Godzilla Minus One is the one history film you need to see this year

Yeah. I know about Oppenheimer. I loved it. Barbie has a ton to say. And maybe you think I’m crazy telling you that a monster movie is the history film you need to see. But I’m not. Not for this at least.

Godzilla Minus One is one of the most thought-provoking films I’ve seen in a long time. I caught it late Friday night as I prepared for an emergency podcast the following day. We had a snowstorm here in Pueblo. I was dog tired. But folks, I was glued to the screen. And I’ve thought about this movie for the two days since. And not because of the action.

I didn’t even know this film existed until a couple of weeks ago. And then it hit the US in limited release and word quickly spread about it. Limited release blossomed into full distribution of a film entirely in Japanese. I knew we had to address it, and do so quickly.

I’m not going to spoil the film for you. I’d never do that. Though if you’re looking for a good review, scholar Lindsay Nelson-Santos wrote a really cool thought piece, which you can find here: https://eigafile.com/2023/11/30/godzilla-minus-one/

I was lucky enough to have a couple amazing people recommended to me in Akiko Takenaka (a fellow Kentucky Colonel) and Bill Tsutsui. Both are experts in modern Japanese history and culture. Akiko writes about the history and memory of the war in Japan, while Bill is probably the world’s foremost expert on Godzilla. And folks, I cannot stress enough how gracious both of them were when a complete stranger asked them out of the blue to be on the podcast and to do so in a jiffy. And what resulted was one of the best conversations of my lifetime. I’m not kidding.

So what we did was separate the pod into two portions. Bill and Akiko set the stage initially, talking about Japan and the memory of the war on the archipelago. We also talked about the creation of Godzilla and the influences around him. So if you haven’t seen the movie yet, you can listen in and get up to speed on all you need to know about the irradiated god-lizard. Then we get into the film but only after stating we’ll be talking about spoilers. Here is a spoiler-free segment of our first impressions below:

I feel like I want to say that we all agree that social media is often a toxic space these days. But in this instance, we got to see firsthand just how powerful and good it could be. I had never met Akiko or Bill before doing this pod, and it was through a mutual friend (and HATM veteran) Corinne Gressang that I first met Akiko and then Bill. For them to place their trust in this community we have built means the world to me.

I also need to give a huge thank you to Producer Fletcher Powell on this one as well. He was pretty sick this weekend and was able to get up just long enough to stitch this episode together for us because I felt like it was important for us to be in this dialogue. So thank you, Fletcher. You can find the pod below. And if you like it, share with all your friends and even some of your enemies.

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If you’d like to know about Akiko or Bill’s works, you can find some links below:

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HATM Sunday

This Sunday December 17 at 8pm eastern we are going to livetweet 2022’s Violent Night, which is pretty much Die Hard starring Santa Claus. It’s an incredibly fun film and available on Amazon Prime. Trailer below.

Alright, that's it for now. Hope you are staying safe and enjoying the holiday season. And if you’re asking, I wear a size 17’ Hells Bay skiff. Just saying.

Thanks for being part of this community.

-JWH