Much like our Professor's, my mind was whirring as I watched the new Godzilla in theaters. Behind my 3D glasses, my eyeballs glared at the screen and my eyebrows danced up and down (disbelief, anger, confusion) as this new rendition of Godzilla infantilized Japan and heroicized the military US.
The premise of this new flick is that Godzilla, still a product of nuclear fallout acting on prehistoric dinosaur bodies, is called from the dark waters of folkloric public consciousness by the presence of these new radioactive material-consuming monsters called MUTOs who are basically just trying to get it on and chow down on some yummy nukes.
Director Gareth Edwards really goes to town on the analogies and distributes world super-power identities to all of his boring characters. The way I understood these to work out is as follows: The freaky, nuclear weapon hungry MUTOs stand to represent the countries that we have accused to hold weapons of mass destruction, (Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea, Syria). They are violent without reason, super powerful, needing to reproduce, and drawn to radioactivity. The main thumb, Breaking Dad's son Ford, can be seen as the U.S. military, or because the whole narrative is centered in the military, the entire U.S. He is very strong, pretty dumb, blond, and apathetic yet strangely involved. Ford happens to land the big job of eradicating both Godzilla and the MUTOs, all while trying to find his boring "nuclear" family. The little boy that Ford saves on the metro is Japan. He is enthralled by Ford and captivated by his stupid American toy. Ford expresses how he is pissed about having to take care of Japan but eventually returns the boy to his irresponsible and emotive parents.
It took me a minute to figure out Godzilla's role in this narrative as his line had kinda been usurped by the MUTOs but I think I finally figured it out- Godzilla is the use of nuclear power. In this pretty crappy action drama, thirst for nuclear weaponry dukes it out with nuclear energy- maybe you can guess who wins. Here is how it pans out: Japan pretty much fucks up and fosters this crazy thirst for nuclear weapons. The US comes in to take over, using the product of nuclear testing to fight the monstrous thirst for nuclear power. As you might have imagined by our stance as victors in all of the nuclear conflicts we have been engaged in, the US wins and Godzilla slinks back to the sea.
This film is a bold, pro-military, nationalistic drama that promotes the use of nuclear energy. It says, "Maybe you are afraid of nuclear energy but really it will save the day." It affirms our identity as the nuclear super-power/bully of the world and we all get to cry tears of joy as the thumb runs to his thumb wife, and their thumb kid gets a brief hug too.
All of these things bother and disturb me, especially because some people go home thinking that this movie was about a couple of huge bugs fighting with a huge freaky dinosaur. The implicit messages massage our ego and make us approve of the militarization of our national identity. It is also really frustrating to see the director's portrayal of a veteran's reentry into familial and societal life as seamless and pleasant. It has been my experience that this is a gross misrepresentation, and I find it dismissive of and disrespectful to those who suffer trauma and trauma by association during such processes.
No comments:
Post a Comment