A piece of Godzilla Gone Wild video verite, as a panicky, handheld camera witnesses a giant monster attack on Manhattan. The format rescues the Godzilla genre from the realm of kitsch not only by providing genuine terror – it puts us right in the midst of the crashing glass, crumbling buildings and catastrophic dust – but also by exemplifying what has happened in the last 10 years thanks to our iPods and YouTubes and MySpaces. Technology, once cold and sterile, has become intensely personal, even poignant. The film’s defining image comes after a person holding the camera is killed and the dropped lens, trained on their lifeless face, keeps going in and out of auto focus. It’s the surprisingly moving video equivalent of a human in denial, fruitlessly pounding on a fallen comrade’s chest.
