GODZILLA 2000 and 911 in Japanese Giants Forum

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GODZILLA 2000 and 911

Author	Comment
Don Glut	GODZILLA 2000 and 911	Lead	[-]
Aug 13 10 11:01 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	This may be old news and there may even be a thread on this topic. (There are a lot of threads on Japanese movies on this forum.) Last night I watched GODZILLA 2000 -- a movie I hadn't seen since it originally came out on DVD and had pretty much forgotten about. And I was struck by how close the imagery was of that alien spaceship atop the skyscraper, and then the subsequent explosion, with all the horrified bystanders watching, presaged the very real imagery of the TV news footage of the 911 tragedy the following year. Has anyone else commented on the similarities between these imaginary and real events?
gorgozilla		#1	[-]
Aug 13 10 1:32 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Don Glut wrote: There are a lot of threads on Japanese movies on this forum. I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that.
Don Glut		#2	[-]
Aug 13 10 1:35 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Please understand that I'm in no way* suggesting that the 911 terrorists were influenced or inspired by GODZILLA 2000*. But -- having forgotten the plot of G2000 -- it was very unsettling, even creepy, suddenly seeing that image. When I got up that terrible day, I -- as a force of habit -- switched on the radio, which, of course, was all abuzz with what had happened in NYC. I immediately turned on the TV and saw those aerial images of the World Trade Center -- and my first gut reaction was that what I was seeing reminded me of a Japanese Kaiju movie. Last Edited By: Don Glut Aug 13 10 2:22 PM. Edited 1 times.
Uchujin65		#3	[-]
Aug 13 10 3:34 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	When I read this I thought of Bin Laden and company all filthy and grungy sitting in their cave watching a bootleg VHS tape of Godzilla 2000 subtitled in Arabic as they munch falafel wraps and going "Look at that, Good Allah, what a great idea!". 9/11 was just like a movie; except I knew it was real and there's something so different about it when it's real. I hope the next Godzilla film, especially the 2012 Warner one, contains some references to 9/11. I can picture salarymen or whatever throwing themselves out their office windows as Godzilla walks by and stuff like that. Before everyone bemoans the taste of such a thing, Honda referenced Hiroshima and Nagasaki (which whether it ended the war or not made 9/11 look like a comedy skit and was at the time exactly as recent as 9/11 to now) in his original Godzilla, why shouldn't the next Godzilla film touch on the same sort of thing, but in modern context? Here!
Don Glut		#4	[-]
Aug 13 10 4:09 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Long ago I noticed that the post-destruction scenes in the original GODZILLA/GOJIRA looked a lot like the newsreel footage of the aftermath of the 1945 A-bomb blasts in Japan.
Uchujin65		#5	[-]
Aug 13 10 9:59 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Don Glut wrote: Long ago I noticed that the post-destruction scenes in the original GODZILLA/GOJIRA looked a lot like the newsreel footage of the aftermath of the 1945 A-bomb blasts in Japan. Yeah, the film's allusions to Hiroshima and Nagasaki are numerous and less than subtle. I still have a dog eared copy of The Dinosaur Scrapbook with multiple pages missing that I keep in the bathroom reading rack. That was my favorite book as a tyke; oh the hours and days of sheer wonder. Here!
Edkkakumon		#6	[-]
Aug 13 10 11:07 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	In Gojira, they cities are mentioned by name. There's no disguising the similarities. If 9/11 is mentioned or hinted, there will be all kinds of angry letters. It may just be me, but it appears people today are thinner skinned than previous generations. I wouldn't object to some hint to 9/11, though. It is a part of our history.
Uchujin65		#7	[-]
Aug 13 10 11:24 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Edkkakumon wrote: If 9/11 is mentioned or hinted, there will be all kinds of angry letters. It may just be me, but it appears people today are thinner skinned than previous generations. I wouldn't object to some hint to 9/11, though. It is a part of our history. Yes, I agree, but in day and age, likewise, doing anything will strongly offend someone. If Honda could do it then, objectively, what's wrong with doing it now? Compared to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, not even mentioning Auschwitz or the Rape of Nanking, 9/11 was like a clown slap on America's wrist. That was the best aspect of the otherwise turgid Cloverfield. Here!
Don Glut	If 9/11 is mentioned or hinted, there will be all kinds of angry letters.	#8	[-]
Aug 13 10 11:45 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	No, it had to be coincidence and nothing more, albeit an uncanny one -- because GODZILLA 2000 came out a year before the 911 attack.
Dubious Comforts		#9	[-]
Aug 14 10 4:07 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Don Glut wrote: Has anyone else commented on the similarities between these imaginary and real events? There were many comparisons made among Godzilla fans to the films around the time of 9/11, particularly the real-life shots of people and rescue personnel fleeing before the huge debris cloud. However, it was primarily general comparisons that were being made and I don't recall any specific films being mentioned. When Shusuke Kaneko spoke at TIFF for the premiere of Godzilla-Mothra-King Ghidorah (November 2001), he was sensitive to his film depicting scenes of mass destruction in the immediate wake of 9/11. It was very eloquent of the director to center his comments around this point.

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