Interview [Written]: Max Borenstein (“Godzilla”)

An interview from The Wrap with Max Borenstein, screenwriter of the movie Godzilla:

Fear of the nuclear bomb spawned the first ‘Godzilla’ movie. Does that subject still resonate?

Not in the same way, but what does resonate is the common denominator of Godzilla movies. Godzilla becomes a vessel for the fear of something outside of our control.

The first film is an allegory for nuclear war. The next movie is about alien invasion; that was the subject of the moments in the 1960s. In the 1970s, it was about environmental catastrophe. In the 1990s, it was about bioengineering.

It’s always the theme of the moment; there is always a human fear of some force beyond our control. Right now, that is natural disasters and a sense that no matter how advanced we become, the Internet won’t protect us from sudden, cataclysmic disaster.

How does this movie depict that fear?

Our nuclear warheads, the single greatest destructive force we’ve ever managed to muster as a race, are doggie biscuits to these creatures. We are the tools of the things we think are our tools.

There has been a lot of debate about the amount of Godzilla in this movie. Did you consciously try to keep him in reserve?

It’s a fine line. Everyone is going to have a different opinion about it. When you go into a movie and from the very beginning it’s go, go, go with two monsters fighting and you see everything, the only thing the viewer has to look forward to is another fight.

It’s hard to build tension if you’ve given the ghost away early on. A lot of my favorite films and a lot of Gareth’s favorite films do suspense. That’s a feature in all those great Spielberg movies; they use suspense to gradually build to your climax. Nowadays movies give more immediately.

Here is a featurette on the movie Godzilla:

For the rest of the interview, go here.

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