The Underlying Narrative of Godzilla vs King Kong

By: Alex Mack

Preface

Mega-blockbusters are hardly ever accused of being "deep" especially when said mega-blockbuster is pitting two colossal creatures of calamity against each other with the fate of humanity at stake. With that context in mind, what if Godzilla vs King Kong is deeper than it's contemporaries, delving into the parabolic to give physical representations of plights of humanity and it's relationship with nature.

The aim of a great storyteller is to mesmerize you with a powerful plot that either resonates or sparks curiosity within the recipient. In the process of being mesmerized sometimes an underlying narrative can be hidden in the details with the sleight of hand of a magician. Sometimes the subtext and theme of a movie or narrative is explicitly stated and hard to miss but more often than not in Hollywood elements are left vague for audiences to interpret and stir up conversation.

Godzilla: Nuclear fallout and humanity's impact on nature

The first Godzilla film was directed by Ishiro Honda and released in 1954, serving as a dark allegory for the scars the American nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki left on Japan during World War II. An exploit into Darwinism and evolution, the films acts as the vessel for a nature versus man revenge narrative, as the monster mankind has inadvertently created comes to wreck havoc. Eventually, down the cinematic timeline the Godzilla narrative morphs into a story where Godzilla becomes the protector of mankind against other titans of chaos (also created due to mankind's impact on nature).

Without diving too deep into theology, the name "Godzilla" is quite interesting when you break it into it's two parts. The meaning of "Zilla" is often overlooked and has become synonymous with a large monster or force to be reckoned with; in the same vein every political scandal seems to garner the "-gate" suffix. However, a quick google search would have you discover that the name "Zilla" has a Hebrew origin and translates it's meaning to be "Shadow"; effectively branding the movie monster as "God's Shadow".

Anyone with a rudimental familiarity with Carl Jung knows that he outlined in his psychology paradigm a concept of "The Shadow". The Shadow exists as a subconscious dark-side of the personality, composed of repressed ideas and instincts that society deems unacceptable or evil. Predating Christianity, the idea of "God's Shadow" elicits a sort of "Yin & Yang", whether it be the unintended consequence of evolution and power or the ongoing battle of righteous vs the wicked.

King Kong: The Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the exploitation of nature

The original King Kong movie was directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack and was marketed as a "monster adventure romance film". The film was received as a great box office success despite being released in 1933, smack dap in the middle of the "American Great Depression". The plot is quite well known, as American explorers capture a giant black gorilla overseas and ship him back to the states to be displayed as an exhibit for capital gains, only when the Gorilla escapes its confines and becomes infatuated with a white woman before he is gunned down by military planes and falls to his death during the infamous Empire State Building scene.

Seen as a warning against mankind's desire to exploit Nature for personal gain, King Kong becomes the "unbridled force of nature" personified. Only, there are also some not so subtle racial undertones of a giant black gorilla who is seen as inhuman, from a faraway land breaking from its confines and becomes romantically interested with a white woman. One of the first films shown in the White House, 1913's "Birth of A Nation", dealt with similar racial sentiments but in a much more overt narrative where the "freed black man" was painted to be a threat to society and white women alike.

There is a disturbing history of minorities being exploited as a means of entertainment and forced servitude that predates movies and is not unique to America. A quick google search of "blacks displayed as exhibits in human zoo" reveals a dark historical trend of indigenous people being taken from their land and put into "Human Zoos" for paying customers. Some would even say this practice is still implemented today but with "euphemistic language" in place of racial slurs and "entertainment contracts" that are structured to own a person's likeness in perpetuity.

Kanye West, an artist currently embroiled in an intrepid entertainment contract dispute referenced King Kong in a song called "Black Skinhead". A song that has since been used in promotional trailers for movies such as "Wolf of Wall-Street", a movie about capitalistic greed, ironic enough.

"They see a black man with a white woman at the top floor they gone come to kill King Kong. Middle America packed in, came to see me and my black skin." - Kanye West