Gojira (Godzilla)

Thundering beats of Gojira’s footsteps inaugurate Ishiro Honda’s film that most of us have heard much about but yet are still moved with feelings of uneasiness. Then comes the roar of a monster that has been trivialized by numerous incarnations, but nonetheless strikes fear in the hearts and minds of those who choose to see Gojira in his ultimate glory.

The first shot is of bubbling waves which segues into a group of sailors, one of them playing the harmonica and hoping for a pleasant voyage…Suddenly blinded by thunder and the now roaring waves, the ship is annihilated, as flames caress the sky and the S.O.S beeps wither into the night.

The military element of the film is a hinting allegory of the H-bomb droppings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why is this the case? Well, Gojira, the creature causing all this initial disturbance is the horrific mutation of a gorilla (‘gorira’) and a whale (‘kujira’) due to atomic radiation from nuclear tests taking place in the Pacific Ocean. What I’d like to know is how a gorilla got to the Pacific in the first place.

For a film that has been described as “amateur” I would defend that it had far more impact on me than the 1998 Godzilla variation starring Matthew Broderick. When will Hollywood learn that CGI is fine when you are doing Sci Fi or Anime, but when it comes to monster movies handicraft wins all the way. Sure recent films such as King Kong and Cloverfield did incredibly well in gripping the audience, but in the latters case this was because of the minimal screen-time of the monster and the intimate style of camerawork; it’s success had nothing to do with CGI, except for maybe the shot of the decapitated Statue of Liberty which I’m not even sure was done with computers anyway. Maybe the sky is the limit and there are more options available when you can make the monster 1000000000000 feet tall and blend the slightest hints of green and brown together to get that perfect tone, but do you really care about that. Doesn’t it dazzle you more when you’re watching a human being dressed in a rubber suit towering above a carefully crafted model of a city and tearing it apart, whilst stumbling all over the place.

When I first saw it I wasn’t expecting such a large human element but the way Gojira was presented reminds me now of films by Akira Kurosawa, especially with the timely use of wipe cuts. It also contained trademark Kurosawa morality crises, even considering the rights of Gojira to be left unharmed for he was a wonder of nature and should be studied and understood according to zoologist Yamane-hakase (Takashi Shimura). Then there is the tormented professor who has developed an oxygen bomb that can kill Gojira, but which may also be used by military powers as a weapon against mankind. These and other examples reek of Kurosawa’s familial approach in films of his such as Yume (Dreams), Stray Dog and Ikiru whereby a social/global devastation is often in the hands of one man who maybe in a conflicting position when it comes to his loyalties to his government and his natural duty to nature/personal salvation.

After the initial uproar and damage the townsfolk are in a frenzy, desperate for answers, but as usual the officials try to calm them by denying their inquisitory insecurities as they know no good can come of telling them the truth. Ominous is not a powerful enough word to describe the early provocations of Gojira. These townsfolk, kept in the dark, look curiously over the ocean as though expecting some sort of divine intervention or at least a signal from maybe one of the millions of dead samurai that supposedly dwell there. However, some of the old people already know the legend of Gojira and try to educate the younger, but for what purpose but to scare them even more. They speak of female sacrifices to placate the monster as we watch a ceremony taking place to exorcise Gojira’s ill will to mankind. A terrifically atmospheric sensation of hopelessness and fear is created in some of these scenes blending together local traditions and humble gatherings with crashing waves and fierce hurricane style winds. The tension never stops building and the emotional turmoil of these people never seems to reach its peek.

I think that Gojira has an unfair reputation because of its low budget production values and the fact that your preconception of the film is that of a poorly constructed monster stamping and stomping for an hour and a half. This couldn’t be further from the truth though, and as soon as the opening credits roll with the introductory sound effects and music, you will already be snapped out of any coma like status you may have programmed your brain to before pressing start.