Movie Review: Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Godzilla Minus One (2023) co-written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki

Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is a kamikaze pilot at the end of World War II who lands on a small island. He claims something is wrong with his plane but the mechanic crew can't find any problems. A problem does show up when the islanders' boogie man appears--a two-story tall, lizard-like creature called Godzilla. Godzilla rampages over the makeshift airstrip. When the mechanics beg Shikishima to use his plane's guns to kill the monster, he freezes up. Almost everyone else dies. The war ends and Shikishima returns to his home in Tokyo. His parents have died. His home is mostly rubble. His neighbors are dismissive if not hostile to a kamikaze pilot who is still alive. When he's in the market, a woman being chased by the police gives him a package as she races by. The package is a baby girl. Shikishima hems and haws about what to do. He decides to abandon the child in the market but relents. As he walks out of the market, the woman comes out of hiding. She follows him home and they start an awkward family life--the baby isn't even hers. Life slowly improves in post-war Japan. Shikishima takes a well-paying job. It's on a boat that disarms mines in the ocean. The risk is high and only gets higher when an atomic-irradiated (and much larger) Godzilla shows up to terrorize the ocean ships. Also, Godzilla's travels point him straight to landing in Tokyo harbor.

The movie does a great job depicting the menace of Godzilla. The island fight (well, more of a massacre) is tense. It also shows Shakishima's character, how he's dodged death by being inactive or cowardly. He knows his flaws and feels a lot of guilty, especially over all the mechanics who died. His life becomes a path to redemption as he grows bit by bit. The human drama is just as good and interesting as the monster drama. Godzilla is less of a character than a plot device that creates conflict for Shakishima. The movie is similar to Mad Max: Fury Road, where the title character is more of a supporting character and the main person is someone else. The actors do a great job in their roles and the CGI effects (except for bits with the airplane at the beginning) are excellent. 

Recommended, highly for Godzilla fans. This is as good as the original.

Gettysburg Battlefield and Cemetery 2024

The Gettysburg National Military Park is a huge area around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The driving tour of the American Civil War battlefield takes two to three hours to complete. Our children were not interested in that, so we let our eldest guide us. His scout troop has been to the battlefield many times, lighting luminaries on the weekend before Thanksgiving at the cemetery.

Our tour started at the Visitor Center.

That's MUSEUM and Visitor Center to you

Outside is a statue of Abraham Lincoln getting ready for the Gettysburg Address. I was the only one brave enough to get a picture with Honest Abe.

Maybe I should have taken my hat off too?

After gathering some info (and a map), we headed back to the car, which had a celebrity next to it.

Unimpressed child

The troop typically sets up camp on Friday night right next to the battlefield and then in the morning hikes to Devil's Den. Devil's Den is right next to Little Round Top, a very famous part of the battle. Unfortunately, Little Round Top was closed to foot and vehicle traffic so we had to admire it from afar.

Little Round Top

A construction or two on Little Round Top

We saw the first of many cannons in the area, a fun piece of equipment to see.

Posing by the cannon

Walking on nearby rocks (not Devil's Den)

The battlefield has dozens of monuments to various unit that fought, as well as to leaders and states. Our first sighting was this memorial to the Fourteenth Infantry from the Army of the Potomac.

Fourteenth Infantry

We walked across the field to a memorial for a New Jersey unit.

Jumping from rock to rock

New Jersey memorial

Unit's history

We saw Devil's Den in the distance and decided to get a move on.

On the way to the Devil's Den

The Fourth Maine Infantry has a monument close to the Den.

Fourth Maine Infantry

The path up into the Den is rather innocuous. The boulders made for a lot of fun climbing.

Slaughter? Do we really want to go here?

Ready to climb

Where to go next?

While the kids were defying death, I looked at the memorial to the 4th New York Independent Battery.

NY Battery memorial

The plaque

A more abstract memorial is dedicated to the Pennsylvania 99th Infantry.

PA 99th

Details about the unit

A geocache points out a name carved in a nearby rock. The story they tell is that a headless girl wanders the battlefield at night looking for her head (though she lost it in a carriage accident before the war even started). Supposedly she burned her first initial and last name into the rock with her ghostly finger. If you trace the letters you will be cursed. The geocacher says there are other stories. Online, we found a more mundane explanation--a monument carver left his mark during a break.

P. Noel, who are you?

One of the crannies shows a photo from after the battle where a Confederate sharpshooter lay dead near an improvised wall. The text explains that the photographer staged the body, moving it a few hundred yards into position. I guess fake news is not a new phenomenon. 

War photography

At the bottom of the den

One son runs by

Another son climbs in

Across the road is more boulders, which meant more bouldering for our children.

Trees grow in the boulder

Enjoying the landscape

Top of the mountain?

We returned to our car and drove around the battlefield to the big Pennsylvania Monument. We stopped at the monument to the Irish Brigade, three infantry and one battery (artillery) units. 

Irish NY monument

Getting ready to fire

Across the road is a monument to the Michigan Fifth Infantry and the New York Sixty-Sixth Volunteer Infantry. The field hospital for the Massachusetts Thirty-Second Infantry was also set up nearby, ministering to the wounded practically on the front lines. 

Michigan 5th Infantry

NY 66th Infantry (maybe also Irish?)

Memorial to a medical unit

Further down the road is the memorial to the Minnesota fighting men at Gettysburg. 

Minnesota Monument

The largest monument is the State of Pennsylvania Monument near Cemetery Ridge. The impressive structure is crowned by a statute of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory and peace. Each corner has a pair of statues of generals and statesmen involved in the battle.

PA Memorial

Governor Curtain and General Hancock

Nike

Lincoln

A stairway leads to the base of the dome where an observation deck lets visitors see a good deal of the battlefield.

Our car is one of those

More of the battlefield

North of the monument

Picture of a guy taking our picture

We went to Tommy's Pizza for lunch since that's where the scout troop usually gets dinner after they light the luminaries.

Headed for lunch

Across the street from the pizza joint is the Gettysburg National Cemetery Annex, a continuation of the burial ground for the battlefield. 

Cemetery

Mason-sponsored memorial

Some of the graves

The cemetery also has a lot of memorials to the soldiers based on soldiers, states, and units. 

General Reynolds memorial

NY memorial

Detail from the NY memorial

Marker for soldiers from Maine

The largest and most impressive here is the Soldiers National Monument. Surmounted by a statue of the Genius of Liberty, the pedestal has four statues around the base: History, War, Peace, and Plenty.

Soldiers National Monument

The back of the monument

Another angle on the monument

We said some prayers for those who died for their country before we left. It's a very sobering place but well worth seeing.