Godzilla movies tend to have a common theme: nuclear energy. This is not surprising once you consider where Godzilla's inception happened. Japan, the only country which has ever been hit by nuclear bombs also relied heavily on nuclear energy for civilian purposes till very recently. Godzilla serves as a metaphor for such devastating power, destroying indiscriminately while also being an unwilling victim of its horrors.
Here, I take a look at three Godzilla movies for their depiction of the social and political reaction towards nuclear energy. It includes the original Godzilla (1954), Shin Godzilla from 2016, and Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla (2014 with references from 2019).
Godzilla 1954 and Shin Godzilla 2016
📷📷
Godzilla (1954) to the left, and Shin Godzilla (2016) to the right
Ah, Godzilla, the grandfather of all metaphors.
A metaphor is usually just that, something which stands for something else and by itself might just be a creative outlet for some people. It only becomes powerful when it draws on the social and political developments of its era and provides a compelling and thoughtful commentary about the physical reality in which it thrives.
Godzilla (1954) and its 2016 re-boot, Shin Godzilla really work for that reason in the country of their origin, Japan. Japan as a society has had a convoluted history with nuclear energy and atomic weapons, and two of the best Godzilla movies represents the destruction brought about by this source of energy. The original Godzilla was a visual reminder of the destruction the atomic bombs during WW2, with the giant, lumbering lizard toppling buildings and destroying towns just because it wanted to take a “walk”. Shin Godzilla (2016) also shows a different Godzilla, but this time as an allegory for the 2011 Tohoku tsunami disaster and the resulting meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. It also doubles as a satire on the ineffective government response machinery in the event of a disaster, which won it several accolades at the Japanese Academy Awards.
📷📷
The scene on the left is a still from the movie from 1954. Compare it to the actual pictures from the Hiroshima bombing of 1945. The trauma of nuclear weapons was very much present in the Japanese psyche, and it is completely obvious that the creators of the movie gave it their all to make the experience as real as possible.
They differ a lot in the way they end. The two movies depict the general perception of the Japanese people about their place in the world during their respective eras. The 1954 Godzilla ends in an ominous note with the original Godzilla being slain but with the possibility of another Godzilla arising due to continued nuclear testing. The 2016 movie is a tad bit more hopeful than the 1954 one. It ends with the government hiring "nerds, geeks and scientists" implement a complex but impressive plan of freezing Godzilla's internal blood cooling system with a blood coagulant. It would have been impossible to manufacture the required amount of coagulant without a dedicated effort by the support of the international community. It was ultimately a global effort which pulled it through, albeit with Japanese leadership. It had positive and nationalistic overtones without delving too much into jingoistic territory.
📷📷
Scenes from Shin Godzilla (left) and the Tohoku tsunami (right). Shin Godzilla succeeded in bringing the Tohoku tsunami disaster from 2011 on the big screen in 2016. In Japanese media, damaged buildings, boats and vehicles were frequently depicted in disaster picture. The movie producers sought to recreate this effect on film.
The Shin Godzilla model of disaster mitigation could be applied to any disaster which happens today. Be it the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, or the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines flight 370 in 2014, a coalition of diplomats and armed forces among others of several countries is necessary to pull through any tragedy. Countries like the Maldives and Bangladesh which are at a much higher risk due to Climate Change, and their residents might have to displaced, rehabilitated and relocated elsewhere if they are to lose their land. Their cases are being studied all over the globe as an example of the extreme effects of Climate Change. Eventually, only an international effort would be necessary to find a solution to this multi-tiered problem.
King Ghidorah in Godzilla - the King of the Monsters (2019)
Yes, this is another Godzilla movie, but it completely deserves a spot on this list! Unlike what the critics say, I actually liked the movie. It’s always great to see some monster-on-monster action, but even better to see a little bit of human involvement and the underlying message beneath all of it.
The movie portrayed the humans as sitting ducks between the large titan battles, caught between making a choice between the lesser of the two evils. City after city was destroyed; thousands of people displaced; but amidst all the chaos, there was one clear victor. Nature.
📷
The Three Heads of Ghidorah.
Left one: “Is that food?” Right one: “It is food.” Center one: “We have a consensus.”
Fighter pilot: “Aww crap.”
As humans we tend to think of ourselves as the apex predators, creatures at the top of every food chain, or that Nature itself revolves around us. And Godzilla movies were created to exactly oppose that belief, as mentioned in the previous paragraph. Even Director Michael Dougherty’s latest flick contrasts the vanity of humans in the face of a global environmental catastrophe. The film tries to put forth its argument using the marauding Titans as an embodiment of natural disasters, be it Rodan for volcanic activity, Ghidorah for Climate Change, and Godzilla for radiation. We have two competing groups of humans who represent two differing sides of the argument. One group says, “Let the titans rise and give Nature a chance to recover,” while the other group says, “The monsters need to be destroyed for humanity to continue surviving”.
And how does the story end? By achieving a rather corny middle ground - coexist with Nature. Natural disasters are here to stay, but we have to work within the natural cycles, checks and balances that have evolved in this world if we are to even survive, let alone thrive.
📷
The false king in all its glory.
King Ghidorah, the main antagonist of the movie, is a three-headed, two-tailed beast with a hundred-feet wingspan who came from outer space and is hell-bent on changing the natural order of the world. He brings Category 6 hurricanes wherever he goes just by flapping his wings. After an initial scuffle with Godzilla where he comes out semi-victorious due in large part to human interference, he awakens all the other titans in the world and causes them to rampage under his will.
📷
The two titans duking it off in Boston, where I currently stay. Time to move back in with my parents
An "invasive species", he lacks an understanding of Earth's ecosystem and is just driven to take Godzilla's alpha spot among the titans. As the false alpha, he bends the titans to his will and wrecks havoc among the cities and towns throughout the world. The turning point in the story comes when the humans need to inadvertently work with Godzilla - a force of nature - to stop Ghidorah - an unnatural calamity to save the world. This results in a literally titanic battle based in Boston where one of the oldest cities in America is brought down to rubble, but the natural order of the world is restored. But we as humans are still faced with the prospect of sharing the world with these giant beasts, knowing that we are not the alpha species any more. Its nature which always wins in the end.
It is this takeaway that makes this movie worth watching. Not the forced human drama; not the giant monster fights; but the ironical twist that awaits us at the end of the day. We as a species needs to become more aware of the consequences of our actions now that they can still be reversed. We do not want to make a decision between stopping facing the extreme effects of climate change and returning the world back to its natural order.
No matter what choice we make, it will always be us who lose.
___________________
Comments