Skip to main contentFifty years ago, a Japanese monster movie introduced American audiences to Godzilla, a deadly, fire-breathing dinosaur that pulverized Tokyo. The Americanized Godzilla, however, was heavily edited and has been largely misunderstood by Western audiences. But now, five decades after his original reign of terror, Godzilla is back.
The deadly creature appears in a special anniversary print that restores the original Japanese version of the film, uncut and without bad dubbing or Raymond Burr. Godzilla transcends the monster-movie genre and reemerges as the cautionary tale it was meant to be. The release seems especially timely, as the world faces a new Godzilla--a monster capable of massive destruction--in the form of President George W. Bush.
Near the end of World War II, Japan was a defeated nation, but there was a popular belief among the Allies that the proud, warrior-based culture would continue to fight unless something was done to show them the futility of continued combat. And that's when the United States dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, sending a loud and clear message to Japan and the rest of the world: "We're the United Fuckin' States of America, and we don't take shit from nobody!" The end result of the nuclear bombings in Japan was the devastating defeat of a nation, the likes of which had never been witnessed in modern history. Japan went into a downward spiral of economic turmoil, post-traumatic stress disorder and an overall malaise of guilt, humiliation and desperation.
As the United States and the Soviet Union entered into the Cold War, each superpower stockpiled nuclear weapons, creating worldwide dread. Nowhere were these fears greater than Japan, the one country that knew first-hand what it was like to survive a nuclear attack.
That anxiety grew worse in 1954 when the U.S. detonated a 15-megaton H-bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, radioactive fallout from which would be linked to the deaths of several Japanese fisherman nearby. Shortly afterward, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka and director Ishirô Honda gave birth to the ultimate metaphor for Japan's post-war dread, as well as the devastating might of America's war machine--Godzilla.
Freed from his watery domain by H-bomb testing, Godzilla was a mythological monster that swam to shore and unleashed a deadly fury on Tokyo, the devastation of which had not been seen since...well...the United States had bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Godzilla broke box-office records when it was released in 1954 and became a therapeutic collective release for a culture that had endured so much suffering and fear. But by the time Godzilla made it to the U.S.--renamed Godzilla: King of the Monsters--much of its catharsis had been excised. Nearly 40 minutes were cut from the original Japanese version, the dialogue had been rewritten and then poorly dubbed in English, and 20 minutes of new footage featuring American actor Raymond Burr was added.
Missing was the film's cautionary warning voiced by Dr. Kyohei Yamane (Takashi Shimura): "If we continue testing H-bombs, another Godzilla will appear somewhere in the world." Missing were poignant scenes showing traumatized victims of Godzilla's destruction, which could just as easily have been footage of Hiroshima survivors. Of all of the changes made when Godzilla was released in the United States five decades ago, the most important message of all was lost: America is a monster that will destroy all in its path.
If Ishirô Honda's film is a metaphor for the evil might wielded by the United States, then documentarian Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 is an examination of that metaphor come to life.
Fahrenheit 9/11 stands on the brink of becoming the most talked-about film in recent history, and at its national release it's already mired in controversy. Moore, the left-leaning director responsible for Roger & Me and Bowling for Columbine, has crafted a film that will emotionally affect every viewer who sees it.
Within the film's first 20 minutes, Moore reopens two massive wounds: a stolen election that turned the United States into the sort of evil empire we have claimed to battle for over two centuries, as well as the memory of one day in September that changed the lives of every person on this planet. And then, in a much less heavy-handed way than you'd expect from Moore, the filmmaker pieces together a puzzle that shows a terrifying connection between Bush and Osama bin Laden, the terrorist leader connected to the Sept. 11 attacks on America.
In Fahrenheit 9/11, as in all of Moore's work, the filmmaker stacks the deck, only revealing the facts that will help build his argument. Moore has taken hits over the years for the lack of objectivity of his films, but he wields the camera as a filmmaker, not an objective journalist, without the burden of an obligation to tell a balanced story. Moore's point of view seems a necessary counterbalance to such media sources as Fox News, which has its own bias.
Moore's biggest strength as a filmmaker is that he probes with the tenacity of a journalist. The fact that he uses his findings as an effort to persuade people to think like him is no less of a sin than the network news stations recycling what the White House feeds them, no hard questions asked. As the days of investigative journalists like Woodward and Bernstein seeking out the truth fade, now it seems up to filmmakers like Errol Morris and Moore to seek the truth to set innocent men free--or, if Moore has his way, remove a president from office.
To his credit, this is Moore at his most restrained and mature--a filmmaker who no longer allows his persona to overshadow his subject. There's no animated South Park-like sequence in Fahrenheit 9/11. The Michael Moore best known for doggedly pursuing his subjects and confronting them in uncomfortable situations is only occasionally on display here.
Beyond the maturity Moore displays as a storyteller, perhaps the biggest surprise of Fahrenheit 9/11 is the way the film and the filmmaker support the troops in Iraq. It would be easy for an anti-war, anti-Bush documentarian to include the men and women in the trenches as targets of his protest. But Moore shows the soldiers deployed in Iraq as complex human beings who, ultimately, are being used as cannon fodder in the name of economic gain. Moore's treatment of soldiers in Iraq and their families make it difficult for even the most ardent Bush supporters to totally slam the film. Many are likely to come away from the film like Lila Lipscomb, who is depicted as a staunch, flag-waving supporter of the military, whose eyes are opened when her oldest son is killed in Iraq.
Whatever you may think about George Bush, Fahrenheit 9/11 is a film every teenager and adult in this country needs to see. Calling Fahrenheit 9/11 the most important film of all time may be hyperbolic, but it could very well be the most important film of the next four years. Whether you're a member of the choir Moore is preaching to or a Bush supporter, there is information in this film that hasn't been offered by the mainstream news media. What you choose to do with these facts matters less than that you've obtained information that has been kept from the public.
During one of Fahrenheit 9/11's many powerful sequences, Moore shows gruesome footage of the devastation wrought upon both Iraqi citizens and American soldiers. Broken buildings and destroyed lives drive home the reality of the heavy toll exacted by war. In its own way, this footage bears an uncanny resemblance to Honda's depiction of Tokyo after Godzilla's attack, itself a grim, thinly veiled substitute for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At one point, while discussing what to do about the threat of the monster that has ravaged Japan, Dr. Yamane says, "We can't just do nothing. Godzilla is a menace to all Japanese, like the H-bomb."
That's the same sermon Michael Moore is preaching in Fahrenheit 9/11.
Not RatedCinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave., 223-4515. 7 and 9:15 pm Friday-Thursday, June 25-July 1. Additional shows 2 and 4:15 pm Saturday-Sunday.
Fahrenheit 9/11Rated R.Opens Friday, June 25. Fox Tower, Lloyd Mall, Century Eastport, City Center
WWeek 2015