Hiroshima mon GODZILLAAAA!!!

It was stated in the Caruth text we read, which was in regards to Hiroshima mon amour, that instead of making a documentary about the bombing of Hiroshima, Alain Resnais chose to shoot a film of fiction. Caruth goes on to say (and I'm paraphrasing) that she thought a more powerful truth was achieved by doing this; by shooting something close but indirect in its telling. Which brings me to Godzilla. More than just a potential monster cash-cow, Godzilla is an awesome answer to nuclear bombing and testing. Taken from Wikepedia: The opening scene of the Bingo Maru being obliterated by Godzilla's first attack and later scenes of survivors of other attacks being found with radiation burns, were inspired by the U.S. testing of a hydrogen bomb on Bikini Atoll. A real Japanese fishing ship, the Lucky Dragon 5, was overwhelmed when the U.S. Castle Bravo nuclear test had a yield of 15 megatons rather than the planned 6 megatons. Military personnel, island natives and several Lucky Dragon 5 crew members, persons believed to be in a zone of safety, suffered from radiation sickness and at least one died six months later. This created widespread fear of uncontrolled and unpredictable nuclear weapons, which the film makers symbolized with Gojira. The actual event played a major role in drawing attention to the hazards of nuclear fallout, and concerns were widespread about radioactively contaminated fish affecting the Japanese food supply.Godzilla's climactic attack on Tokyo was meant to exemplify a rolling nuclear attack, like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, only much more slowly. Honda had plotted it this way, having been shocked by the real devastation of those cities.

So while these nuclear warnings can be read from the English version, Godzilla, King of the Monsters, (which has cut scenes of more direct nuclear references and added footage of American actor Raymond Burr) the Japanese version, Gojira, is where the power of responsible film-making is really at.... Well, as responsible as a man in a lizard suit with radioactive breath who has the ability to spawn multiple cheesy sequels can get, that is.

Original Japanese trailer Link. May need to copy/paste:

http://youtu.be/eSk-i1UFJWA

The horrible sequel where Godzilla gets a son. So so bad.