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发帖数: 4825 | 1 http://www.rt.com/op-ed/519822-godzilla-kong-metaphor-china-us/
Godzilla vs Kong’ is a metaphor for the battle between China and the US,
and guess what? Hollywood kisses both their asses
Michael McCaffrey
Michael McCaffrey is a writer and cultural critic who lives in Los Angeles.
His work can be read at RT, Counterpunch and at his website mpmacting.com/
blog. He is also the host of the popular cinema podcast Looking California
and Feeling Minnesota. Follow him on Twitter @MPMActingCo
The fight between iconic monsters in ‘Godzilla vs Kong’ speaks to the
existential international clash of our time, and makes for an enjoyable
movie. But it also signals that Hollywood is finally waking up in a post-
Covid world.
This article contains spoilers for ‘Godzilla vs Kong’.
‘Godzilla vs Kong’, directed by Adam Wingard, made a big splash at the box
office when it premiered internationally last weekend, and has generated a
lot of attention in the US as it opened on Wednesday in both theaters and on
HBO Max.
The film, which stars Alexander Skarsgard, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall
and Brian Tyree Henry among many others, is a sequel to both ‘Godzilla:
King of the Monsters’ (2019) and ‘Kong: Skull Island’ (2017), and is the
fourth film in Legendary’s MonsterVerse franchise, which kicked off in 2014
with ‘Godzilla’.
I’m always interested in monster movies, because they feature rich myths
that express deeper truths regarding their time and place, and are ripe with
opportunities for insightful metaphor and allegory.
For instance, beginning with the first film in 1933, the King Kong story was
an allegory for colonialism and slavery, as he was stolen from his tropical
homeland by outsiders and brought to America in chains and exploited for
profit.
Cinematically born in post-war Japan by Toho Studios in 1954, Godzilla was a
metaphor for the perils of atomic weapons and American imperialism, and the
embodiment of nuclear-age anxiety.
As the world has changed, so has the metaphorical meaning of the monsters.
Kong has grown to represent, at least in American eyes, the US. He is a
primate, warm blooded and big hearted, who is ferociously protective of
those he loves, and Americans are delusional enough to see themselves and
their nation in his good qualities.
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Godzilla has transformed from a lizard-brained menace into a hero, and even
the previous Legendary films ‘Godzilla’ and ‘King of the Monsters’ paint
the cold-blooded beast as a guardian of humanity and environmental
protector.
In this context, ‘Godzilla vs Kong’ strikes me as an allegory about the
transition from a unipolar world, with America the lone superpower, to a
multi-polar one where China and the US are equals, with Godzilla
representing the former and its bid for global dominance and Kong the latter
fighting to maintain its alpha standing.
The cinematic evidence supporting this thesis is that American favorite Kong
is the main protagonist in the story, and that the US military fights on
Kong’s side when the monsters battle.
In a nod to China’s status and power, Godzilla proves his alpha dominance
by forcing Kong to submit and also obliterates the US Navy when it defends
Kong.
It’s also conspicuous that the moviemakers set the climactic battle between
Kong and Godzilla in Hong Kong, which is a city that can simultaneously
represent different things to the film’s two largest target audiences,
China and the US.
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To Americans, the ‘let’s get it on in Hong Kong’ battle can be
interpreted as Kong (USA) fighting for democracy against the tyranny of
China. In China, it can be looked at as the city merely being collateral
damage in the wider battle against the imperialism of the West.
Of course, with the film ending with both Kong and Godzilla saving face and
being victorious, Hollywood is simply trying to kiss two asses at once and
stay in the good graces of both China and the US and their massive audiences
.
Another interpretation could be that the third monster in the movie,
Mechagodzilla, is supposed to be representative of the corporate titans of
the tech world that are maneuvering to rule us all, and that Kong (USA) and
Godzilla (China) must work together to stop the seemingly all-powerful
globalist tech behemoth. Considering that the tech industry, the US and
Chinese governments, and Hollywood are like the evil three-headed monster
Ghidorah, and work in unison to horde profits, power and spread propaganda,
this interpretation isn’t as compelling.
A more likely scenario is that I’m just reading way too much into the
popcorn delivery system that is a mindless monster movie.
The bottom line is that as a piece of cinematic art, ‘Godzilla vs Kong’
isn’t exactly ‘Citizen Kane’, but as a monster movie it’s entertaining,
especially in contrast to the three MonsterVerse films leading up to it,
which were decidedly disappointing.
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Sure, the film gets bogged down in exposition and entirely incomprehensible
plots involving conspiracy theories, hollow earth and some corporate
nefariousness, but all that tomfoolery fades away once the CGI creations
start stomping the earth and beating the crap out of each other.
Thankfully the movie also eschews the emotional preening so prevalent in the
earlier Legendary ventures, and simply lets the monsters battle it out. And
the big fights are well executed, proficiently filmed and efficiently
choreographed for prime viewing of the carnage, something also lacking in
the muddled visuals of previous MonsterVerse movies.
The film business couldn’t care less if ‘Godzilla vs Kong’ is good or
what it means; it just cares that the movie raked in $123 million from
overseas markets in its opening weekend, a Covid-era record.
This seems to indicate that the Hollywood beast is awakening from its
pandemic slumber and is prepared once again to slouch across the globe
asserting its malign influence. The US and Chinese governments will be
thrilled to have their reliably pliable Hollywood propaganda monster back in
the game. |
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