A couple of days ago I went with a friend to see what may be one of the finest films in years that deals with ordinary people banding together to save their country.
The film has already generated a tremendous buzz among critics and audiences alike and deals with how people are challenged to find new and innovative solutions to a problem that is so old, it has almost folkloric roots.
The film speaks to how an amazingly destructive force comes out of a bitter war and attacks everyone, regardless of status or income with its anger and meanness.
The Government sends troops to the most affected region, but even its military might can do little or nothing to stop the scourge.
Worse, the Government takes the position that using even more military force might only worsen an existing polarization and chooses to take a step back. As you might imagine, the devastation continues to grow.
The horror affects the entire nation and women and children die as a result. With political leadership unable or unwilling to fight against a growing disaster, it is finally understood that everyday people, citizens of a country with new and noble aspirations, will have to fight this menace on their own.
Making use of skills already developed, people who might have otherwise felt that they had reasons to hate each other find it necessary to work together to defeat what had been believed to be unbeatable.
Taking courage in the fact that they were fighting to save their country, their families, their communities and themselves, the citizens come together to share the risks and do what had to be done.
In the end they are successful in destroying the foe and they save their nation.
The film that I speak of is one that many of you reading this piece may have already seen. It is called “Godzilla Minus One” A Japanese film with English subtitles, this film serves as a near perfect analogy for Racism in the United States… our “American Godzilla.”
Well written, with good acting and incredible special effects, the film deserves attention for its cinematic qualities, but also for the underlying messages about the human condition that it brings.
Like the mythical Godzilla, American Racism - or America’s Thing with Race as Wayne Hare likes to refer to it as, because there are many who believe that American Racism is either fictional or a thing of the past - is a product of many years and comes in multiple iterations.
And as shown in the many films about Godzilla, attempts to eradicate Racism have seemingly only made it stronger. As is the case with our fictional reptilian enemy, Racism is beat down only to come back again and again, seemingly growing larger, stronger and more virulent.
The film reminds us that it takes the hard work and commitment of everyday people with everyday skills to take down a monster.
The movie addresses multiple themes such as National hopes, Cultural identities, Family traditions, Duty to country, Sacrifice, and Overcoming loss and failure.
The film provides a wonderful outline for how Americans might at last turn to confront a monster that has created woes in the lives of all of us.
Before we can do that, Americans must come to appreciate the danger that Racism poses to our national interests and how it has served as a wound to our imagination.
The movie also reminds us that many important things are done by citizens without expecting that the government will somehow magically fix our nation’s problems.
Doing what you can, where you are, with what you have, is critical to finding solutions to any problem.
In the film, we see people working together at the family, community, city and national levels.
In one of the most dramatic points in the movie, when a few rusty naval vessels are about to lose once again to the aquatic monster, a flotilla of local fishing boats and tugs arrive in the nick of time to ensure that the outcome is positive.
In a way, this segment of the film becomes “Godzilla meets Dunkirk.”
While “Godzilla Minus One” may not have been trying intentionally to create a cinematic recipe for fighting American Racism, the analogies are useful and numerous.
The concept of Godzilla comes from the issues raised in Japan and around the world after the Atom Bomb was unleashed. While only Japan suffered directly from the detonation of two nuclear devices, the entire world lives yet in the shadow of the threat of nuclear annihilation.
It may serve us all to think of Racism in the United States in much the same way. It affects us all either directly or indirectly and serves as a major obstacle in developing a nation “conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
Some of the many “Not So Little” things that you can do to help end Racism include:
· Recognize the reality of Racism and the dangers it poses to individuals, communities and the nation
· Use skills that you already have
· Refuse to participate in Racist conversations or jokes
· Meet and spend time with Americans different from yourself
· Read a book about Racism in the U.S. that might make you uncomfortable
· Value the shared dream of what the United States can be
· Join with others to end the horror of the past, and
· Become part of the Civil Conversations Project.
Like Godzilla, Racism is sneaky, slippery, dangerous, actively hostile, and hard to kill. Like Godzilla, Racism threatens us all along with our hopes and dreams and those of our nation.
A story about this film seemed appropriate the day after the third anniversary of people banding together not to save their country, but to take it over by force and remake it in their own image.
Unlike the movie versions of Godzilla, we will need more than a Large Popcorn and a Medium Pepsi to see an end to it.
Written by Bill Gwaltney. Bill is a former National Park Service law enforcement ranger, park superintendent, park Director of Interpretation - how stories are conveyed, and consulting historian to Denzel Washington and Danny Glover on the movie Glory. Bill was one of the consulting historians on the development of the Smithsonian African American Museum on the National Mall in Washington DC. Bill - retired, and when he is not sipping drinks with an umbrella in the glass - writes from his home in Oahu Hawaii, where he lives with his wife and dog.
Reading this immediately after watching the 2023 Oppenheimer movie, I realized Oppie saw Godzilla minus one as the monster unleashed. Fascinating.
You’re a rock star Kray! Thanks much.