK but IMHO not as good as the original.
yuiyoshida
(41,736 posts)Raymond Burr wasn't in the original Gojira. He made many of his scenes in Hollywood and they sliced him into the story, removing quite a bit of the original movie, and it was called GODZILLA: King of the Monsters. IF you want to see the original GODZILLA as it was meant to be viewed, get GOJIRA and watch it. You will be amazed...how MUCH YOU missed.
Exposethefrauds
(531 posts)Adrahil
(13,340 posts)PasadenaTrudy
(3,998 posts)loved Gamera. And Giant Robot too!
gort
(687 posts)It has my all time favorite dubbed line of dialog ever:
Kid, "Gamera not bad, he just misunderstood!"
PasadenaTrudy
(3,998 posts)I must make a note of that
LWolf
(46,179 posts)grew up watching those movies, and I have a strange affection for the toy-like monsters and structures, and the English voice overs that don't fit the movement of the characters' mouths. While I saw them all, and saw Godzilla over and over, the one that hits the top of my favorites list is "War of the Gargantuas." You know: brown good, green bad, battling it out. The brown one actually reminded me a bit of Lurch, lol. I especially liked the energetic shoulder action when they were challenging each other. I actually, when I was about ten, had a nightmare about the green one hunting me, and trying to hide underground where he couldn't find me.
randome
(34,845 posts)...it was paired with, I believe, Monster Zero. A double feature. Those awful movies are etched in my childhood, too.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]
sakabatou
(42,070 posts)AsahinaKimi
(20,776 posts)Always San Chome No Yuhi
Movie Trailer:
Half-Century Man
(5,279 posts)Now, once again, I'll have to watch movies I learned of here.
randome
(34,845 posts)One of the things that amazes me about Godzilla is that the first move occurred a mere nine years after the bombs were dropped on Japan.
That first movie seemed as much of a cultural 'apology' for WWII but also the warning to all Mankind you mention.
Plus it was simply awesome for Japan to piece together the fire-breathing dragons of their mythology with the terrifying future of science.
I grew up with Godzilla movies, too. During an obsessive-compulsive phase, I would list all the monsters, their heights, lengths, wing-spans. Write my own stories. And, before videotape, I recorded some of the movies then transcribed them to paper.
My daughters picked up my fascination with Godzilla and the 1990s Gamera films. We're looking forward to the new movie.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Aspire to inspire.[/center][/font][hr]
Wounded Bear
(58,362 posts)but you could actually push the metaphor much farther back in European mythology to Daedelus and Icarus. Science, like religion, must be tempered with reason and discretion.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)Nature/Reality always has an element of chaos.
Outside the laboratory, there are always unexpected consequences.
Science has its own form of "woo".
Orrex
(63,057 posts)Nice attempted thread-jack, though.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)Codeine
(25,586 posts)nikto
(3,284 posts)Last edited Sun Apr 27, 2014, 03:42 AM - Edit history (4)
Climate chaos, Fracking, Fukushima, mutations, drones and ultra-high-tech warfare,
GMO "Franken-foods", evolution of super-bacteria,
China's extreme air-pollution, The HAARP Machine and fears of the US MIC,
extinctions and mass-deaths of certain animal species (frogs, urchins, etc), pollution of the seas, contrails paranoia,
NSA super-surveillance, a worldwide banking and financial machine that is running amok, etc etc etc etc
The movie may end up striking striking a chord on a world-wide level (if it's well done,
which, judging by the talent involved, it appears likely to be.)
To live on Earth today, you have to have doubts and insecurities, unless you are uncommonly
pampered or sheltered, a la Koch Bros or Jamie Dimon.
Anyone with a brain and a conscience must eventually arrive at the question:
Is the human race up against a deadly, unstoppable "Godzilla", partly of its own creation?
Will Humankind survive the next 50-100 years?
To be honest, it doesn't look all that great, IMO.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/what_evolution_teaches_us_about_humanitys_grim_future_20140424
nikto
(3,284 posts)Better yet, will we survive this one?
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)How nature points out the folly of men.
nikto
(3,284 posts)I thought he got liquified in Ghost-Busters.
Must be his son?
Dirty Socialist
(3,244 posts)Destroyer of Truth
nikto
(3,284 posts)Venomous, like
The Blob's more toxic younger brother.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)With some lettus and rice and beef inside ...eat Mexican food again and again ...Tortilla
LostOne4Ever
(9,262 posts)NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)adirondacker
(2,921 posts)ProudToBeBlueInRhody
(16,399 posts)I'm sure certain DU snobs will trash it if it makes a lot of money and bemoan the stupidity of the public for seeing it, but whatever.
PasadenaTrudy
(3,998 posts)truebrit71
(20,805 posts)...I was never a real fan of the dreadfully amateurish movies of my youth, but with modern CGI and a pretty decent-looking cast this has the makings of an epic popcorn-chewer...
Cannot wait!
nikto
(3,284 posts)"Earth: Game Over?
We're in the middle of a sixth mass extinction, and this will be the first oneand possibly
the lastwe will witness as human beings."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/04/24
MisterP
(23,730 posts)fallout; it's not even a metaphor for the utter devastation of 1944-5, but
imperialist nations always imagine themselves victimized by some upstart who doesn't play fair--there was even a whole genre where many Britons basically mentally masturbated to their own ruin, but these invasion stories utterly evaporated once millions were actually injured or killed in industrialized warfare at the Somme and Mons--888000 for Britain alone
those countries that haven't seen their home soil torn up maintain the old fin-de-siecle sentimentalism: their invasion tales remain unrooted from reality, a way to experience one's victimhood beforehand and thus build up righteous anger against the designated enemy; the compassion remains for oneself alone--a fetishized victimhood one can wallow in, like in "Red Nightmare" where podunk county courthouses are surrounded by Soviet sandbags and machine-gun nests; PG Wodehouse got rapped for "Dixie Chicking" something they saw as Deadly Serious--the moment when the Fritzes Finally Would storm East Anglia, drag off our screaming women and line us up against the wall OMG OMG
to us, "Barefoot Gen" and the original "Godzilla" are a type of fantasy, in the same vein as "2012" or "Man of Steel": a "disaster movie" or a "superhero movie" (and indeed the Godzilla movies quickly slid into that); save for OKC and 9-11 Americans haven't really had to pick up dozens of 8-year-olds in knickerbockers and throw them onto a pile for burning or bury infants covered in third-degree burns in the ashes of what used to be a whole city; we can still make believe those we bomb all had it coming, or that it was doing them a favor--but deep inside we know we're lying, as the Lost Generation and then the post-Korea wave of Vonneguts and Hellers and Walter Millers show
and Japan's got a long legacy of mind-bending sea monsters
AllenVanAllen
(3,134 posts)Our knowledge has dangerously surpassed our wisdom and nature will soon show all of mankind our true place.
I've always loved Godzilla. He was my all time favorite childhood hero. I saw a an interesting take on him recently in some fan fiction written from Godzilla's point of view. Here's a great quote from it.
This is the Godzilla movie I've waited for my entire life. I can't wait!!!!
nikto
(3,284 posts)"The tiny Marshall Islands is dragging the United States and eight other nuclear-armed countries to the UNs highest court for failing to halt the nuclear arms race and rid the world of atomic weapons."
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/25/tiny-marshall-islands-to-sue-u-s-over-nuclear-bomb-testing/
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)Great original post with deep philosophical inflection.
nikto
(3,284 posts)Godzilla is a universal symbol with roots deep in the collective imagination of humankind,
and, via contemporary media, has achieved status as
a modern internationally-recognized mythological archetype on a Joseph Campbell/Carl Jung level.
nikto
(3,284 posts)by Missing Persons
When will there be forgiveness
Are there enough reasons
I do believe it's possible
We can find peace between us
In the real world all the numbers have no names
Real world--notice how the faces change
I've been waiting for a million years
All the promises and all the tears
Patiently waiting as the days go by
Still looking for the truth but finding lies
What will bring light to our eyes
When will we hear the laughter
Can we build hope on promises
Here on the edge of after
I've been waiting, still waiting
I've been waiting, still waiting
I've been waiting, still waiting
I've been waiting for a million years
================================================================
nikto
(3,284 posts)Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)of all time. One of the all time great movies. A harbinger, a gateway, a progenitor.
PasadenaTrudy
(3,998 posts)Should we see in IMAX 3D, 3D, or regular? I want to buy tix for opening weekend and must decide.
nikto
(3,284 posts)The Second Stone
(2,900 posts)That would be a good start.
randome
(34,845 posts)[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)But, yeah, that annoys the hell out of me too.
The Second Stone
(2,900 posts)One minute Godzilla's face is looking in a commuter train window, the next he is towering over a skyscraper. Decide how big it is damnit! Stick with it! Tell your model makers and prop guys how big it is.
LostOne4Ever
(9,262 posts)Who doesn't love Gojira!
Though, to be honest King Gidora has always been my favorite!
nikto
(3,284 posts)When he was comin' up, the scouts raved...
3 heads;Bigger than Godzilla;Interstellar flying ability;Powerful electrical discharges.
Never won The Big One, never beat the big guy.
Sort of, the Darryl Strawberry of Kaiju.
He coulda' been a contenda'.
LWolf
(46,179 posts)You can tell how much attention I pay to the movie industry, lol. I DO see a few movies during the summer when I'm not working too many hours every week. Usually with my teen-aged grandson; it's hard these days to find movies that we BOTH have an interest in. I'll keep this one in mind.
Feral Child
(2,086 posts)Well written and pertinent. Thanks.
REC
dionysus
(26,467 posts)Larkspur
(12,804 posts)wrecking ruin upon civilization but they are not doing it out of spite or even out of psychopathic urges. Theyre doing it because they are just following their nature, even if it was modified by human design, and they are so massive that they don't notice us puny humans. To them, we are like ants.
While, I know that Godzilla represents nuclear power and its unpredictable and destructive power, you don't need nuclear power to destroy our planet. Fossil fuel consumption is literally damaging our planet at a faster and more massive rate today than nuclear power.
The real Godzillas in our midst today are the mufti-national oil companies, like Exxon Mobil, BP, and Shell. Their vision of the future is to maximize their profit margins even if that means burning our biosphere to the ground. That narcissistic view isn't much different than the primitive reptilian intelligence displayed by the rampaging Godzilla.
The fact that these behemoth oil companies won't spend even a sliver of their billions in profits in researching new ways to improve cleaning up oil spills that poison our water and land and finding new ways to extract or reduce carbon pollution from our atmosphere is equivalent to Godzilla wrecking havoc and ruin as he strolls through a major city and nation.
One of the morals of the Godzilla movies, is that even if our elites unintentionally create Godzilla, the monster affects us all. Climate change will imperil all of us and all living creatures who share our world. Godzilla, a creature originally from a primitive world, is a reflection of our primitiveness and our hubris, which leads us to think that we can plunder and pollute our world with impunity.
The way to defeat Godzilla is to cut off its food supply. First, recognize the monster within us and make life changes accordingly. While we do that, network with each other to find ways to make our government restrain the unbridled avarice of behemoth companies, like Exxon, and their giant financial backers on Wall Street.
Monsters have been defeated before. Our ancestors passed the Sherman Anti-trust Act, the Glass-Steagall Act, the income and estate taxes, the Clean Air Act and other safety regulations to defeat or restrain past Godzillas. We can do it again. Like Excalibur was to King Arthur, some of those tools our ancestors created are still with us, waiting to be used.
nikto
(3,284 posts)Talk about crushing the little guy underfoot.
rudolph the red
(666 posts)I'll reserve judgement until I see it.
Bosonic
(3,746 posts)Tokyo (AFP) - Japanese fans of Godzilla say the newly-unveiled monster, set to star in a Hollywood reboot of the post-war classic, is too fat and has been "super-sized" by a country used to large portions.
The latest version of the giant amphibian will hit 3D screens in the United States on May 16 and in Japan two months later as the fire-breathing Japanese lizard marks its 60th anniversary this year.
Trailers for the film and promotional stills have begun circulating, as marketers look to build excitement, but Japanese fans said their hero was a little chubby.
"Only the silhouette of the new Godzilla had been seen before," said Fumihiko Abe. "When I finally saw it, I was a bit taken aback". "It's fat from the neck downwards and massive at the bottom," said the 51-year-old, who said he has seen every Godzilla movie ever made.
http://news.yahoo.com/japanese-fans-complain-local-hero-godzilla-too-fat-070236058.html;_ylt=A0SO81yASWNTmhoAl21LBQx.;_ylu=X3oDMTE1a3AwMmJ1BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2dxMQR2dGlkA01TWVVLMDRfNzc-
nikto
(3,284 posts)http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4_454euQxbI/U2sz-LrROjI/AAAAAAAAAU4/WxkgdfmxCLs/s1600/Godzilla+is+hiding+wmds+in+iraq+with+saddam.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Icsysj52cAU/U2s0Nsol49I/AAAAAAAAAVA/m5sNXaNQaeQ/s1600/condie+rice+warns+about+godzilla.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RD_PmBT1P4U/U2s2Uawt4FI/AAAAAAAAAVM/bYwh192suPE/s1600/Jefferson+quote+on+Godzilla.jpg
Skittles
(152,918 posts)back in the early 80's I lived with a guy and when he was stoned, which was often, he liked to watch the broadcast Godzilla movies with the sound off and he supplied all the sound effects....and I mean ALL of them......the monster, the screaming people.......gawd
nikto
(3,284 posts)Rhiannon12866
(202,184 posts)Skittles
(152,918 posts)see what happened was, I was taking college classes, trying to study and the noise from the movie would bother me - so he would helpfully offer to turn the sound down, but then he would...............aw f***, the memories........the trauma
nikto
(3,284 posts)It would have been a great help.
The choice of major here is a key.
nikto
(3,284 posts)Response to nikto (Original post)
nikto This message was self-deleted by its author.
nikto
(3,284 posts)ProudToBeBlueInRhody
(16,399 posts)I was excited for the film, but there wasn't much of a story there. Godzilla was cool and all, but I don't see what a sequel could consist of.
sakabatou
(42,070 posts)It worked in the Japanese films
nikto
(3,284 posts)Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)affected mainly the Shikoku/Kii Peninsula area, hundreds of miles away from Fukushima Dai-ichi. The 1960 tsunami, caused by the M9.0 Chile earthquake, reached up to 20 feet at Mutsu, a couple of hundred miles up the coast from Fukushima Dai-ichi, but was much lower than that in the Fukushima area. The 1964 tsunami affected Niigata, on the opposite (Sea of Japan) side from Fukushima. There really was no local precedent in historical times for anything near the 65-foot wall of water that hit Tomioka, just south of the reactors, on March 11, 2011.
nikto
(3,284 posts)But they got a Godzilla.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)But that is not to say the movie is without meaning; I'm just not convinced that was the motive for a re-make of an old movie but using CGI technology and a couple currently "hot" actors.
nikto
(3,284 posts)Including artistic films like 2001, Life Of Pi, Citizen Kane, etc etc etc
It's true, Godzilla 2014 could have been "edgier" in terms of the plot's cover-up element and the
"mastery of nature" aspects. But I think a strong thematic element is there as well,
if a person wants to think about it more deeply.
Ultimately, it's up to the viewer.
allan01
(1,950 posts)as one poster stated , raymond burr was value added as the american public wouldnt accept a all japanese movie . too bad . loss of a lot of footage . thanks for posting
some of the " hard core " fans are a bit miffed as they were expecting a all out monster battle royal. one even complaind of the " human element ". us deeper thinkers know that in the original , godziilla wasnt shown much. godzilla was a moral story.
nikto
(3,284 posts)sufrommich
(22,871 posts)fears,they always have.Godzilla is hardly breaking new ground.