#original godzilla

We are as much to blame as the monsters we create

“Godzilla is the son of the atomic bomb. He is a nightmare created out of the darkness of the human soul. He is the sacred beast of the apocalypse.” - Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka of the original Godzilla (1954)

Much as I am looking forward to Godzilla vs Kong (2021) and have enjoyed Lengedary’s Monsterverse; I miss the original concept of the 1954 film where Gojira was the villain. And while GvK might be trying something similar with Mecha Godzilla, it is not the same.

The video link at the end of this post shows why Shin Godzilla is not only a homage to the original Godzilla film but an attempt to bring the monster back to its true nature by reminding us who’s to blame for his emergence.

The answer to this cannot be more obvious (in both films). We released Frankenstein’s monster into the world and, as the Japanese-American diplomat explains in Shin Godzilla, now we are going to have to learn to live with it.

Yet, in spite of neutralizing the threat, the danger will remain. The first film ends with Godzilla being killed by the oxygen destroyer, but both of the actors and us, the audience, know that something will remain and one day it will emergence to continue to wreak havoc on humanity.

The closest thing that American cinemas have come to make Godzilla a villain was in the 1998 film, also named Godzilla. In there, Godzilla is as the original film’s producer remarked, “the son of the atomic bomb”. But, albeit entertaining, the cheap laughs, adventurous car chases and pointless melodrama from the central couple, the film still lacked that nightmarish and apocalyptic atmosphere of the original. Not to mention that at times the film mirrored more closely Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (which served as an inspiration to Godzilla). Some fans have pointed out that it would have been better if it not banked on the Godzilla named and simply been advertised as a remake of the American black and white creature film from 1953. But it was what it was, and over a decade after its release, it has become integrated in some of the Gojira canon by being a separate kaiju (monster), renamed Zilla.

Shin Godzilla could have spanned a series of sequels that brought back the nightmare seen in the original film, which could have evolved to the monster becoming something else. The after credits scene showed humanoid reptilian creatures emerging from its tail. With the creature ever changing, this could have been the beginning of new nightmares or new kaijus.

But it was not to be.

As audiences continue to be fascinated with monstrous creatures and filmmakers are pushed by the deconstruction or revisionist trend, it is safe to say that Godzilla being seen as a protector rather than a menace or an outright threat, is something that will hardly ever be (successfully) explored (again).

A shame since Shin Godzilla is to this day the most terrifying kaiju seen on screen. Second most terrifying would be King Ghidorah from the last film in the Godzilla anime trilogy. Depicted as a cosmic horror entity, that kaiju was practically indestructible. Yet, Shin Godzilla still wins this round because of how it came about. The original Godzilla was not created by the atomic bomb. It was an ancient creature that had been dormant for millions of years. But the atomic bomb did awaken it, mutating it into something worse. As a result, Godzilla came to represent atomic. He is there to exact retribution for upsetting the natural order and as a result, he will keep coming back. Shin Godzilla takes a similar approach with considerable differences. For one, this kaiju is not an ancient dinosaur mutated by atomic energy but rather a series of microorganisms that have mutated through time because of nuclear waste and pollution. He represents our hubris. He is the price we have to pay for thinking we could get away with wasting and altering resources for as long as we’d like, and ignoring the warning of those who knew better.

And the creature itself is more hideous than other Godzillas, or other kaijus for that matter. It is a freak of nature – our freak of nature. If he were pitted against any of the other kaijus, including those from the Legendary monsterverse, he’d win against almost all of them. If we thought King Ghidorah looked terrifying in Godzilla King of the Monsters, Shin Godzilla would probably put that three-headed space dragon without going full nuclear.

Godzilla!

Watercolors on Paper, 8.5″ x 11″, 2021

HHHmmmmm... maybe I’ll draw their father in one of my future comics... we’ll see