“Mightiest monster in all creation! Ravishing a universe
for love!” That tag line could only mean one thing: Mothra,
protector of earth and enemy of the famous Godzilla is back in
town.
Spawned by the tumultuous 1940s and ’50s, giant
Tokyo-crushing radioactive creatures called “kaiju”
began their careers as legitimate representations of fear in a new
world of nuclear power. The city-destroying monsters slowly slipped
into the absurd and repetitive formula that many either love or
hate them for.
Two such films, “Mothra” and “Gorgo” are
showing today at 2 p.m. the James Bridges Theater.
“Mothra,” the first in a series which created a
worthy adversary for Godzilla in such kaiju classics as
“Godzilla vs. Mothra,” involves a giant moth attempting
to rescue a couple of foot-tall priestesses who have been kidnapped
from their radioactive island. After Mothra flutters about, blowing
tanks away as if they were small toy cars and destroying much of
Tokyo, someone realizes the moth is telepathically connected to the
tiny women and devises a plot to reunite them.
While many modern viewers see it as silly, model-demolishing
mayhem, Godzilla and his contemporaries provided an outlet to
seriously deal with sentiments after World War II and the invention
of the atom bomb. The films were imported to America and struck a
chord.
“In the 1950s, America had spades of bad, really bad
monster movies because of our intense fear of Russian invasion
during the Cold War,” said Susan Lewak, a graduate student
specializing in folklore in UCLA’s English department.
“When you look at these creatures created by radiation,
they’re always in sewers, dumps “¦ the message was
“˜look at how stupid these humans are,'” Lewak
added.
Somewhere along the line though the monsters lost their social
conscience ““ the social issues in kaiju movies slowly became
less important than the sight of men in rubber suits crawling out
of swimming pools and destroying mock cities. Today people watch
the monsters and their ridiculous storylines for a good nostalgic
experience.
“The primary audience these days is the baby boomers
““ it’s part of their childhood and they want to
introduce their kids to the same things,” said Michael
Schlesinger, vice president of repertory sales for Columbia
Pictures.
Yet Godzilla continues to remain embedded in mainstream culture.
Having two movies released within the past five years and a new
“Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters” video game for the
Nintendo GameCube, it seems that each generation gets its share of
fighting-monster exposure. There’s even “Kaiju: Big
Battle,” a new underground WWE-style wrestling league with
kaiju-costumed characters and a miniature city around the ring.
Comedy Central’s “Mystery Science Theater
3000″ also continues to bring these low-budget monster movies
to new audiences, albeit only to make fun of them. Currently on the
SciFi channel, the show features three silhouetted characters
sitting in front of extraordinarily poor films and proceeding to
joke, heckle, and boo.
“Gorgo,” a British film where a Godzilla-like
monster attacks England, has had the honor of appearing on
“Mystery Science,” but the upcoming UCLA screening will
feature no commentary other than that of the potential student
conjecture during its screening at Melnitz.
There will be moments during “Mothra” where the UCLA
crowd may feel a particular urge to create their own dialogue.
Because of editing done to the original film for American audiences
and a subsequent restoration of the lost footage, there are moments
in the new print when there is no sound.
“The UCLA audience will be able to participate a little,
whenever those parts come up, and just make up your own
words,” Schlesinger said.
Yet even with such opportunities to enjoy a B-movie with an
interactive college crowd, some would still rather sit it out.
“I think that time is spent much more efficiently sleeping
than watching “˜Mothra,'” said Katherine Fowler, a
second-year English and philosophy student.
For more info, call (310) 206-FILM or log on to
www.cinema.ucla.edu.