Godzilla is a pop culture icon. People who have never seen any of the films are aware of the character, and he has entered the lexicon in a variety of ways. One thing people often do not realize is that the series did not begin as a fun monster movie series, but instead as horror with Gojira in 1954
Gojira was inspired by the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and was actually criticized by many in Japan as being “too soon” for such a film. Unlike the later films in the series, Godzilla is not played for his awesomeness but instead for the sheer horror of what such a being would be like. Intentional callbacks to the war are made, including scenes of families during Godzilla’s rampage. While I do not wish to spoil anything, the lines said by the mother in that scene were utterly chilling and did more to show just how intense the situation was, than any recent big budget monster movie.
Something to note is that Godzilla was kept off-screen as much as possible. The reasons for this are actually rather simple, since it made the impact of when he did appear that much greater and also reduced the chances of special effects failures. The film in general had amazing special effects for the time, and they still hold up well today due to being practical effects that were well utilized. Every scene was used to its full potential and nothing was wasted. The soundtrack has become so iconic, that it has survived in some form in every Godzilla movie since.
But what made the film so strong was the character building it did, and the intense moral debates presented. Would it be right to kill Godzilla? And the fear of creating another weapon that could end the world is addressed as well. The film was relevant then and is relevant now due to tensions between world powers. There are consequences to actions and Godzilla is presented as a consequence to mankind creating the atomic bomb. Its a message that still needs to be heard.