I have always loved good Sci Fi. I was raised on The Twilight Zone, Friday night "scary movies" and I couldn't get enough of earth invasions and the undead, classic monsters and body snatchers. But if you pin me down on exactly what is my favorite of all these films it would be the day Michael Rennie spun into Washington DC and began a small panic. He had the sleekest ship serious posse of one – a nine-foot robot named Gort – and a simple mission: Earthlings, don't screw it up. Of course, we always do.
There was something very subtle, very un sci fi about this movie. Even for 1951 there was very little monster-movie stuff going on. It was more the psychological nature of mass fear that this story explored. The movie came out two years before I was born, but I can remember watching it on TV at probably at age 6. I was hooked. I was sure we were just days from being visited and by aliens not nearly as nice as Klaatu. The adults, on the other hand, were concerned about more earthbound monsters: nuclear war, the Soviet threat, racial injustice. It was a time of bomb shelters, fire hoses and commies in every department of the government. The early Twilight Zones dealt with this fear in a creative and calculating way. It was always just beyond the edge of edge of reality; just enough for those who didn't want to face the reality head-on. Today's fear comes in the form of foreclosures, bank failures and automakers begging for another chance.
Until that 1951 premiere the few celluloid space invaders were jokes. The movie monsters were still rehash versions of the old Universal demons and mutants from 30 years earlier. Then that single saucer made its way to a park in the nation's capital. No death rays, no dripping tentacles, instead it was a very serious diplomat with a warning. Now there is a remake of the film with Keanu Reeves, all the 21st century special effects, and infused with all the self-loathing of today's human race. We are so sure we have been such poor stewards of the planet that whomever might come to call from beyond the Van Allen Belt will certainly reinforce that notion. The earth is much better off without us.
It's funny how we never seem to get tired of movies that vaporize, freeze or drown New York City. Judging from the trailers this one is no exception. Gort, the interplanetary MP who in the original film was left as a sentry against bad behavior, is far more menacing. I'm going to see this movie Friday night in Lansing surrounded by hard working people who are anything but self-loathing. Here there is another Klaatu and Gort on the ground as the automobile industry is dealing with a final warning. I hope this one has a happy (sort of) ending like the 1951 version. And I'm not talking about the movie.
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