In 1954, the decades-old monster film genre was transformed by radiation into a brand new thing: the Japanese daikaiju genre. This was started off by Gojira. Is the original article worthy of the title, or is it just the first in a long line of B-movies made for children?
Nuclear weapons aren’t the only politics that Honda and Murata bring to the film. The feelings of a filmmaker who was drafted three times into a war that went on to destroy his country and spent time as a Chinese Prisoner of War in the process are pretty clear here. The discussion between political leaders as to how to react to Godzilla’s appearance devolves rapidly into yelling and squabbling, as the scientists and witnesses in the hearing look on in shame. Another politlcal point worth mentioning is that while the terror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are referenced, the United States is not. Gojira isn’t a call to point blame so much as it is a plea from Honda for nuclear disarmament. Read the review here.
Insomniatic 