JurassicKaiju14
MemberTitanosaurusJan-19-2020 7:30 PMAround early-December last year, I decided that, after months of just talking about it online, I might as well give KOTM another rewatch (probably my third or fourth one by this time). Except that this time I decided to jot down notes while watching the movie. These are the results. Some of it is legitimate observations, but occasionally I throw in a little joke here and there to lighten things up. I'm going to do this in three separate parts, the first section going up to the end of the Ghidorah's awakening sequence. I hope you enjoy.
So without further ado, here are my notes on KOTM–the third or fourth rewatch.
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-I love how the opening logo reel is a reference to the 1954 movie, with the footsteps and the roar and all that. Also, am I the only one who noticed Rodan and Behemoth in the carvings at the beginning?
-The opening of this movie is a complete contrast to the ending of 2014. Remember how that one ended, with crowds cheering or staring in awe as Godzilla went back to the sea, and that big media line “King of the Monsters - Savior of our City”? This movie literally opens up with a reminder that no, it’s not all happy. Thousands of people died. Like all those kids and injured people that got pulped when Goji went through the Golden Gate Bridge. So much for a “happy” ending. A lot of people like to treat the MonsterVerse Godzilla as a hero, but he’s really not; he’s just got this indifference towards us, and we just happen to be riding his coattails getting some benefits from it. It also serves as a pretty grim reminder that an attack by these creatures or the clashes they have in our cities would basically be 9/11 with giant monsters instead of jet liners.
-The first shot of Emma post-flashback holds on her weepy face for about six whole seconds, and it’s really uncomfortable. Also, side-note, this movie has ruined Vera Farmiga for me, because every time I see a picture of her from now on, I’m gonna be looking for the faucet in the side of her head.
-One of the protesters in the news footage has a sign that says “Destroy All Monsters”. Barring the obvious reference, how inclusive of him.
-Speaking of signs, something I just noticed; all the protesters are holding them backwards. Either they’re mugging for the news cameras or they’re just idiots (I mean, they kind of are; they want to have Godzilla killed, and we all know how well that usually works out, now don’t we? It’s an excersise in futility, is what it is).
-So there’s a lot of fish dying off, and the media thinks its from “efforts to track Godzilla”. When I first saw this movie, I thought it was a reference to Emma’s environmental scheme, but could it be an early foreshadowing of the Oxygen Destroyer? The after-effects of initial tests, perchance?
-As a lover of bacon, Madison’s callous burning of the greatest meat on the planet pains me greatly. I don’t think I like her.
-Holy cow, I just realized that the shirt that Madison wears in this movie is the same one that Andrew is wearing in the family photo.
-Little bit of Fridge Brilliance dialogue from Emma and Madison. On the first pass you think it’s just talking about Mark all alone in the middle of Colorado or wherever, but then you realize that it’s actually about Emma’s plan.
-Hey, is Dr. Mancini played by the guy who plays that one teacher in Stranger Things? (And yes, his character does have a name in this movie.)
-And so, Mothra is born unto the world. And not to rag on the classic designs, but I like this design for the Mothra larva a lot better than the Toho ones (actually, design-wise I love the MonsterVerse versions of the big four in general). And I think Mothra having bioluminescence is a really nice addition. It adds a level of otherworldly beauty to her character, and I like how it’s used to indicate her mood during the movie (blue while calm, red while agitated).
-Am I the only one who thinks that Monarch’s scientific naming for the Titans is kinda lame? I mean, yeah, it’s a nice touch that they use their Japanese names when they can (i.e. Titanus Gojira, Titanus Mosura), but still, just labelling everything as Titanus X is really lazy in my opinion. And besides, in animal nomenclature, the first name is the genus and the second the species. And obviously the Titans can’t be all in the same genus.
-So Monarch has forcefields now? I wonder how much those set them back. Okay, it’s probably just some kind of laser cage or something, but still.
-Mothra has thermal vision. Nice touch. I’ve always wondered how kaiju see the world, and how their senses differ from our own. I dunno, does Godzilla have a way of “seeing” sources of radiation?
-There’s always that one idiot who has to go and fire a shot after being explicitly told to hold their fire, isn’t there? Folly of man, my friends. Folly of man…
-I like how even during Mothra’s little episode, she doesn’t actually hurt any of the Monarch personnel, prefering to simply web them down with her silk. Even that one guy that she picks up in her mandibles and chucks at the wall; he lands in a web near the ceiling and looks perfectly fine. She even pauses for a moment when Emma enters her chamber, actually waiting to see if she’s another threat, and only acting up again when Emma gets the wrong frequency. It kind of establishes that, monster she may be, Mothra still has a care for the wellbeing of the world around her, par for the course for her character.
-By the way, if you look closely at the aforementioned ceiling web, you can actually see a man-sized spider on it. Given that that thing must have been there when Monarch built their containment facility, and they just kind of let him stay there, I somehow doubt he’s too big of a problem.
-Madison, what are you so worried about? Don’t you know that in emergency situations, going with the untested prototype always works out in the end? Shut up, bacon-killer.
-At first I thought the ORCA was way too small to generate something that could be heard by monsters as big as the ones in this movie, but then it occurred to me that the sounds we hear from it may not necessarily be the same ones that they hear. Who knows what frequencies the Titans communicate in, and what they can hear?
-Also, I like the concept of the ORCA device. It kind of reminds me of the Godzilla signal used in the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons. I like the sound it makes too. BWoOoOm! BWoOoOm!
-I never particularly cared for the Mothra theme before. So why is it that now, when it plays in this movie, all of a sudden I feel moved?
-Aaaaaand, enter Alan Jonah. The Game of Thrones references send their regards.
-Ah, so I see that Monarch’s archival recordings of the 2014 attacks are part of the Godzilla series’ long and glorious trend of using stock footage. Also, wait a sec, if the MUTOs’ EMPs fried all electronics, how did they get that footage?
-I have to admit, I’m rather confused about Monarch’s general status. I always assumed that they were a secret branch of the military, so have why is the government talking about assuming full control over them? Are they a private organization or something?
-Senator Godine accuses Serizawa of trying to protect Godzilla and the other Titans. Well, yes, but then again, simply trying to kill Godzilla usually doesn’t work out too well in the end, so perhaps he’s just trying to save humanity the trouble of an ultimately futile venture.
-“So you’d want to make Godzilla our pet?” “No. We would be his.” Further proof that Ishiro Serizawa won the Best Lines lottery for these movies.
-I’ve had a sudden and disturbing epiphany about the “Titan Reproduction” footage regarding the MUTOs. In Godzilla: Aftershock, MUTO Prime’s ovipositors are located in her jaw. If we take this basic anatomy and apply it to the other two MUTOs, then that means that their reproductive organs are located in their heads. So you know that scene in 2014 when the two of them are “kissing”? Well, suffice it to say, they aren’t kissing.
-I love how Mark Russell looks so at peace listening to the sounds of wolves growling and tearing at flesh. I dunno, there’s just something funny about how calm he looks listening to the carnage, like it’s some kind of ASMR video or something.
-Well, I guess Mark can join the ranks of Alan Grant and Niko Tatopolous amongst the (albeit small) Pantheon of People Who’s Work Got Interrupted by a Helicopter Landing.
-Say, isn’t that Tony Stark’s cabin from Avengers: Endgame?
-And according to Graham, there were survivors of the Outpost 61 raid. Anyone else think said survivors might be those people Mothra webbed up?
-Mark asks who Sam Coleman is. It is a question that I have asked myself many times in my many rewatches of this movie.
-Good grief, is that an actual fade-to transition? Man, it feels like I haven’t seen one of those in a movie in a long time. I don’t quite know why.
-So Mark tells Graham about what happened to him after San Francisco. And I’m clearly a terrible person, because all I can think of is Tommy Wiseau going “Hahaha! What a story, Mark!”
-Okay, seriously, did you ever notice that Graham doesn’t try to press the whole monster thing on Mark like Sam or even Serizawa do on the helicopter ride? She lets him vent and just listens. Sometimes people just need someone to hear them in their stress. I like that.
-“Seventeen. And counting.” Seriously, why does Serizawa get the most memorable lines?
-So the name of Monarch’s (apparent HQ) is actually a double reference. It’s designation is Outpost 54 (1954), and it’s nickname is Castle Bravo, after the nuclear test that the Japanese fishing vessel Lucky Dragon 5 was caught in the fallout of, and as a result indirectly inspired the real-world creation of Godzilla himelf. In-universe it was the nuclear “test” we saw in the beginning of the 2014 film.
-I absolutely love all this fancy new tech that Monarch gets in this movie. Underwater fortresses, deep-sea submarines, maser canons, their own air-force squadron, a big honkin’ flying wing mobile command base, not to mention access to all kinds of historical and biological information databases…it’s official, Monarch is now my new dream job. Sorry, InGen; I’ve been over you since Lockwood Manor.
-I kinda wish we actually saw Mothra breaking out of the Yunnan temple. Would have made for a nice scene, and I keep thinking it would be cool if her larval stage possesed the camouflage abilities that Mothra Leo’s larval form had.
-So according to Dr. One-Liners here, there seems to be an arms race for Titan DNA in the works, with apparently several countries and companies interested in them for stuff like, in Stanton’s own words, “pharmaceuticals, bioweapons, food”, and so on. And honestly, this is something that I’d really like to see explored further in future Godzilla films. I know Godzilla vs. Biollante kind of touched on that back in ’89, but I’d personally like it if they went back to that for a future movie. Also, let’s not kid ourselves here, the inevitable bad-guy monster of Godzilla vs. Kong is probably going to have something to do with this.
-Hey, wait a second, how many Titans did Jonah and his mercenaries actually have access to before their big move in this movie? The MUTOs? The government, and Monarch specifically, obviously confiscated their bodies after 2014, so unless somebody pulled a Dennis Nedry and smuggled some DNA samples out to Jonah and his cronies, I think we can rule them out. And Godzilla? Well, that’s just plain suicidal. Also, what exactly would Titan poaching even look like? That could be a whole other movie right there…
-Apparently Dr. Chen’s hairstyle is known as a “Pixie cut”. Considering who she and her twin sister turn out to be in this movie, I think I’ll let that speak for itself.
-It just occurred to me, but I’ve seen the actress who plays Col. Foster in Star Trek Into Darkness. Small world.
-So apparently Outpost 32 is supposed to be a reference to Outpost 31 from John Carpenter’s The Thing. Between Ghidorah and the shape-shifting body-horror abomination, I think I’d take the former.
-I’m not usually too fond of people flipping the bird at one another, but I think it’s totally applicable in bacon-killer’s case.
-I just love how the movie’s mood just drops the moment Ghidorah comes on screen for the first time. Even before Monarch explains why they’re so concerned about him, the movie gives us this sense that there’s just something wrong about this one.
-The Monster Zero name makes a comeback. I have to admit, I rather like its application here.
-There’s something kind of funny about the almost cheerful way Jonah says “Well let’s get started!” I don’t quite know why…
-Okay. I’ll admit it. I kinda cracked a smile seeing that video of the Russell family so happy together before 2014. Like the nice kind of smile, the kind that you get when you see something wholesome and good. Because I’m kind of a hopeless romantic that way.
-I like how the movie tries to draw our attention to those three-four G-Team members that keep showing up, like we’re actually supposed to like them or something. And I mean "like" in a sarcastic way for once. I take it they were kind of going for a Colonial Marines from Aliens feel here, but I’ll admit that the military guys are the one group of people in the movie that I legitimately did not care about.
-The whole Castle Bravo stand-off sequence is probably my single complete favorite scene in the entire movie (I say complete because with my other favorites, there’s usually something I would have done to make them better). We’re so used to seeing Godzilla as this loud, foot-stomping, skreeonking, Akira Ifukube-blasting unstoppable force that when we get something like this, the silence is borderline profound. I mean, have we ever seen him so quiet like this before? I get chills every time I see those glowing blue eyes staring through the fourth wall from the depths, watching that massive silhouette slipping almost gracefully through the darkness, hearing his growls and that massive heart of his pounding away over the facility’s speakers…beautiful. Just beautiful. It’s moments like this that remind me why I like the MonsterVerse Godzilla so much. These movies actually made me feel like Godzilla was a real creature, something I could see before my eyes. The legend come to life.
-I like how Mark is actually kind of rational when it comes to dealing with Godzilla. He may hate the big guy with all his being, but he ain’t stupid about it. Considering some of the other hyper-anti-Godzilla folks in the series (Yuki from vs SpaceGodzilla comes to mind), it’s actually somewhat refreshing.
-And I love how Godzilla kind of half-charges his atomic energy as a warning display. And it makes sense from a biological standpoint; Titanus Gojira was the top predator of his time, and every other contemporary Titan would have known that glowing spines=iminent death. I love it.
-Also on that note, I like how this scene highlights MV!Godzilla’s more pragmatic personality compared to other Godzilla’s. Any other version sans late-Showa would have just smashed through the facility or any other military vehicles, but MV!Godzilla doesn’t; not because he’s a superhero or anything, but because it’s simply not worth the trouble to stomp on the ants. I rather like that; he’s a more protagonistic Godzilla without being a cheesy hero, and it’s also a neat subversion of the “mindless killing machine” predator trope.
-Whadda ya know? The Big G actually managed to pull off an effective jumpscare. I guess he’s been taking lessons from Cloverfield. :)
-Monarch’s mobile base is named the USS Argo. A reference to the Argo of classic Greek mythology? In any case, I feel like it was a missed opportunity to call her the Super-X.
-Man, just how big is this plane? It’s got it’s own squadron of Osprey VTOLs.
-This isn’t the first time we’ve had a human vs. human gunfight in the Godzilla series.
-So Mark has pretty much no combat experience at all, and yet he rushes into the midst of a firefight to at least attempt to get his family back. I like that.
-I just realized that you can kinda hear snatches of the Ghidorah chant in the background, and I can’t help but wonder…is Ghidorah actually still conscious in that ice? I wonder if he’s getting the least little bit of amusement out of the firefight going on. Given his sadistic nature, I wouldn’t put it past him.
-Emma hits the detonator button. What a twist! Also, I love the look of dawning comprehension on Mark’s face, the way there’s just the slightest shiver in his body language as he realizes what Emma’s about to do.
-Mark goes back down to rescue G-Team from being killed in the collapsing base. Y’know, it just occurred to me that Andrew was most likely killed by falling debris. I’ll let that sink in.
-That crater that forms in the wreck of Outpost 32 kinda looks like the Turkemistan's Hell Hole image from the old MUTOResearch site for the 2014 film.
-And so the False King rises from his icy prison. And I know there’s been some debates around these parts, but…I love this version. I love the design. I love the huge, bat-like wings that make everything that’s come before look skimpy in comparison, and I love how he actually walks on the fronts of them when they’re folded up. I love how his necks and eyes crackle and glow as he charges up his gravity beams. I love how each head has it’s own little personality quirks. I love the added storm that he creates; his very existence on this planet wreaks havoc, and who knows what that could do to the environment in the long term. And I love just how sadistic he is. If humans are ants to Titans, then Ghidorah is that one little jerk with the magnifying glass who likes to set ‘em on fire. It’s a complete contrast to the MUTOs and the Skullcrawlers, who are just instinct-driven animals. Ghidorah…he’s a monster. For the first time ever, I actually almost felt the sense of dread that the character was supposed to invoke from the beginning. The Showa and Heisei versions were marred by winding up as cheap, mind-controlled pawns of the bad guys of the week, GMK was a good guy, and while I liked some of the ideas of the Anime version, he felt a little too far removed from the base character for my comfort. Suffice it to say, this was the movie that made me give the Golden Demise a second look.
-It’s worth noting that, on the Monarch Sciences website, it’s mentioned that the G-Team soldiers are trained to use “A-12 Bio-Mag” rifles. I assume this is some kind of specially-designed biological field gun or something. So I guess they had at least some reason to believe that those bullets of theirs might slow Ghidorah down a little. At any rate, I think their primary concern was distracting him long enough for the others to get away.
-It’s interesting to note that Ghidorah’s beams seem to be more straight-up electric in this version; as in, they actually kinda overload and short things out.
-Bacon-killer tries to distract Ghidorah. Nice effort, but it'll take more than that for me to pardon you of your crimes.
-Did you ever notice that whenever Ghidorah hears the ORCA signal, he immediately stops whatever he’s doing to go after the source? If the ORCA replicates an Alpha Titan call, and Ghidorah is trying to become the Alpha himself, then naturally he’d see the ORCA as a threat to his power. And considering it was made by humans–those tiny, insignificant little whelps–I can’t help but wonder if it peeves him off more than we’d think, the idea of us being a legitimate challenger to him.
-More of Ghidorah’s sadism on display here. He could easily crush that Osprey whenever he wants, but instead, he decides to play with it. Somebody here (not mentioning names) described this Ghidorah as a “big bully”…and yeah, that’s what he is, pretty much.
-Godzilla breaking through the ice is pure awesome. Especially the music. Never in my life have I been more pumped to see the classic 1954 theme. It’s absolutely glorious. And man is it good to hear that 2014 style roar again! Good lord, I love this movie.
-The body language between Godzilla and Ghidorah. Serizawa and Graham mentioned that Godzilla and Ghidorah were probably rivals, but now we can actually see how much they hate each other. And that’s another thing; I love how expressive the kaiju are in this movie. KOTM did on a $170 million budget that Disney didn’t even try to do with The Lion King’s $260 million. Eat that, Disney; at least we know how to give our animals some stinkin’ facial expressions.
-Godzilla and Ghidorah actually create a shockwave when they smash into each other. They do it again later during the Boston fight.
-I should probably get this out of the way now before I forget it for later. Here’s the reason I’m not really as annoyed by KOTM’s cutaway’s as I was with 2014’s; when KOTM has a fight, it actually keeps you in the same area as the monsters. Geographically, all the action is pretty much right at their feet. They’re not cutting to, like, the morning after, or a few blocks down the street to some people disarming a bomb. You’re still there, and the result is that it feels (to me) like less of a cop-out and more like your seeing the action from the humans’ perspective. Feeling just how small and insignificant you are in the face of these creatures, and realizing just how things have changed. The world is going mad, giants are roaming the Earth and waging war against each other and us, and all you can do is huddle up into a corner and SCREAM, SCREAM FOR YOUR LIFE!
-Godzilla roaring the 1954 roar against the moon is awesome.
-Each of Ghidorah’s lightning bolts actually knocks Godzilla back or even over whenever he fires ‘em. That’s more done in one burst than what either MUTO could do individually. Shows just how powerful he is.
-I just realized that Ghidorah actually noticed when Godzilla started charging up his ray, but he waited until the last second to dodge. The smarmy jerk is just messing with him now. “C’mon, c’mon, we want you to do it, hit us…hit us…hit us! YA MISSED!!!”
-Y’know, it just occurred to me that this is the first time we’ve seen MV!Godzilla’s atomic breath being used against buildings (however inadvertently).
-Unlike some people, I, for one, actually saw instantly that Ghidorah ate Graham. And again, he didn’t even have to do it, he’s just stomping on the ants. And the right head even tries to snap up a bit of her remains as they fall from center’s mouth.
-I suppose it wouldn’t be a proper Ghidorah if he didn’t make a cowardly exit at least once in a movie. Just living up to that old Showa and Heisei tradition, I guess.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Y'know, a funny thing about me and this movie; I like it better when I'm actually watching it. I still love it immensely, of course, warts and all, but in between watches, I kind of get worn down just talking about it online, and occasionally getting pulled–or stupidly diving into–another debate about it. But when I actually watch it again, I'm reminded of why I like it and why I defend it so often in the first place. A bit of a confidence boost, I suppose.
Ah, well. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and I hope to be back with Part 2 in the foreseeable future.
A true fan can acknowledge the bad while still appreciating and cherishing the good.
dk
MemberGodzillaJan-19-2020 9:32 PMThat is a nice breakdown and took some time to put together! I need to give it another watch as well since I had some issues but ultimately thought it was a great movie.
My basic initial breakdown was observing it in 3 parts (BTW- I only watched it because the forum insisted I do so when I asked if it was worth watching):
First part- Massive creature action and almost no character development.
Second part- Creatures went to the background and characters/plot really developed.
Third part- With everything in place and feeling engaged, it was all out and I cared about both the creatures and humans.
I appreciate the time you took to lay it all down in detail with some asides and humor. Thanks- upvoted!
JurassicKaiju14
MemberTitanosaurusJan-20-2020 9:32 AMdk Well, thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope to be back with Part 2 sometime soon.
A true fan can acknowledge the bad while still appreciating and cherishing the good.
Titan of Water
MemberBaragonJan-20-2020 1:33 PMWhy do you imagine a faucet in her cheek?
Angering the Godzilla fan base one take at a time
JurassicKaiju14
MemberTitanosaurusJan-20-2020 1:52 PMTitan of Water Because for half the movie she looks like she's about to gush tears like a leaky fire hydrant.
A true fan can acknowledge the bad while still appreciating and cherishing the good.
Titan of Water
MemberBaragonJan-20-2020 2:02 PMa problem I have with Emma isn’t really her plan since she’s supposed to be a grey character but for some reason she came off as whiny in some scenes. I don’t know if it was just bad acting or what
Angering the Godzilla fan base one take at a time
JurassicKaiju14
MemberTitanosaurusJan-20-2020 2:23 PMTitan of Water "a problem I have with Emma isn’t really her plan since she’s supposed to be a grey character but for some reason she came off as whiny in some scenes."
Agreed. If I was doing the movie (and I hope to do this in my rewrite), I'd probably have it so that she's a little more bitter and cold all the way up until Ghidorah takes control. Then she starts to break down. I'd also make it more clear that her thing is that she blames humanity for waking up Godzilla in the first place, who in turn killed Andrew.
A true fan can acknowledge the bad while still appreciating and cherishing the good.
Kattozilla
MemberAnguirusJan-20-2020 2:33 PMWe will not forget the true hero of this movie....
R.I.P. Bacon
Titan of Water
MemberBaragonJan-20-2020 2:34 PMMadison has chosen death with her mistreatment of bacon.
Angering the Godzilla fan base one take at a time
JurassicKaiju14
MemberTitanosaurusJan-20-2020 2:38 PMI think it was that incident that convinced Emma that humans are the real monsters. :)
A true fan can acknowledge the bad while still appreciating and cherishing the good.
Titan of Water
MemberBaragonJan-20-2020 2:45 PMthis comment might have accidentally gotten too close to real world politics so I edited it.
Angering the Godzilla fan base one take at a time
Trash panda
MemberAnguirusJan-21-2020 8:00 AMNOOOOOO!!! NOT THE BACON! WHYYY?! What's next? Fruit Loops? I can't imagine a world without Fruit Loops. Or Pop-Tarts.
dk
MemberGodzillaJan-21-2020 7:24 PMhumans are the real monsters. :)
That has always been a theme to me.
Trash panda
MemberAnguirusJan-22-2020 8:58 AMWhen the bacon was destroyed:
Trash panda
MemberAnguirusJan-22-2020 9:04 AMThat's really cool,JurassicKaiju14! I felt the same way when I did The Whited Out Stuff.
Gmkgoji
MemberRodanJan-22-2020 9:55 AMFunny, I don't like bacon. Never have.
Zwei Wing is the best singing duo. Change my mind.
JurassicKaiju14
MemberTitanosaurusJan-22-2020 9:58 AMGmkgoji "Funny, I don't like bacon. Never have."
INFIDEL!
A true fan can acknowledge the bad while still appreciating and cherishing the good.
Gmkgoji
MemberRodanJan-22-2020 10:22 AMWell, I mean...I like asain bacon (Pork belly) but not the thin, crispy strips called "Bacon"
Zwei Wing is the best singing duo. Change my mind.
Trash panda
MemberAnguirusJan-22-2020 11:00 AMGmkgoji "Funny, I don't like bacon. Never have."
YOU DARE CALL YO SELF A HUMAN BEING!?!?!?! How can you even live with yourself!?
Trash panda
MemberAnguirusJan-22-2020 11:17 AMBacon is the most beautiful thing on earth.
Gmkgoji
MemberRodanJan-22-2020 11:45 AMDang. You guys really do like bacon, huh?
Well, I'm a HUMAN BEING TOO, SO STOP BITCHING AROUND.
Zwei Wing is the best singing duo. Change my mind.
Trash panda
MemberAnguirusJan-22-2020 1:05 PMGmkgoji "Dang. You guys really do like bacon, huh?
Well, I'm a HUMAN BEING TOO, SO STOP BITCHING AROUND."
We will. WHEN YOU EAT TRUE BACON!!!!!!
Gmkgoji
MemberRodanJan-22-2020 1:17 PMOh shut up already.
Zwei Wing is the best singing duo. Change my mind.
Trash panda
MemberAnguirusJan-23-2020 8:00 AMAn insult to bacon is an insult to all of us.