GODZILLA 2000
i don't know how many Bollywood movies you've seen but i'v watched a lot. i find them interesting because they have been made for a very specific demographic and all the behaviours and motivations in them are tailored to a society i am unfamilar with. what i find particullarly interesting is the prejudices that are so obvious when i see their films. since these movies are in Indian and are never meant to be seen outside India they can pretty much say what they want. one particullarly beautiful piece of Indian propaganda (featuring Ashwari Rai as the girl who falls in love with an innapropriate Italian man, is forced to marry the proper Indian man her father chooses, and discovers that the Indian dude is way better.) has people of several different nationalities in it. Indians, of course, are always thoughtful and Hindu and honorable, or at least the ones with light skin are. Itallians are portrayed as hysterical and over-emotional, though charming, rascals. Brits are skinny and dry and stoic and Americans are the crazy people with guns. seriously. i wish i were kidding. but i wish more that we didn't have that reputation, which is probably deserved. if there is a nationality in the world which is portrayed as "crazy with gun" it's either us or the South American drug lords and most filmmakers would prefer to risk insulting the U.S.
anyway, it got me to thinking about stuff and things, and since most of this thinking is done between midnight and two a.m., it lead somehow to Godzilla, that uniquely Japanese format. I'v seen enough Miyazaki films to know that the Japanese film is fixated (unsurprisingly) on the destruction of the earth and life via nuclear bombs. so, i set out to watch Godzilla movies.
but, to start with, let me say that the American-made Godzilla movie dosn't count. i'm talking about the one where they have the audacity to blame the French for wanton "nucaler" testing in the Pacific. obviously that's where the monster came from. France. As if. The French might have invented some horrific cheeses, a nasty habit of eating land-bound mollusks, the forget-the-bath-put-on-some-perfume-and-let's-go-dancing mindset, and reinforced concrete, but they didn't invent atomic disasters. yes they do have nuclear power plants but only because they don't want to burn coal like we do.
which means that the only legitimate Godzillas are the ones made in Japan, complete with the guy in the rubber suit.
and why am i arguing the legimacy of a fictional character? well, because fictional characters are the mythology, the representations of stuff we can't talk about but have to get out somehow. how a society recieves a character and it's popularity can tell us a lot about that society, just as the trends in fashion and clothing reflect the values and desires of the society adapting them. it's another one of those mirrors which show us the less-than-attractive backsides of ourselves.
which brings me to the actual subject. (finally!) Godzilla. the original film was about a giant monster that came up out of the sea and destroyed stuff. which is fairly obvious. the U.S.A. came from over the sea and trashed the place. okay. but after that the 22 other Godzilla movies are all variations on the Godzilla vs. X theme. Godzilla comes out of the water and trashes the place. then a bigger, non domestic monster comes and trashes the place. monster picks fight with Godzilla and after epic struggle, Godzilla defeats foreign monster and then proceeds to trash the place, his place, cheerfuly. unless of course he'd been greivously injured in which case he goes back to the ocean to sleep it off.
this pattern ties in with the continuing U.S. protection/occupation of Japan. Sure we're huge and we kicked their butts but we're still there keeping the even huger China from coming in and revenging themselves for the 37 million Chinese killed during WWII. not to mention the Phillipines, Korea, and, well, anyone else. so, that makes sense. and we're 21 movies into the 23 made as of the year 2000. i believe that two or three more Godzilla movies have been made in this century (all of 'em big hits in Japan) but since i don't have any hard numbers and i havn't seen them, Godzilla 2000 is where i'm stopping for now.
anyway, the 22 Godzilla movie was the one with Matthew Broderick and Jean Renau in it. which was entertaining if you went in expecting it to just be another Godzilla movie and was a disaster at the box office. no one in America expects Godzilla movies of their summer blockbusters. summer blockbusters are supposed to take themselves very seriously, be unimpeachably aggressivly masculine, and have cool effects. the U.S. Godzilla did not take itself seriously all the time, is not nearly masculine enough, and has really great effects but not great enough to compensate for failing in the other two areas.
it's interesting to me that in the U.S. film, Godzilla dies. period. there's no questioning whether or not we should keep him/her/it alive to study, no protests by animal rights activists, no release from the relentless drive to kill the monster and get it out of NYC. there are a few moments where we feel sad for the monster but only just long enough that the hero looks sensitive to his girlfriend. then, it's bombs away and 18 tons of roast lizard, who by the way is a mother and constantly refered to in the masculine. the phrase "he's laid over 200 eggs!!" is a weird phrase. shouldn't we say "SHE's laid over 200 eggs!"? wouldn't that make more sense? but whatever. Godzilla dies. America wins. the end.
as this is no new scenario to the movie-going public, it wasn't all that exciting. which is why ToHo films bought back their rights to Godzilla and started making movies again. in Godzilla 2000 the exact same thing happens. Godzilla comes up out of the ocean occasionally to burn an destroy the nuclear power plants. then an alien comes, tries to eat Godzilla's head, and Godzilla kills it. Godzilla also kills the military guy who's been trying to kill him but gives a miss to the scientists who have been studying him in order to help mankind. as the movie ends, the whiny reporter lady asks, "why does he do it? why does he continue to protect us even when we try to kill him?" and the scientist answers " well, maybe we all have a little Godzilla in all of us." as classical music plays and Godzilla cheerfully trashes Tokyo.
which sounds dumb. but perhaps they're saying "we've got a little dictatorial greedy capitalist in all of us" 'cause that would make sense. it would also make sense to kill the burgeoning and warlike Japanese military guy who would threaten the economic well-being of Japan by challenging the U.S.
anyway, it got me to thinking about stuff and things, and since most of this thinking is done between midnight and two a.m., it lead somehow to Godzilla, that uniquely Japanese format. I'v seen enough Miyazaki films to know that the Japanese film is fixated (unsurprisingly) on the destruction of the earth and life via nuclear bombs. so, i set out to watch Godzilla movies.
but, to start with, let me say that the American-made Godzilla movie dosn't count. i'm talking about the one where they have the audacity to blame the French for wanton "nucaler" testing in the Pacific. obviously that's where the monster came from. France. As if. The French might have invented some horrific cheeses, a nasty habit of eating land-bound mollusks, the forget-the-bath-put-on-some-perfume-and-let's-go-dancing mindset, and reinforced concrete, but they didn't invent atomic disasters. yes they do have nuclear power plants but only because they don't want to burn coal like we do.
which means that the only legitimate Godzillas are the ones made in Japan, complete with the guy in the rubber suit.
and why am i arguing the legimacy of a fictional character? well, because fictional characters are the mythology, the representations of stuff we can't talk about but have to get out somehow. how a society recieves a character and it's popularity can tell us a lot about that society, just as the trends in fashion and clothing reflect the values and desires of the society adapting them. it's another one of those mirrors which show us the less-than-attractive backsides of ourselves.
which brings me to the actual subject. (finally!) Godzilla. the original film was about a giant monster that came up out of the sea and destroyed stuff. which is fairly obvious. the U.S.A. came from over the sea and trashed the place. okay. but after that the 22 other Godzilla movies are all variations on the Godzilla vs. X theme. Godzilla comes out of the water and trashes the place. then a bigger, non domestic monster comes and trashes the place. monster picks fight with Godzilla and after epic struggle, Godzilla defeats foreign monster and then proceeds to trash the place, his place, cheerfuly. unless of course he'd been greivously injured in which case he goes back to the ocean to sleep it off.
this pattern ties in with the continuing U.S. protection/occupation of Japan. Sure we're huge and we kicked their butts but we're still there keeping the even huger China from coming in and revenging themselves for the 37 million Chinese killed during WWII. not to mention the Phillipines, Korea, and, well, anyone else. so, that makes sense. and we're 21 movies into the 23 made as of the year 2000. i believe that two or three more Godzilla movies have been made in this century (all of 'em big hits in Japan) but since i don't have any hard numbers and i havn't seen them, Godzilla 2000 is where i'm stopping for now.
anyway, the 22 Godzilla movie was the one with Matthew Broderick and Jean Renau in it. which was entertaining if you went in expecting it to just be another Godzilla movie and was a disaster at the box office. no one in America expects Godzilla movies of their summer blockbusters. summer blockbusters are supposed to take themselves very seriously, be unimpeachably aggressivly masculine, and have cool effects. the U.S. Godzilla did not take itself seriously all the time, is not nearly masculine enough, and has really great effects but not great enough to compensate for failing in the other two areas.
it's interesting to me that in the U.S. film, Godzilla dies. period. there's no questioning whether or not we should keep him/her/it alive to study, no protests by animal rights activists, no release from the relentless drive to kill the monster and get it out of NYC. there are a few moments where we feel sad for the monster but only just long enough that the hero looks sensitive to his girlfriend. then, it's bombs away and 18 tons of roast lizard, who by the way is a mother and constantly refered to in the masculine. the phrase "he's laid over 200 eggs!!" is a weird phrase. shouldn't we say "SHE's laid over 200 eggs!"? wouldn't that make more sense? but whatever. Godzilla dies. America wins. the end.
as this is no new scenario to the movie-going public, it wasn't all that exciting. which is why ToHo films bought back their rights to Godzilla and started making movies again. in Godzilla 2000 the exact same thing happens. Godzilla comes up out of the ocean occasionally to burn an destroy the nuclear power plants. then an alien comes, tries to eat Godzilla's head, and Godzilla kills it. Godzilla also kills the military guy who's been trying to kill him but gives a miss to the scientists who have been studying him in order to help mankind. as the movie ends, the whiny reporter lady asks, "why does he do it? why does he continue to protect us even when we try to kill him?" and the scientist answers " well, maybe we all have a little Godzilla in all of us." as classical music plays and Godzilla cheerfully trashes Tokyo.
which sounds dumb. but perhaps they're saying "we've got a little dictatorial greedy capitalist in all of us" 'cause that would make sense. it would also make sense to kill the burgeoning and warlike Japanese military guy who would threaten the economic well-being of Japan by challenging the U.S.
posted by naudy at 10:32 AM
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