Gojira

 GOJIRA

Director : Ishiro Honda
Year : 1954
Genre : Science Fiction
Rating : ***

While the sight of a man lumbering around in an unconvincing dinosaur suit breaking through plastic electric pylons and stepping on cardboard houses may look rather primitive when compared to the spangly CGI of today,  Ishiro Honda's  monster epic 'Gojira' was an utterly terrifying vision for the Japanese cinema going public of 1954. Much like 'Them', 'Tarantula' and the other giant creepy crawly movies of the 50's. 'Gojira' was a film inspired my mankind's  fear of nuclear war and the after effects of radiation; not at all surprising as 9 years earlier, America dropped the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and even then, the end results of those attacks were not yet known. By making 'Gojira', director Honda was clearly tapping into the psyches of those still haunted by the catastrophic events of 1945 and as a result, the film became one of the biggest selling films in Japan; spawning dozens of sequels and transforming it's titular monster from a rampaging colossus from hell into a beloved worldwide cultural icon in movies, television programmes, comic books and even video games.

However, while the film is widely regarded as an important landmark in the history of the science fiction genre, I don't regard 'Gojira' as a particularly great film.That's not to say I don't like the picture as there are many things to admire about it. The Spielberg-ian way in which the monster is only hinted at and discussed as if it were a force of nature rather than a creature of flesh and blood really helps to build anticipation and when Gojira finally appears on screen in all of his unconvincing glory, the effect is one of awe and amazement. I also like the scenes that take place after the attacks in which we see the bodies of Gojira's victims and those injured lying in hospital beds with bloody wounds and bandages wrapped around their heads. These moments immediately conjure up images of the after effects of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and this adds a potency and darker edged bite to the story. 

However, while I do like some aspects of the production, the bad elements certainly outweigh the good elements. The acting is incredibly weak, the characters are one dimensional archetypes, the screenplay is poorly written and doesn't allow us to become involved in the central protagonists dilemmas in any way while the narrative itself is jumbled and surprisingly unfocused. .The action scenes, while impressive, are very few and far between and rather than giving me what I wanted to see, i.e. Gojira destroying Tokyo, the film spends far too much time with the boring side characters and uninteresting storyline. A lack of interesting dialogue and a focused leading protagonist does make 'Gojira' a bit of a drag at times and while the scenes with the monster are great to watch, the movie is a pretty laborious affair, stumbling about with no sense of direction or purpose; much like the titular beast himself.

Despite my complaints and gripes with the film, it is hard to deny the impact that 'Gojira' has had over the course of science fiction cinema. There is a reason why he is considered the king of the monsters and this movie shows why that is. Every giant monster movie made since has done their best to emulate the films palpable air of impending doom and destruction and while many fail to do so, some like 'Jurassic Park' capture this sensibility perfectly. Managing to blend science fiction, horror and real life catastrophe together in a culturally significant way, 'Gojira' is the ultimate expression of mans fear of war, disease and the possibility of extinction by his own hand.