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LA Weekly from Los Angeles, California • 41

Publication:
LA Weeklyi
Location:
Los Angeles, California
Issue Date:
Page:
41
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

II Ell fill mi nis izzi nn ,9., in nil tv 5 jki ini nn A ini AYr y. iiimiWJjHt, ik BY GREG BURK TtJit rua Dirty- fc. i i 1 1 ih 3 I I 1 -Ml i 1 7 3 ft i I i r- 4 aT ir ff ffi A 4 tr 1 (UnTHrruni mu. Titus Godzilla makes a great entrance. He makes a great exit.

Every minute theies a monster onset een, ou get the full lenefit of Hollywood star power. Godzilla is John Wayne andjoan Crawford and Ronald Reagan, onh bigger and louder. The monster is the moie. Bearing that in mind, imagine souie Matthew Broderick. Some smait casting x-ison, hamg noticed the selfless martyrdom you accepted in service tojun (iarrey in The Cable bin, has mutteied inwardh, Hmm, he could do that with Godzilla." You find your self on an enormous film set, clutching a sheaf of lines that seem to hae lcen sculpted from the finest Stvrofoam with a garden rake.

Your charactei (Dr. NikoTatopoulos, a biologist specializing in mutant worms) is named after the guv (Patrick Iatopoulos) who designed the big liaid. You feel a poke in voui back, and heai the voice of duec-torco-wntet Roland Emmerich (Inde-fiendevce Da's) ((leading, All light, now interact with him." No wondei you spend the whole film looking as though vou ve just leen told vou have a tapewoi m. 1 line's a balx-: Manalitillo (Dear as a fledgling TV journalist. Shelias a sidekick.

Hank Aana ((auit Lpetatwns) as a foolhaidv cameraman. rheies a wild caid. Jean Reno I he hafesswnal) as a French C' investigator It would Ik (xnntless to delve into the politick dinner that constitutes the stotv to which these characteis have been invited, so let just sav that for all piactical pin poses there isnt one. Whic is one of the reasons that, despite its gargantuan budget, Godzilla comes off as an affec-tionatciv authentic C.odilla movie Godzilla is John Wayne and Joan Crawford and Ronald Reagan, only bigger and louder. The monster is the movie.

the first Godilla wasn't much to look at, but lie had his points, chieflv suprabiological improvements (radiation bieath, light-up spinal platc-s) that apx-aled to a nc-wlv gadget-conscious world and spawnc-d a long line of hardware-augmented movie monsteis and action figures. He died well, too Following the emotional lead of Ring Kong, he twisted lus scab arms into a final gesture of noble resignation that ec hoed the pathos of a Noli drama. No matter how mam skvserapets he toppled, it wasn ic-allv his fault. As the aichitects of Hiroshima, Americans partic-vilailv felt sor tv for (kxlilla and, bv extension, themselves. Emmerich's Godzilbi is a lineal descendant of that first movie, 1iv not assume that his nsible plot and cartoonish characteis are a tribute? Anywav, if vou saw Independence von know thednectoi is aw aie that crowds don flock to special-effects movies hoping to see another Hamlet.

Emmei ic has alteied the monster only with a conceptual ic-shachng, not a complete ic-thinking: Instead of a rub-berv creatine with technological add-ons, he offers a cli-nosaui whose verv naturalism is computer-generated. It siill bieathes fue, but dragons of old did that too. Oh veah, hes great, this C.odilla He moves fluidlv and foicefullv through the streets of New York, with muv culai grace and a sympathetic glint to the eve that are tru-lv animalistic not malevolent. nlike the liaid of some sc-quels (lUfifis Gixlulln vs. Monstm Zerweven has him dancing a jig), he also has dignitv.

Mainly, of course, he the living hell out of a whole lot of shit. He kicks can across the screen like tumbleweeds in a tor naclo. I lis lashing tail i ips gashes in the sides of buildings. One especially nice shot shows a wide high-rise- still standing, but with a ragged (iodilla-sie hole in it. All this comes with the deafening soundtrack you knew voud get: thunderous monster howls, mights crashes, the deep boom of the creatures plodding footfalls.

American entertainment: the loudest in the world. Nuevo Yoiks citizens. No intellectuals or soulful ethnic types will you find here; every single Manhattanite we encounter (including Michael Lerner as the mavor and Aralx-lla Field as the love interest's best Inend i is a set earning, irrational, self-obsessed, incompetent rnoion usually with heavv overtones of Brooklyn. Given a trace ol wit, tilt-comic stereotyping might have had some kick. With its PG-13 rating, Godzilla is an apotalvpse for the whole farnilv.

There's little swearing. There's no sex. Iheie's not much blood, and all the major gobbling occurs offscreen. Nobodv with one rather significant 4(HE foot exception smokes. After a dull setup, it's just action, action, action, until the inevitable conclusion.

Then the credits roll, and the dc-siied effect has been achieved: You sit there like vou've Ix-en hit bv a rubber bat, then you get up and stagger to vour car. Your hearing returns to normal in a couple of davs. Ibis is damn gcxxl anesthetic amusement. Its Aliens. and its Jumsstc Paik, and its Starship Iwofiers.

Its what wc get now, and may lx we should lx thankful for the simplification. Once upon a time, the Gieeks emploved a complicated trick known as catharsis. And look what hapjx-neri to them (D QUOTE OF THE WEEK "The Francis of ten years ago would have said. The hell with it Why should I absorb six-digit deficits to have my motives impugned, my feelings hurt and the effectiveness of my idea blunted. But I am not the Francis of ten years ago.

I passionately love this magazine. I love the stories we prim and the tradition we are furthering. I also love die cinema that poor shackled prisoner of Wall Street that enslaved Prometheus who feeds all the parasites with its liver. If our magazine is able to nudge up the quality of writing that becomes the basis of the current parade of cliches and formulas, which break open each Friday like horseraces and list scores each Monday, I would leap in the air with glee. So to all those cynical naysayers who hoped Zoetrope: All-Story would fail, I quote the immortal Brendan Behan: 'Fuck the Francis Ford Coppola, in a "Letter to the Reader in his fiction magazine, Zoetrope: All-Story (www.zoetrope-stories.com) Made In Japan on a shoestring budget, the original Gtklzdla, King of the Monsters is a omplete mess, cspec ially in its nglish-language version lo give Atner i-cans some clue wli.rt was going on, Ravmond Burr, tugging on a hnai pipe and knitting his brows like a spmstc 1 with a sit goldfish, is split eel in to at as obsei vet and nat-tator.

The movie fritters awav its first half with a farcical romantic triangle involving two genetic lovebirds and a tortured scientist, the sole purpose of which is to get these lentist to reveal his devastating underwater weapon to lus straying sugar pie: Now, honc-v, vou tnustn tell a soul. Then the atomicailv birthed Gojrra (Godzilla) splashes landwaid and makes a great sensual orgv of smashing Tokyo. Dont ask why, lie just does. The original films strengths made it the mother of numerous sequels. Its paramount it tue vvas destt uction.

No previous monster had leveled an entire metropo is, and viewers res(Mtuled with atavistic breakage-lust. A so, CexlziUassxs a brand-new phenomenon: the monster movie as objec of ridicule. Despite moments of star lx-autv. King of the Monsters as liysterrcallv inept. American teenagers laughed their heads of at the papier-mache avalanche the Tonka-truck phalanxes and the asynchronous lip dubbing.

Discovering that cheapness could be a virtue, studios lowered the liar on realism and lx-gan ooc mg drive-ins with similar 1) sloppy vehicles. And then there was the monster. Stiff and lumplike, Godzilla sports a tew Interesting Quirks. No, It Isn't funny; the jokes nearly all drop flatter than the Chrysler Building. More rituckling is the films overt hatred of New York.

In the wake of six dozen L.A. disaster flicks, this I lolly woexl trashing of die Apple seems gleeful to the point of psychosis. Equally savage after generations of films deriding shallow, stupid Angelenos is Godzilla's portrayal of CENTROPOIIS EFFECTS MAY 22 28. 1998 LA WEEKLY 4 1.

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Pages Available:
162,014
Years Available:
1978-1999