Godzilla!!!
Monday, May 02, 2005
Gojira (Hondo, 1954)
Murk and oddity (good murk and relative oddity) abound in the scene where the renegade scientist goes underwater with his Antioxigenator to face down the horror of Gojira. Everything glows with as green a light as grey filmstock can produce, shifting around what's visible. The scientist's face is obscured by the bubble glass of his antiquated diving suit, through which his fear and wonder are magnified, blurred at the edges as if by time or weather or film itself. His anxiety becomes fetal, primordial.
Here is why: staring back at him is a quivering rubber lizard mask, a dozen yards long, behind which is obscured every holocaust, every pile of twisted bodies made ingenious by human meddling. This is Gojira. Between them undulates a thousand tons of salt water and microbal life. Strange fish dart around the frame, and seaweed flutters in molten waves at the margins.
Earlier, the scientist said he'd never use the Antioxigenator: more ingenious even than Gojira, it destroys completely, sucking the oxygen out of what's compounded with it. Likewise, it sucks the flesh off of bones. It is such a horrible device, the results can't be shown on film. The budget would run too high. Yet he's gone this far--he's put on the suit, taken the machine out of the box, and dived into the seat of past terror. What else can he do?
Gojira grins a plastic grin, the same grin he uses when he's angry and blowing hot Martian wind at Tokyo. The scientist grins, too, and his face remains magnified, pulsing with life like a whole planet. He may be crying or laughing: it’s difficult to tell. The head of Gojira plumps with lifelessness. It just goes on grinning, almost helpless in its evil.
The scientists pulls out a serrated knife, hidden until just this moment. With this knife, he cuts off his life line. He looks straight into the rubber mask of the thing, and knows it hides horror and death. He makes a few firm, if complicated, gestures with the machine. Close on the machine. It starts to blink. Close on the scientist’s eyes. They are mirthful and afraid.
And then, on the surface, his friends shrink from the roiling ocean beneath them. It belches decay, gray foam, tiny alien bones. They know their friend is dead. But is Gojira? This question keeps getting answered until it becomes comical.
posted by Greg Purcell @ 2:11 AM, ,
