Can Cloverfield Promote Healing In A Post 911 America?

[Forkboy]

Can Cloverfield Promote Healing In A Post 911 America?

Is it possible that J.J. Abrams giant monster film, "Cloverfield", may be exactly what the American public needs to see after experiencing the horrors of 9/11? Could watching a giant monster smash buildings in New York City be good therapy? Anyone who has seen the latest trailers for the film can't help but make comparisons to the type of destruction they witnessed on that infamous September morning. Yet, millions of Americans are waiting in eager anticipation for the film to be released next month. Does all this seem crazy? Well, it might if the exact same thing didn't happen fifty-three years ago.

In 1954, Ishiro Honda unleashed the largest, and most destructive movie monster ever conceived of, Godzilla, into Japanese theaters. A mere nine years after the first two atomic bombs destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, movie goers were treated to the same kind of fiery destruction, this time, being dealt out by a fictitious creature instead of American war planes. The movie was a huge success. In fact if it wasn't for Akira Kurosawa's cinematic masterpiece, "The Seven Samurai", the film would have walked away with Japan's equivalent of the Oscar for "best picture".

The idea for Godzilla (aka Gojira) was spawned after producer Tomoyuki Tanaka was forced to cancel a planned Japan-Indonesia co-production called Eiko kage-ni (Behind the Glory). The story was inspired by a real-life nuclear accident in which a Japanese fishing boat ventured too close to an American nuclear test and was contaminated. After producer Tanaka saw the American monster film "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" (1953), he got the idea to center the film around a dinosaur-like monster which would wreck havoc on Japan.



----------------

more...

http://robojapan.blogspot.com/2007/12/can-cloverfield-promote-healing-in-post.html

The reference to the boat that got hit by radiation, 5 Fukuryu Maru (Lucky Dragon), became the opening scene in Godzilla

[shenmue]

1. No.

I'm against this idea that we should just get over what happened on Sept. 11. It was a terrible tragedy and you don't say things like that to people who went through anything else like that.

[Book Lover]

2. *slaps forehead*

Dear rest of the world,

Get over the idea that New Yorkers need to see more falling buildings in order to "get over" 9/11/01.

Signed,
NYC