*Godzilla on My Mind*

The author is William Tsutsui and the subtitle is Fifty Years of the King of Monsters.  Excerpt:

Gojira (1984), echoing its predecessor of thirty years before, also aspired to a sober message, this time about the threat of nuclear brinksmanship and the dangeres of atomic energy in all its forms.  Drawing on public insecurity…the new Godzilla was intended as a cinematic wake-up call.  “We wanted to show how easily a [nuclear] accident could occur today,” Tanaka remarked, “but vivid images of nuclear war are taboo…Gojira (1984) is not particularly subtle in its sermonizing, depicting the monster gutting a Japanese nuclear power plant and scarfing down a Russian submarine….And as in the original Gojira, helpless, peaceful Japan, caught between the two Cold War goliaths, emerges as the innocent, morally superior victim.

Recommended.  The Godzilla movies, by the way, are recommended too.  Most of them are good and I am not just referring to the obvious choices here.

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