GODZILLA 2014: HOW DID WE GET HERE?
American film studios do not have the best track record for making Godzilla movies. The original 1954 movie served as a poignant expression Japan’s nuclear anxieties and grief after the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Meanwhile, the American version of the film, edited for American audiences and renamed Godzilla, King of Monsters!, was irreverently white washed of the film’s anti-nuclear overtones, lacking much of what made the original so effective. More than 50 years later, the infamous 1998 Matthew Broderick remake missed the mark by an even larger margin, discounting the original monster’s most vital characteristics almost entirely and amounting to a cheap showcase of already horribly outdated special effects. Such negligence is almost to be expected considering how the 1954 Godzilla was viewed as “[demonizing] American science” in order to allow for “good Japanese science” to triumph over the monster and allow catharsis for the Japanese people (Napier 331). For this reason, it is difficult to respect the monster’s history while still appeasing American audiences. However, the trailer for the 2014 reboot directed by Gareth Edwards demonstrated potential for redemption of American adaptations of the monster. The trailer’s appropriate solemnity well as its remarkable visuals and stunning rendition of the monster Godzilla himself promised that the story would finally be given the thoughtful treatment it deserved. The final product was firmly rooted in the monster’s rich history, correctly affirming its origins as a Japanese manifestation of nuclear power.
The 2014 movie wastes no time before referencing the monster’s origins. Godzilla’s nuclear origins are reaffirmed by the opening scene of the explosion of a nuclear bomb in the Pacific Ocean and the suggestion of an immense underwater creature. The scene mirrors the many moments from the original Japanese movie in which Godzilla ascends from the ocean in a nuclear white glow. With this scene, the monster’s nuclear implications are placed front and center rather than censored or ignored as they were in previous American adaptations. The various scenes depicting Godzilla’s destruction of urban areas are also indebted to the original movie. The shadowy, somber atmosphere that these scenes are given mimics special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya’s treatment of such scenes from the original movie. Perhaps due to the technological limitations of the time, Tsuburaya found it most effective to shroud depictions of Godzilla’s destruction in shadow. This technique was employed in the 2014 movie as well, particularly with scenes in which Godzilla devastates the city of San Francisco. In both instances, the sorrowfully ominous representation of the monster contributed both to its drama and its ability to cause great trauma, reinforcing its power as a metaphor for nuclear destruction.
The similarities stop there, for the most part, however, as the Godzilla of 2014 seems to refocus the nuclear anxiety of the original movie, drawing somewhat from the spirit of the American remake, Godzilla, King of Monsters!. Any blame on the nuclear bomb ends after the first scene. In its place, dramatic scenes of a meltdown at a Japanese nuclear power plant are the first characterizations of the monster’s power. With these scenes, the movie opts to focus on anxieties about nuclear energy gone awry rather than nuclear weaponry. Such allusions are made especially powerful by scenes depicting the fallout zone of the disaster that seemed directly informed by the recent Fukushima nuclear disaster that followed the 2011 tsunami. In this sense, the movie somewhat represses Godzilla’s ties to nuclear weaponry.
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Particularly revealing about the movie’s sources of inspiration is how Godzilla is antagonized or protagonized throughout the movie. Godzilla plays an almost heroic role in the main conflict that is defeating two MUTOs, another type of nuclear giant wreaking havoc on civilization. Though Godzilla too leaves much destruction in his wake, the military largely rely on him to defeat the MUTOs. This follows the tradition of how Godzilla has evolved since his first appearance in Japanese cinema. Films such as Ghidorah, the Three Headed-Monster see Godzilla playing the role of the hero, respecting how he had become such a beloved icon to the Japanese people (Anisfield 54). Godzilla’s ambivalence throughout the movie is a reflection of how Godzilla has changed since the first movie.
The most telling aspect of the movie, however, is the ultimate fate of the monster himself. Despite the fact that Godzilla movies in Japan had long ago adopted Godzilla as a hero, the 1998 movie ultimately ended in Godzilla’s demise. Noriega explains this in his essay detailing how Japanese and American media portrays what he refers to as the “Other”. An influential American movie that predates even the original Godzilla movie called The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms features another monster awakened by nuclear weapons. In this movie, the monster is eventually defeated with the use of nuclear weaponry. Noriega argues that this demonstrates how American films shift blame to these constructed monsters and when “freed from implication in the monster’s threat, can now use nuclear force to destroy it” (Noriega 66). This explains why American films often kill off Godzilla thus exonerating them of their guilt over events such as the Lucky Dragon incident (Noriega 65). The 2014 movie overtly grapples with taking the traditionally American approach to dealing with this nuclear metaphor when the military must choose how to deal with the monsters. They ultimately decide to destroy all three monsters with a nuclear bomb, however, it is quickly unarmed after Godzilla defeats both MUTO’s on his own. Though initially thought dead after the battle, Godzilla wakes up as news agencies hail him as “King of Monsters”, a blatant reference to the 1956 movie. The monster then descends into the ocean, as has become a tradition with Japanese Godzilla movies. In the end, Edwards decides to the respect that the Japanese have ultimately come to terms with Godzilla, suggesting that perhaps Western culture should do the same.