Godzilla vs. the Wind Monster

The subconscious is a funny thing.

When I was a kid, I was terrified of tornados. I'm not sure when it started, but I recall that there had been a series of terrible tornados that hit the southern US. It seems that it would have been earlier than the super storm of April 1974, but it is hard to be sure so many years later. There had been a frenzy of specials and documentaries on tornadoes flooding the media. I became very afraid that one of these giant monsters had it in for my family and our home. Late at night--after the weather reports on the news—I would sit in bed and try to make out the characteristic freight train rumble of a tornado. I never had nightmares ABOUT tornados, though.

I was also a big Godzilla fan as a kid. I would watch giant Japanese monsters battle it out on Friday Night Frights, or afternoons on Dialing for Dollars—an odd game show that quizzed viewers selected from the phone book about the movie. Then I'd play with my Aurora model kit of the lizard king (Godzilla that is, not Jim Morrison.) But as much as I enjoyed the big rubber galloot’s movies, he became a source of terror for me during the year of tornados…

I started dreaming of Godzilla attacking my house, seemingly seeking me out specifically. The symbolism was obvious, a huge unstoppable force of nature that leaves a wake of destruction and then disappears as mysteriously as it came. I think even then I had a pretty clear idea of what those dreams were really about. As I outgrew my fears about killer storms, the dreams about Godzilla stopped. The two are still linked in my mind however…

Let me fast forward to the 1990’s. I was attending a convention in Birmingham, AL. It was a nice show and I met artists Larry Elmore and Doug Chaffee for the first time there. The weather left a lot to be desired though, as a line of thunderstorms produced tornados in the area. As a group of artists sat talking late into the night in the lobby, we suddenly heard warning sirens going off outside the hotel. We did what artists will do in such situations and walked outside into the storm to try to catch a glimpse of a tornado. I remember staring over the rooftops of the surrounding buildings waiting to see a funnel cloud rise up to destroy the city. I was struck at the time of how very like a monster movie the situation was. The imagery was all there, just waiting for Eiji Tsuburaya or Ray Harryhausen to complete the scene.

A few years later, in Godzilla 2000, one of the lead characters was a Godzilla chaser, ala Bill Paxton’s character in Twister. I was amused to see the same parallel in the script writer’s mind. It was a clever real world paradigm applied to the fantasy character.

My little boy, now seven, has been watching Godzilla movies for awhile now. He has yet to have a bad dream from them. I sat down with him on a recent rainy afternoon and started to put together a reissue of that same model kit I had as a kid. It brought back a lot of memories for me. That night, as I walked through my yard to put the trash out by the curb, I flashed on that dream image of Godzilla towering over the trees and spotting me. I felt a little thrill when I remembered that image and I felt sorry I couldn’t replay that dream. It would be fun, I thought, to have that nightmare as an adult.

That night, I did not dream of Godzilla. But I did dream I was chased by TWO tornados…