Ford Brody

[tenup]

This subject has been driven to the ground I know but let's get to the bottom of this. I didnt feel Ford was the main issue with G14. In fact I didn't mind his role at all. The problem is within the script or direction in which they use the character. In the beginning we are introduced to a young version of Ford where we see him have more interaction with his mother than anyone else in the act. All that is known about Ford from this point is he's a kid living in a foreign land and experiences a tragedy. Fast forward to current day and Ford is returning home from service. He's happy to be back and all he wants is cake every night (who wouldn't El Brody was hot). His return is short lived and this is when his character begins to show resentment toward taking the task of being away from his family once more and clearly had distain toward his dad for interfering with his family reunion. This all played out great so far imo. When Ford is reunited with Joe, Ford is withdrawn from the matter as he's moved on with his life while his father is obsessing over the early on tragedy. Ford didn't want to be involved in Joe's bs as he accepted the lost of his mother and never knew there was more to it. When the Mutos reveal comes about Ford had to deal with 2 realities at once, the loss of his father, and the disclosure of what really happened to his mom. I say Ford went numb from this point on.

The issue with Ford's character has nothing to do with his delivery it's just a bad directional choice to focus wholly on a character going through Ptsd. The movie lacked supporting characters who were directly pit into the same situation as Ford. Ford was in the danger zone throughout the films action scenes and had everyone around him killed off. What was missing was characters like Joe who directly complemented Ford's character and helped make him relatable. For example the train scene in Hawai'i would've been a perfect time to introduce new characters who would join Ford in surviving the Muto attack. In fact so much more could've been done in this scene but they put a kid in it who did nothing for the story. Other issues with Ford are also due to his family being part of the story even though they are far away from trouble (no one cares what they are doing back home in San Fran while Godzilla fights Muto in Hawai'i), so it makes Ford's mission to getting home safe less impactful. In closing the film revolving around Ford was a bad decision but Ford himself was not a bad guy.

[Spuro]

Are you saying good things about Ford? Ahhahahahahahahahaha you're so WRONG and stupid lol are you really serious? SUCH A FUCKING DUMBASS. Ford's little kid should die a slow and horrible death from radiation poisoning and Garett Edwards should hang himself that fucker.

[PitchBlackProgress]

Are you saying good things about Ford? Ahhahahahahahahahaha you're so WRONG and stupid lol are you really serious? SUCH A FUCKING DUMBASS. Ford's little kid should die a slow and horrible death from radiation poisoning and Garett Edwards should hang himself that fucker.

Agreed, it’s not often I see people defending Ford

[GojiDog]

Honestly, I think the big problem was that he got completely upstaged by Brian Cranston, lol.

In that prologue scene, Brian was the emotional core of everything, and Cranston is an amazing actor, so he made it work amazingly well (a friend of mine had the great line of "If this were an Oscar bait movie, he'd get Best Supporting Actor nominations, but its Godzilla, so he won't").

Focusing on ATJ/Ford after Cranston/Joe was so easy to invest in seemed like a misstep. That's not to say I hated the Ford character or anything. Its just that Cranston's presence was definitely missed, especially when it felt like the story was going to be about how the monsters tore this family apart and how father and son would reconcile after years of being estranged.

[Maritonic]

I don't believe people think he's the "main" problem with G'14. Doesn't mean he's not A problem with it...

[Zarm]

For me, Ford Brody worked. He was dedicated, compassionate, and determined to get home to his family. That was enough to allow me to empathize with him and project my motivations as a family man. I don't think he's as flat a character as people often claim. Now, is he the most nuanced or engaging character I've ever seen? No, of course not. But neither are 90% of the protagonists in the Godzilla series.

By the same token, it's been recognized that the score to the film, listened as a stand-alone, is kind of lackluster. It's not exactly John Williams' A New Hope or Raiders of the Lost Ark. But then, it's not meant to be. For what the film is, it's the perfect compliment. I feel the same way with Ford. Taken in a vacuum, is he as interesting as the Shinodas from G2000 or the reporter from Mothra or our old love-him-or-hate-him,-he's-sure-something-to-watch friend Captain Gordon? No. But those kind of characters would fit into the narrative of G14. They were a fit for their own entries- Ford was an a fit for his. And in that context, I think he carries us through the journey with perfect adequacy. He's not expressive, a very internalized character- but he has enough character traits demonstrated through the film to be relatable and, if not exceedingly likable, at least not unlikeable, he has a strong enough and universal enough motivation to both be relatable, and guide him through the plot in such a way as to put us front-row for the set-pieces, and he functions well for what he is- a character whose quest ties the narrative together, solid enough to carry his screentime as he goes from point A to point B, and unobtrusive enough to slip into the background and not distract when the monsters show up.

I know I'm in the minority- I consider G14 pretty much the perfect G-film in a way that most here do with Shin Godzilla; I don't have problems with the film, or the main character. I recognize what the film was trying to do... introduce a world of monsters with a true emphasis on their scale and the terrifying power of even their incidental presence, emphasizing the nuance as the film builds from the existence of a giant creature to the full-on apocalyptic nature of multiple giant creatures battling... savoring each step of the way in much the way that the original Jurassic park did; taking time to highlight the true impact of each step, from the existence of dinosaurs to the terror of encountering a carnivore to straight up fighting for their lives in an out-of-control park... instead of just crashing right into the last bit and taking the series of life-changing experiences leading up to it for granted. It's a slow build that chooses to emphasize the menace by following the villains instead of the hero (as some showa Godzilla entries have also done), and builds anticipation for the spectacle of a giant monster fight by avoiding anti-climactic fights that would have ended inconclusively and been a poor showcase for the first such big brawl on the screen, instead building more and more on the scaling, from shots like the flares, the airport terminal, and the railroad trestles, to emphasize the size and power and inexorability of these creatures- amping up their power and sheer horror with every appearance so that the very idea of their coming together in an earth-shattering brawl is given the true conceptual weight that it truly deserves; the mind-boggling scale and power and stakes at play here... and then delivers that in a massive final battle. It gives us a human climax as well, with the ticking clock of the bomb and the nest... but even that feeds into emphasizing the menace of the MUTOs and, macguffin-like, giving us a reason to have an up-close human perspective from the battle; seeing ti from the ground as we almost never do, and witnessing the full power and terror of being exposed to such a thing. Even Ford's attempt to escape with the bomb feeds into the kaiju plot- emphasizing the threat of the MUTO as it stands in the way, giving Godzilla a chance to have a real hero moment in stopping it, because the stakes are beyond just the conceptual space of a victory against a dangerous foe, and are emotionally translated into something more immediate.

In short, everything in this film serves the kaiju plot. Everything emphasizes how big they are, how dangerous they are, how unspeakably powerful they are- amping up and intensifying the menace, taking the common tropes of a kaiju rampage and battle that we take for granted and putting them into a fresh light by framing them from a ground-level lens, and building up each step and aspect of the process until, with a full understanding of every aspect at play, we crash into the payoff of the final battle with a greater weight and power to it than the average viewed-at-a-distance-from-kaiju-level battle can muster. Ford Brody is our tour guide; he's our excuse to see each of those steps from a human perspective, and our plot device to keep following them along. He's made to be unobtrusive and low-key; but he's also given more character through his actions, choices, and expressions than people give him credit for- enough to tell us who he is, to communicate his plight and his driving goals, and to give us a clear picture of where we're going next and why as we follow his journey.

Would he work as the main character in Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla, or Destroy All Monsters? No. But for the kaiju-centric role that a protagonist in this film needs to accomplish, not out to serve a story about himself, but to complement the onoing revelations and demonstrations of kaiju scale and power, I think he works excellently.

[Demon Lord Gira]

KK, I get your post is sarcasm and trolling, but let's not be flame baity with it as well, please.

Yeah, Ford can be boring... but hes far from the worst Godzilla protag we've had. He works fine in the context of the movie.

[GodzillaFan1990's]

I honestly thought about it more honestly and the more I did. I came to realize he's not as bad as I made him out to be. Sure he could had been written better but then again he was a soldier so since personality and attitude made lot of sense so its too that point I just don't mind him now. Still had issues with Godzilla (2014) like the cutaways but I now apparently like it even more.

I do still also wish they could had kept Joe Brody at least until the third act that is. Would had made the movie more interesting.

[Moogabunga]

For me, Ford Brody worked. He was dedicated, compassionate, and determined to get home to his family. That was enough to allow me to empathize with him and project my motivations as a family man. I don't think he's as flat a character as people often claim. Now, is he the most nuanced or engaging character I've ever seen? No, of course not. But neither are 90% of the protagonists in the Godzilla series.

By the same token, it's been recognized that the score to the film, listened as a stand-alone, is kind of lackluster. It's not exactly John Williams' A New Hope or Raiders of the Lost Ark. But then, it's not meant to be. For what the film is, it's the perfect compliment. I feel the same way with Ford. Taken in a vacuum, is he as interesting as the Shinodas from G2000 or the reporter from Mothra or our old love-him-or-hate-him,-he's-sure-something-to-watch friend Captain Gordon? No. But those kind of characters would fit into the narrative of G14. They were a fit for their own entries- Ford was an a fit for his. And in that context, I think he carries us through the journey with perfect adequacy. He's not expressive, a very internalized character- but he has enough character traits demonstrated through the film to be relatable and, if not exceedingly likable, at least not unlikeable, he has a strong enough and universal enough motivation to both be relatable, and guide him through the plot in such a way as to put us front-row for the set-pieces, and he functions well for what he is- a character whose quest ties the narrative together, solid enough to carry his screentime as he goes from point A to point B, and unobtrusive enough to slip into the background and not distract when the monsters show up.

I know I'm in the minority- I consider G14 pretty much the perfect G-film in a way that most here do with Shin Godzilla; I don't have problems with the film, or the main character. I recognize what the film was trying to do... introduce a world of monsters with a true emphasis on their scale and the terrifying power of even their incidental presence, emphasizing the nuance as the film builds from the existence of a giant creature to the full-on apocalyptic nature of multiple giant creatures battling... savoring each step of the way in much the way that the original Jurassic park did; taking time to highlight the true impact of each step, from the existence of dinosaurs to the terror of encountering a carnivore to straight up fighting for their lives in an out-of-control park... instead of just crashing right into the last bit and taking the series of life-changing experiences leading up to it for granted. It's a slow build that chooses to emphasize the menace by following the villains instead of the hero (as some showa Godzilla entries have also done), and builds anticipation for the spectacle of a giant monster fight by avoiding anti-climactic fights that would have ended inconclusively and been a poor showcase for the first such big brawl on the screen, instead building more and more on the scaling, from shots like the flares, the airport terminal, and the railroad trestles, to emphasize the size and power and inexorability of these creatures- amping up their power and sheer horror with every appearance so that the very idea of their coming together in an earth-shattering brawl is given the true conceptual weight that it truly deserves; the mind-boggling scale and power and stakes at play here... and then delivers that in a massive final battle. It gives us a human climax as well, with the ticking clock of the bomb and the nest... but even that feeds into emphasizing the menace of the MUTOs and, macguffin-like, giving us a reason to have an up-close human perspective from the battle; seeing ti from the ground as we almost never do, and witnessing the full power and terror of being exposed to such a thing. Even Ford's attempt to escape with the bomb feeds into the kaiju plot- emphasizing the threat of the MUTO as it stands in the way, giving Godzilla a chance to have a real hero moment in stopping it, because the stakes are beyond just the conceptual space of a victory against a dangerous foe, and are emotionally translated into something more immediate.

In short, everything in this film serves the kaiju plot. Everything emphasizes how big they are, how dangerous they are, how unspeakably powerful they are- amping up and intensifying the menace, taking the common tropes of a kaiju rampage and battle that we take for granted and putting them into a fresh light by framing them from a ground-level lens, and building up each step and aspect of the process until, with a full understanding of every aspect at play, we crash into the payoff of the final battle with a greater weight and power to it than the average viewed-at-a-distance-from-kaiju-level battle can muster. Ford Brody is our tour guide; he's our excuse to see each of those steps from a human perspective, and our plot device to keep following them along. He's made to be unobtrusive and low-key; but he's also given more character through his actions, choices, and expressions than people give him credit for- enough to tell us who he is, to communicate his plight and his driving goals, and to give us a clear picture of where we're going next and why as we follow his journey.

Would he work as the main character in Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla, or Destroy All Monsters? No. But for the kaiju-centric role that a protagonist in this film needs to accomplish, not out to serve a story about himself, but to complement the onoing revelations and demonstrations of kaiju scale and power, I think he works excellently.

[gridiron_kaiju]

I do still also wish they could had kept Joe Brody at least until the third act that is. Would had made the movie more interesting.

The thing is though what else could they have done with him? His story was tied to Janjira and what happened there and proving that it wasn’t an accident and he wasn’t crazy. Once the MUTO got loose and he was proven right there really wasn’t much else for him to do. His story ended there.

[tenup]

Also I want to add that the scene,where Ford's son asked him if he would be back home tomorrow really moved me upon my first veiwing of the film. There's something really effective about that scene. And also the phone conversation between Ford and El was different in the trailer with Ford doubting he would make it back to see her. There seemed to be some edits in the final release.

[PHRHD]

I do still also wish they could had kept Joe Brody at least until the third act that is. Would had made the movie more interesting.

The thing is though what else could they have done with him? His story was tied to Janjira and what happened there and proving that it wasn’t an accident and he wasn’t crazy. Once the MUTO got loose and he was proven right there really wasn’t much else for him to do. His story ended there.

It could have easily segued into a Father/Son reunion story, with the two fighting to keep each other alive after the revelations they've just experienced. Grappling with the loss of a loved one together, using the new information, and eventually the Father making a sacrifice so his son could get back to his own family safely. I think Joe would have added a lot more dimension to Ford's character in that sense, and did wonders to make him more likable.

I don't think Ford was that bad a character. Like has been stated here, he was flat, but served his purpose in the film wonderfully. I don't think I could say it any better than above.

[GodzillaFan1990's]

It could have easily segued into a Father/Son reunion story, with the two fighting to keep each other alive after the revelations they've just experienced. Grappling with the loss of a loved one together, using the new information, and eventually the Father making a sacrifice so his son could get back to his own family safely. I think Joe would have added a lot more dimension to Ford's character in that sense, and did wonders to make him more likable.

I don't think Ford was that bad a character. Like has been stated here, he was flat, but served his purpose in the film wonderfully. I don't think I could say it any better than above.

This guy pretty much say sit.

[Xx_The_Masquerade_xX]

Ford just had nothing going for him in the script. We had no attachments to his wife or son... So him getting back to them meant nothing to me.

Cranston's character has so much more going for him because he had to sacrifice his wife to save others, watch her die... Then basically obsessed enough to search for what they were hiding he fell out of touch with his own son, grandson and his son's wife... He was much more relatable to the audience.

Now what would have greatly improved the story would have been if Ford had died when the male MUTO escaped, An Fords wife was either extremely injured or killed and Cranston had to major moties to return to the city to save his ONLY grandson and help stop the monsters.

That would have played it much better in my opinion, plus fix the pacing a little bit.

[Maritonic]

Ford just had nothing going for him in the script. We had no attachments to his wife or son... So him getting back to them meant nothing to me.

Cranston's character has so much more going for him because he had to sacrifice his wife to save others, watch her die... Then basically obsessed enough to search for what they were hiding he fell out of touch with his own son, grandson and his son's wife... He was much more relatable to the audience.

Now what would have greatly improved the story would have been if Ford had died when the male MUTO escaped, An Fords wife was either extremely injured or killed and Cranston had to major moties to return to the city to save his ONLY grandson and help stop the monsters.

That would have played it much better in my opinion, plus fix the pacing a little bit.

I...well. I actually like this quite a bit.

[Zarm]

The problem being, Joe had neither the physique nor the military connections to serve as an audience-viewpoint for MUTO encounters across the country. Hawaii could have been maybe the same, the train-trestle sequence and HALO jump are straight out, as is any kind of climax with the nest and nuke; if his grandson was somehow still in the city, allowing us to have a perspective on the monster fight, Joe's pursuit of him would have been a storyline at odds with the kaiju battle, clashing with/distracting from it, rather than complementing it... and his lack of involvement with the nuke would also separate him from both stakes and involvement with the battle' finale, and rob the climax of the female MUTO's death of a plot-and-character-relevant emotional impact that heightens the finale.

In short- Joe as a protagonist wouldn't serve the film in showcasing and complementing the kaiju story in the way that Ford does, which he was designed to.

[PHRHD]

The problem being, Joe had neither the physique nor the military connections to serve as an audience-viewpoint for MUTO encounters across the country. Hawaii could have been maybe the same, the train-trestle sequence and HALO jump are straight out, as is any kind of climax with the nest and nuke; if his grandson was somehow still in the city, allowing us to have a perspective on the monster fight, Joe's pursuit of him would have been a storyline at odds with the kaiju battle, clashing with/distracting from it, rather than complementing it... and his lack of involvement with the nuke would also separate him from both stakes and involvement with the battle' finale, and rob the climax of the female MUTO's death of a plot-and-character-relevant emotional impact that heightens the finale.

In short- Joe as a protagonist wouldn't serve the film in showcasing and complementing the kaiju story in the way that Ford does, which he was designed to.

Ok, that's.... a very valid point.

[BlacktimusPrime]

For me, Ford Brody worked. He was dedicated, compassionate, and determined to get home to his family. That was enough to allow me to empathize with him and project my motivations as a family man. I don't think he's as flat a character as people often claim. Now, is he the most nuanced or engaging character I've ever seen? No, of course not. But neither are 90% of the protagonists in the Godzilla series.

By the same token, it's been recognized that the score to the film, listened as a stand-alone, is kind of lackluster. It's not exactly John Williams' A New Hope or Raiders of the Lost Ark. But then, it's not meant to be. For what the film is, it's the perfect compliment. I feel the same way with Ford. Taken in a vacuum, is he as interesting as the Shinodas from G2000 or the reporter from Mothra or our old love-him-or-hate-him,-he's-sure-something-to-watch friend Captain Gordon? No. But those kind of characters would fit into the narrative of G14. They were a fit for their own entries- Ford was an a fit for his. And in that context, I think he carries us through the journey with perfect adequacy. He's not expressive, a very internalized character- but he has enough character traits demonstrated through the film to be relatable and, if not exceedingly likable, at least not unlikeable, he has a strong enough and universal enough motivation to both be relatable, and guide him through the plot in such a way as to put us front-row for the set-pieces, and he functions well for what he is- a character whose quest ties the narrative together, solid enough to carry his screentime as he goes from point A to point B, and unobtrusive enough to slip into the background and not distract when the monsters show up.

I know I'm in the minority- I consider G14 pretty much the perfect G-film in a way that most here do with Shin Godzilla; I don't have problems with the film, or the main character. I recognize what the film was trying to do... introduce a world of monsters with a true emphasis on their scale and the terrifying power of even their incidental presence, emphasizing the nuance as the film builds from the existence of a giant creature to the full-on apocalyptic nature of multiple giant creatures battling... savoring each step of the way in much the way that the original Jurassic park did; taking time to highlight the true impact of each step, from the existence of dinosaurs to the terror of encountering a carnivore to straight up fighting for their lives in an out-of-control park... instead of just crashing right into the last bit and taking the series of life-changing experiences leading up to it for granted. It's a slow build that chooses to emphasize the menace by following the villains instead of the hero (as some showa Godzilla entries have also done), and builds anticipation for the spectacle of a giant monster fight by avoiding anti-climactic fights that would have ended inconclusively and been a poor showcase for the first such big brawl on the screen, instead building more and more on the scaling, from shots like the flares, the airport terminal, and the railroad trestles, to emphasize the size and power and inexorability of these creatures- amping up their power and sheer horror with every appearance so that the very idea of their coming together in an earth-shattering brawl is given the true conceptual weight that it truly deserves; the mind-boggling scale and power and stakes at play here... and then delivers that in a massive final battle. It gives us a human climax as well, with the ticking clock of the bomb and the nest... but even that feeds into emphasizing the menace of the MUTOs and, macguffin-like, giving us a reason to have an up-close human perspective from the battle; seeing ti from the ground as we almost never do, and witnessing the full power and terror of being exposed to such a thing. Even Ford's attempt to escape with the bomb feeds into the kaiju plot- emphasizing the threat of the MUTO as it stands in the way, giving Godzilla a chance to have a real hero moment in stopping it, because the stakes are beyond just the conceptual space of a victory against a dangerous foe, and are emotionally translated into something more immediate.

In short, everything in this film serves the kaiju plot. Everything emphasizes how big they are, how dangerous they are, how unspeakably powerful they are- amping up and intensifying the menace, taking the common tropes of a kaiju rampage and battle that we take for granted and putting them into a fresh light by framing them from a ground-level lens, and building up each step and aspect of the process until, with a full understanding of every aspect at play, we crash into the payoff of the final battle with a greater weight and power to it than the average viewed-at-a-distance-from-kaiju-level battle can muster. Ford Brody is our tour guide; he's our excuse to see each of those steps from a human perspective, and our plot device to keep following them along. He's made to be unobtrusive and low-key; but he's also given more character through his actions, choices, and expressions than people give him credit for- enough to tell us who he is, to communicate his plight and his driving goals, and to give us a clear picture of where we're going next and why as we follow his journey.

Would he work as the main character in Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla, or Destroy All Monsters? No. But for the kaiju-centric role that a protagonist in this film needs to accomplish, not out to serve a story about himself, but to complement the onoing revelations and demonstrations of kaiju scale and power, I think he works excellently.

Wow Zarm, very well said. I wasn't a fan of Resurgence myself and share your feelings of g14 as for me it's pretty much the definitive g-film. Agreed on the character of Ford, as well - you simply articulated it far better than I could on this issue. Sadly I can't add much that you haven't already covered so I'll just leave this as my two cents.