The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

The Day the Earth Stood Still opens with an unidentified aircraft flying at supersonic speed around the world.  It finally lands on a baseball field in Washington DC.  The military is soon on hand and circles the flying saucer and awaits developments.  After a couple of hours, Klaatu (Michael Rennie) emerges and declares that he comes in peace.  As he tries to deliver a gift, a soldier panics and shoots him.  Gort (Lock Martin), a mute robot, emerged and commenced to disintegrate weapons - rifles, tanks, artillery (why are artillery pieces here?) - but not the soldiers.  Klaatu calls the robot off and the military transports Klaatu to Walter Reed Hospital.

 

Klaatu has come to Earth to warn against aggression.  He declares that the galaxy has been indifferent to Earth's internal squabbles but that the advent of atomic weapons has the galaxy troubled.  Earth needs to embrace the peace-loving ways of Klaatu's people or risk extermination.  That was a rather peculiar formulation.  Be peaceful like us or we will commit genocide to protect ourselves from your violent ways.  Huh?  Amazingly, despite the obvious superiority of Klaatu's technology, the government decides to keep him locked in a hospital room while denying him the opportunity to deliver the riot act to Earth.

 

Klaatu escapes and decides he needs to learn more about humans.  Under the assumed name of Mr. Carpenter, he rents a room where he meets Helen (Patricia Neal) and her son, Bobby (Billy Gray).  One of the funniest scenes in the movie was when Tom (Hugh Marlowe), Helen's boyfriend, eagerly accepts Mr. Carpenter's offer to babysit.  Klaatu's day out with Bobby is done amazingly well.  The visits to the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery show great affect on Klaatu; maybe humans aren't so bad.

 

There are a couple of oddities that are hard to accept.  The willingness to kill an alien from a vastly superior civilization is truly short-sighted.  Imprisoning or killing an ambassador is typically viewed as an act of war.  This was particularly reckless after the power of Gort was demonstrated.  Then there is the strangeness that Klaatu's people are worried about Earthly nukes.  At this time, we hadn't even gotten a satellite into orbit but they seem to think an atomic bomb might find its way to another solar system in the near future?  Talk about an abundance of caution.

 

A very enjoyable movie that stands up surprisingly well even 67 years later.  Thumbs up.

Nuclear Deterrence?

There are now rules on when the US may or may not use nuclear weapons. Rather than allow the uncertainty to deter enemies, we have spelled out when nukes are appropriate. As it turns out, a chemical or biological attack would not call for a nuclear response, except in the case of a country that is not current on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. So, you better watch yourselves North Korea and Iran! We reserve the right to nuke you. However, if Jihadistan isn't proliferating nukes, we will refrain from a nuclear response as long as attacks are limited to biological or chemical or just plain conventional.

This policy is preposterous. The whole point of a nuclear deterrence is to deter aggression. One does not then explain what sort of aggression is to be covered. Imagine Teddy Roosevelt walking down the street with his big stick. Who wants to mess with Teddy and risk being cracked on the head with the stick? Nobody. Well, now let's suppose that Teddy says he won't use the stick if someone kicks him in the shin. Do you think that will result in Teddy being kicked in the shin more or less often?

Western Europe was protected from Soviet tanks thanks to the potential nuclear response by the United States. The new policy declares that, provided the Soviets refrained from using nukes and were not proliferating, their tanks could roll across Europe and the US response would be limited to conventional weapons. That is a gamble the Soviets were much more likely to risk.

Obama has stated his desire to have a nuclear-free world. This is so painfully unrealistic that it is scary that the leader of the free world would express it. Pacifism is great until one warmonger shows up to enslave the pacifists.

If you want peace, prepare for war.