What is the message from the original version of Godzilla?

Answer 1

The name Godzilla is often associated with "gorilla god," an ape-like monster who destroys man's edifices but develops a love and affection for a human female.

A commonly held perspective of such a story is that the monster had kindly objectives, even though he often conducted himself in a clumsy and violent way. The film portrayed his protective and caring nature toward something he liked.

The message conveyed by the story here, if any, is that inside every seemingly nasty brute there beats a heart of gold; therefore we should to try to understand them rather than fear or condemn them.

The appeal of this approach lies in its anthropomorphism, which, when reasoned in reverse, implies that lessons drawn from dealing with the monster can be applied in our dealings with fellow man.

OF COURSE, a problem with identifying 'the message' of the 'original version' Godzilla is made difficult by the fact that the film we may have seen may not have been the actual 'original' Godzilla film, which was Japanese, in Japanese, and called ゴジラ, (Gojira)!

That story, at face value, is a clear message about messing with the unknown, particularly in scientific matters such as splitting the atom etc. Given the context in which it was made, i.e. a Japanese film made in the aftermath of the first nuclear bombs being dropped on Japan, it clearly reflects the horrors that came out of the 'scientific achievements' of the time. The film confronts such fears head-on. At the end of the film the monster dies, but we are left with the lingering thought: "Will it rise again?", with 'it' being anything we personally identify as something (a fear) we feel we may have conquered but which we also fear may rise again unexpectedly, to scare or harm us in some way.

IN A FOLK-LORE sense, the story is about appeasing mythical gods. In this way it is a morality tale, about good and bad, and that our conduct is, or should be, governed/guided/influenced/moderated by fear of destructive monsters.

Current ethical thinking on such matters includes such ideas as (a) man makes his own god(s), (b) we disobey our 'gods' at our peril, (c) only the brave or foolish fight powers seemingly greater than themselves, (d) we all decide for ourselves what is right and wrong, (d) bad things can still happen to us, whether we are good or bad, etc. etc.

THE END OF THE FILM seems to imply that Horror and destruction possibly awaits mankind in the future, and that it is difficult to predict how or when this might happen.

It also suggests that it will be extremely difficult to do anything that might prevent such a disaster from happening to the human race, a disaster that may be of our own making, created by our own ignorance or short-sightedness.

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