Dallas Film Now.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

If you have any interest at all in giant creatures, see this movie on the biggest screen possible. If you have any interest at all in the future of humanity, see this movie on the biggest screen possible. 

Originally scheduled for just a one-week engagement in theaters, the run has been extended by distributor Toho International, which gave me an opportunity to sneak out from work and see it. Although the film is not “true IMAX” — see this detailed Polygon explainer — I went to Cinemark 17 IMAX, which has the biggest screen in Dallas, and a tremendous sound system, especially from my seat in the middle near the top. 

The experience was top-level, both visually and sonically. Early reports suggested that it was an emotional experience as well, which I scoffed at … until the movie began and displayed the Toho label. I started crying. 

(Bear with me. I’ll get to the movie.) 

As a young boy in the 1960s, I often watched our 10″ black-and-white television by myself, especially ‘creature features’ that often popped up on Saturday afternoons. Inevitably, that include the likes of King Kong (1933) and, of course, multiple Godzilla and other giant monster movies. Something about the monsters attracted, rather than repelled me, and I always found myself rooting for their survival. Was it because we had a family dog who was bigger than me? Was it because my father and older brother were bigger than me?

Beats me. Whatever the source of my identification with these unsung heroes, I could never imagine seeing any of those movies on a big screen in a proper movie theater. Seeing the Toho opening credit instantly sparked a cascade of memories from watching dozens of Toho monster movies. 

Godzilla Minus One begins on an island during the dying days of World War II. Claiming that his engine is in need of repair, kamikaze pilot Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) has sought refuge at the military airplane facility located on the island. Head mechanic Tachibana (Munetaka Ando) reports that the engine is not, in fact, in need of repair, but acknowledges that the war is, indeed, lost, and that further suicidal actions would be pointless. 

Then the island is attacked by a giant lizard that bites soldiers in half and tosses their bodies hither and thither, stomping on more as it comes ashore, impervious to the weapons wielded by the soldiers in a panic. Tachibana urges Shikishima to his plane so that he can fire his weapons, including bombs, at the creature and kill it. 

Shikishima is unable to fire his weapons, nearly all the soldiers all die. Only he and Tachibana survive; he is haunted and wracked by guilt. 

Written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, who made his initial mark in the U.S. with Returner (2002), the film develops the guilt-wracked theme throughout the drama that develops, as Shikishima ends up caring for Noriko (Minami Hamabe) and an infant girl who she found, orphaned in the wreckage of Japan. They form a make-shift family, struggling to survive. Another family unit is created when Shikishima finds a job, which leads him to the sea and an eventual reunion with Godzilla. 

The monster attacks are terrifying in their intensity and brutal in their effect upon society. Whereas Shin Godzilla (2016), for example, was all about government  bureaucrats and how their endless squabbling impacted the citizens, Godzilla Minus One is all about the citizens and how they are affected by governmental inactions. In that sense, it’s an answer film to both Shin Godzilla and Oppenheimer (2023), which both focused on the decision-makers rather than the victims of those decisions. 

You may have to be a longtime kaiju follower and fan to appreciate all the creative, cinematic choices that are made in Godzilla Minus One. Yet you need only be a fan of cinema and a human being to appreciate a movie that values life.

The film is now playing in IMAX and other formats in select area theaters.  For more information about the film, visit the official site.