Godzilla Film Analysis

The scalar utilization of environments in Godzilla contextualizes the ideological connotations of the film and allows for comparison between humanity and Godzilla. The natural environment of people is represented on-screen by miniatures of buildings used to constitute a city. This environment is characterized by tall, thin structures (e.g. skyscrapers) and wind (almost every establishing shot of an inhabited landscape is accompanied by a flag or treetop billowing in the wind), making the city seem vulnerable to forces of nature like Godzilla. These shots and structures contextualize humanity in Godzilla. The city is contrasted with Godzilla’s undersea environment, which is only shown in the final scene. Whereas the city’s establishing shots

Their descent can be compared as a vertical motion to the camera tilt that reveals Godzilla in its home. In the former shot, Ogata and Serizawa plunge into the ocean, traveling down the vertical axis and making them less and less powerful. Here, the spectator can see the power of gravity on Ogata and Serizawa as it pushes them to the bottom of Godzilla’s habitat. In the tilt shot favoring Godzilla, the motion of the camera and the height of Godzilla implies that the Godzilla is even more powerful than the gravity pushing the protagonists to the seafloor. The environment that hosts both parties in the scene is Godzilla’s home and the spectator is made aware of this inherent power dynamic through the use of vertical motion of figures and

The two are first compared when Serizawa descends into the ocean and Godzilla is revealed through an upward camera tilt, though other techniques are employed to compare the two. For example, the same bubbles that fly over Godzilla as the Oxygen Destroyer begins to take effect are edited to pass over Serizawa in the very next shot. The fact that the Oxygen Destroyer (the symbol for too-dangerous weapons technologies) synthesized with the comparison of the two characters implies an ideological connection between them. The forces of gravity used in the two homes of these characters implies that Godzilla should be sympathized with, like humanity. Godzilla is not only a symbol for the destruction of humanity caused by nuclear weapons, but the destruction of nature as well. This allows the spectator to be sympathetic for the death of both Serizawa and Godzilla, who have been killed by the Oxygen