70-plus years after ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’
Many of you know "I’m not old, I’m a classic." My good friend Donna Webster got me a T-shirt with that verse printed in bold on the front.
If you know I’m a classic, you must know too that I enjoy old, classic movies. You know, those ones in black-and-white with a romantic love story like "Casablanca" (Bogart), or maybe "Gone With the Wind" with its historical slant and fine acting of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh as those characters Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara.
Old movies are some of the best, and they often leave important messages for us to consider.
Take for instance a movie I recently watched. It is called "The Day the Earth Stood Still," and it was made in 1951 and appears in black-and-white.
It has an intriguing story line that seems applicable to our world today.
May I share this story with you?
This movie is based on a 1940 short story “Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates. The film stars Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe and others.
The major plot of the story is about the landing of a mysterious spaceship on Earth in the midst of the Cold War and countries involved in the nuclear arms race.
And after recently watching this movie, I find it more than a little strange that the Congress of our own country is about to undertake a study of, you guessed it, unidentified flying objects.
Some politicians are beginning to think that something is amiss in our universe and perhaps there are actually strange visitors from way out yonder who have their sights set upon Earth.
Or maybe, just a few of them like me, have watched "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and are beginning to think that aliens and spaceships are a real possibility and no longer just an imaginary story by some author with nothing else to do.
Permit me to continue.
In the movie, this spaceship lands in Washington, D.C., and is immediately surrounded by the Army. As a humanoid (Klaatu) exits the vessel, he tells the world that he has arrived in peace and good will. When he makes a sudden move, however, a nervous soldier shoots and wounds him.
Immediately a large robot named Gort, fires in response from his space gun and destroys the Army’s weapons.
The injured alien is taken to the Walter Reed Army hospital for treatment.
The Army tries to enter the spaceship without success as Gort guards it.
At the hospital, a Mr. Harley, the president’s representative, questions Klaatu. Klaatu tells Harley he has a message for the entire world and he should gather all the world’s leaders together so he might deliver his message.
Harley rejects Klaatu’s proposal and request.
Klaatu escapes from Walter Reed and hides with a young boy (Bobby) and his mother whom he encounters at a boarding house. He decides to study Earth’s human race further.
Bobby takes Klaatu on a tour and visits his father’s grave in the Arlington National Cemetery and shows him the graves of soldiers killed in wars.
Bobby tells Klaatu that professor Barnhardt is the "greatest living person on Earth" and Klaatu goes to find him.
Klaatu tells the professor that other planets are now concerned that Earth has acquired rudimentary atomic power. He came to warn people that if they do not cease in nuclear power development Earth will be destroyed.
The professor gathers all the scientists of the world at the spaceship.
There is much more to the story, but the important part is the ending where Klaatu delivers a message to the gathered scientists.
Klaatu tells the scientists that his interplanetary organization has created a police force of robots like Gort. They have power over us. Klaatu concludes, “Your choice is simple: join us and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer."
Klaatu and Gort leave to return to their home planet.
You know, sometimes I think the future is determined by the ink of a writer long before it actually happens.
If there really are UFOs, or unidentified flying objects, there just might be a real Klaatu or Gort somewhere out there.
And maybe there is a bit of reality to that delivered message from this classic movie.
"Live in peace or ... face obliteration."
Your move!
Lloyd "Pete" Waters is a Sharpsburg resident who writes for The Herald-Mail.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Old movies hold lessons for us
