It is a testament to the power of Ishirō Honda’s 1954 masterpiece Godzilla that the past decade has seen the release of seven new films starring the iconic monster, both in Japan and the United States. Even after decades of MCU-style crossover with various other kaiju (Japanese for “strange beast”) like Mothra and Mechagodzilla as well as movie monsters like King Kong, the original film’s fusion of emotional human storytelling and the metaphorical power of the titular monster establish Godzilla as the greatest monster film of all time nearly 70 years later. Anchoring the narrative of Godzilla’s fantastical rampage over Tokyo within a critique of postwar critique of nuclear testing, Honda and his co-writer Takeo Murata imbue the titular creature with an affective weight, exposing the horrors of humankind’s destruction of nature through acts of war and technological innovation.

While most contemporary iterations of the monster lean heavily on computer-generated effects to capture Godzilla’s frightening grandeur, Godzilla (1954) mobilizes miniature cityscapes, stop-motion figures, and “suitmation” costumes to showcase the monster’s destruction of Tokyo, centering the climactic destruction in a space of affecting artifice rather than action cinema spectacle. While contemporary audiences may initially scoff at Godzilla’s googly eyes or the toy-like miniatures that make up the Tokyo skyline, a slight suspension of disbelief opens up the film as a deeply human experience, as the handmade Godzilla costume and production design reveal a collective vision of practical filmmaking rather than a less personal digital aesthetic. The tactility of the climactic sequence of Godzilla even emphasizes the postwar mournfulness of the monster story, as Godzilla was created from nuclear radiation through weapons testing by many of the film’s human characters.

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Image Via Toho

By weaving this narrative of human atrocity within the traditional monster film format, Honda subverts the traditional tropes of the monster movie, as Godzilla is a product of humanity’s negative influence on the natural world rather than an evil monster on its own. While many critics have complained that the human narratives in monster movies distract from the narrative flow and entertainment value, the original Godzilla orients its human stories directly within questions of creating and destroying the monster, gesturing toward the titular character rather than detracting from the cinematic potency of the creature. The central love triangle between a young academic named Emiko, Daisuke, the nuclear scientist who is her ex-fiancé, and Hideto, her new lover who is a navy captain, literalizes the conflicts between intellect, innovation, and military might that coalesced to cause Godzilla’s awakening. By centralizing these characters in a symbolic space in juxtaposition with Godzilla’s creation, Honda avoids villainizing the monster by presenting humanity in general as the antagonist to nature’s ordered structures.

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In order to emphasize the complicated metaphorical power of Godzilla, the film’s sound design, particularly punctuated by Akira Ifukube’s musical score and the shrill roar of the titular beast, advances the film’s engagement with suspense to propel the story's climax into the realm of masterful action set pieces. Opening the film with a propulsive melody of strings and percussion, Ifukube’s “Godzilla Theme” remains one of the most iconic musical encapsulations of a film figure, foreshadowing the titular character’s rise and fall with every crescendo and decrescendo. Through a collision of opposing soundscapes encapsulated by the minor key and the rapid tempo of the theme, Ifukube establishes Godzilla as a figure of two parts, embodying hope for a restoration of nature after war as well as the devastating consequences of nuclear fallout. In addition to the iconic theme, the roar that Godzilla releases in the midst of the rampage more closely resembles an animal’s cry for help than the angry howl of an evil beast. While the theme music builds anticipation for the film’s climactic sequence of destruction, Godzilla’s roar upends expectations of evil annihilation by emphasizing the helplessness of the figure at the hands of human error.

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Ultimately, Honda’s Godzilla functions as a cautionary tale for the consequences of war and nuclear testing, emphasizing the capacity for widespread destruction through perceived technological innovation. Even from its original release, Godzilla received acclaim for its symbolical indictment of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States, both warning of the horrors of further nuclear war and mourning the national loss of life and innocence from World War II. While more recent Godzilla films including Hideaki Anno’s Shin Godzilla and Adam Wingard’s Godzilla vs. Kong have expanded the reading of the titular monster as a metaphor for the impact of corporate and political systems on the earth’s climate, Honda’s original film planted the symbolic seeds that are being sewn nearly 70 years ago. Overall, Godzilla (1954) towers above other entries in the monster movie subgenre as a beautifully complex and persistently timely expression of humankind’s contribution to the climate crisis through acts of misguided technological creation and wartime destruction.