GODZILLA
Christine Phillips
Read an another review of Godzilla.
Directed by: Roland Emmerich
Produced by: Sony Tristar Entertainment
Written by: Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich
Cast: Matthew Broderick (Nick Tatopoulos), Marie Pitillo (Audrey), Jean Reno (Philippe Roche), Hank Azaria (Animal), Maria Pitillo (Audrey Timmonds), Michael Lerner (Mayor of New York), Harry Shearer (Charles Caiman), Doug Savant (Sergeant O' Neal).
Runtime: Approx. 1.5 hrs.
Official Web Site: Godzilla.com
Gratuitous Godzilla trailers: Page of GODZILLA trailers and commercials.
Postatomic dinosaur rampages through New York City!
The above line, while serving as the title of this review of GODZILLA, could conceivably have sprung just as smoothly from the news-driven minds of the media sharks portrayed in the film itself. The fallout from the death of Princess Diana induced Hollywood celebrities to raise the banner of media privacy, and it is no surprise that GODZILLA, a big budget mainstream production, is but the latest to launch itself on the bandwagon of media criticism.
Besides the eponymous protagonist, the plot of this film is driven on both the primary work level and the secondary romance level by media concerns. A young aspiring reporter seizes the opportunity to prove herself a worthy player in the mercilessly power-hungry world of news journalism. In doing so, she betrays the trust of an ex-boyfriend by stealing and airing a confidential videotape, and causes him to lose his job. And because the boyfriend happens to be a genetic anthropologist who is the only man who knows that Godzilla is pregnant and believes in the importance of finding his breeding creche, she also, incidentally, endangers the world.
The reporter's boss is portrayed as a sleazy, power-hungry scumbag who not only reneges on his promise to promote her for two years of unpaid overtime, but offers her an indecent proposition, and steals the credit for the stolen videotape! The mayor, in a half-hearted political stab, is a greedy power-hungry scumbag who is more concerned about re-election than the ultimate future of the city. And there appears to be an insurance agent named "Roach" who seems to be preying on destruction caused by Godzilla.
Is it ironic that in the seedy attempts of the two men to use Godzilla for their own ends: the former to increase ratings, the later to improve his chances of re-election, the audience is made to feel more sympathy for Godzilla the genetic mutant, than for those who represent the monstrous in humanity?
Nevertheless, the storyline demands that Godzilla serves another function, as a catharsis for the American public conscience. The anxieties of the post-atomic media age are projected onto Godzilla, and attempts are made to destroy the bad object. Godzilla's return after the first torpedo, his eventual destruction and the survival of an egg may then be read as the return of the repressed. While the film seems to be aware of this, (or is the final return just a staple of the horror genre?), it ostensibly offers another solution in the time-honoured American tradition of individual heroism.
While the hierarchical military is taking, and missing, pot-shots at Godzilla and creating more destruction than his rampages, individuals are taking action and responsibility into their own hands. With the help of an intrepid band of Frenchmen, Titopoulos, the genetic anthropologist, descends into the underground caverns of the New York subway system in search of the monster's lair. And finds it. And destroys it, with the help of a few missiles from the airforce.
However, what's really interesting is that these people are not Americans. Rather, Titopoulos is of Greek descent, the photographer is of Italian descent, and the Frenchmen are French. An issue is made of the pronunciation of Titopoulos' name, and the Frenchman's culinary preferences. Their foreigness is highlighted. Reading this in conjunction with the Alien allusions in the presentation of the eggs and the breeding cache, as well as the remarkably humanoid dimensions of Godzilla, reveals a general tendency within the film to domesticate the Other. Is the film trying to say that the alien, the foreigner, must be absorbed within the system? Titopoulos was a former student nuclear activist who is now working "within" the system. The heroic individuals still need the co-operation of the army. All foreign bodies are ultimately either absorbed or destroyed.
GODZILLA is in this light a very conservative film, even though the bad boss and the bad mayor get their come-uppance at the end. In the same way, while Godzilla participates in the so-called "postmodern" discourse about films, in that it is from the very beginning a re-make of old Japanese Godzilla films, as pointed out by the sepia toned old movie format, and later by some extras in a pub scene watching an old Godzilla film, it is also and already implicated in the whole media discourse. Godzilla itself is a film (which is a form of the popular visual media) which is using current media concerns about public and private exploitation to basically rake in tons of money and exploit the audience. No doubt two mirrors looking at each other reflect endlessly, but where do they go from there?
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