From a 1973 perspective, when Soylent Green was made, this movie imagines the world in 2022, where the temperature is stifling owing to the greenhouse effect, eventually to be called global warming, and presently climate change.  Overpopulation has reached critical proportions, there being forty million people in New York City alone, most of whom are in filthy rags, sleeping in the street.  Only the very rich and well-connected eat what for us is ordinary food, while the vast majority must eat crackers of different colors indicating their quality, with green being the most desirable because it is the most nutritious.  Even water is rationed.  And electric power is unreliable.

Detective Thorn (Charlton Heston) shares an apartment with his assistant Sol (Edward G. Robinson), referred to as a “book,” on account of his ability to do research on old written material.  We see Thorn having to struggle to use the steps to their apartment because there are so many people sleeping on the stairs.  Later, when a riot starts because there is a shortage of Soylent Green wafers, we see dump trucks called “scoops” being used to remove people from the streets.

Sol helps Thorn investigate murders.  One murder in particular is that of Simonson (Joseph Cotton), one of the privileged few referred to above, living as he does in a luxury apartment.  We witness the murder, in which Simonson is resigned to his fate, even suggesting that he deserves it, that it is in accordance with the will of God.

Before the murder, we saw that Simonson lived with a woman named Shirl (Leigh Taylor-Young), referred to as “furniture,” essentially a prostitute who comes with the apartment.  Thorn checks Shirl for bruises, to see if Simonson used to knock her around.  When he doesn’t find any bruises, he tells her she was a lucky girl.  We see other women being beaten in this movie as well.

When Thorn investigates the crime scenes of rich victims, he typically loots the place, but this time he really scores, taking items of food like beef, vegetables, and liquor.  He also helps himself to the “furniture,” having sex with Shirl without caring whether she wants to or not.  Of course, it’s Charlton Heston, so naturally she likes it. However, we find that the new tenant that will soon be moving into that apartment is repulsive, telling Shirl that he will be having friends come over, and he expects her to be “fun.”  Gulp.

Thorn figures out that Simonson was assassinated, and when he gets too close to the truth, political pressure is applied to get him to end the investigation.  When that doesn’t work, he almost is assassinated himself.

Thorn brings some reference books from Simonson’s apartment for Sol to look into.  From them he learns that Simonson was on the board of Soylent Corporation.  He also learns a terrible secret, the one that led to Simonson’s murder, and he decides to end it all by going to an assisted-suicide center, where he gets to look at scenes of nature as it once was and listen to beautiful music for twenty minutes before dying from some concoction he imbibed.  Just before he dies, he tells Thorn that the plankton used to make Soylent Green is disappearing from the oceans.  As a substitute for the loss of plankton, people that die are secretly processed and turned into the Soylent Green wafers.

For the purpose of this movie, we need to set aside the fact that cannibalism can lead to the transmission of abnormal prions, causing serious neurological disease.  The movie gives no indication of any awareness of this, and audiences watching this movie at the time were doubtless unaware of it as well.  Within this movie, the entire of objection to Soylent Green wafers being made out of people is that the idea is icky.

If disease is not a consideration, then in a world that is overpopulated and in which there is a food shortage, turning people into food is rational.  After all, we are not talking about the kind of cannibalism where we have a bunch of savages standing around a pot with a missionary in it.  The people being turned into food either died naturally or, in the case of assisted suicide, voluntarily.  So, the worst you can say about this form of cannibalism is that the idea of eating people makes us feel queasy.

Neither Simonson’s acquiescence in his own murder nor Sol’s suicide would seem to be warranted, if that’s all there is to it.  However, I have heard of people dying of starvation, even though surrounded by food, when that food is regarded as unpalatable.  For example, I guess one could survive on a cockroach diet, but it would not be easy to pick one up and stick it in your mouth.  On the other hand, if the cockroaches were used to make wafers, then with the proper seasoning they might suffice, especially if the government lied and said they were made out of grasshoppers.

Therefore, in an apparent effort to make this form of cannibalism insidious instead of just repulsive, the scriptwriters have Thorn tell his supervisor, “They’re making our food out of people.  Next thing, they’ll be breeding us like cattle.” Unfortunately, this line, which is supposed to make us even more horrified by what is going on, only makes us groan at its absurdity.

In a world where there are too many people, it makes no sense to breed more.  You just eat the ones you have.

Furthermore, why breed people like cattle instead of just continuing to breed cattle?  Thorn took some beef from Simonson’s apartment, and there is reference in the movie to farms, where cattle are raised.  Why divert resources from cattle breeding in order to breed people instead?

Finally, you would have to feed people more protein to raise them than you would get out of them once you brought them to slaughter.  To put it differently, any person being bred as food would have to be fed the equivalent of several other people over his lifetime.

Because this idea of breeding people is illogical, throwing it in at the last minute undermines this pessimistic vision of the future.

Faith Domergue had a cold beauty that made her suitable as female scientist, Professor Leslie Joyce, in It Came from Beneath the Sea.  It also helped that she was a brunette.  The stereotype of the cold, hard scientist whose intellect does not allow itself to be swayed by mere sentiment and feeling was especially prevalent in the old science fiction movies, and thus a beautiful female scientist constituted a special challenge for a macho leading man, used to having his way with women.

In this movie, said macho leading man is Commander Pete Mathews, played by Kenneth Tobey.  Tobey already had experience as Captain Patrick Hendry in The Thing from Another World (1951) breaking down the resistance of science assistant Nikki (Margaret Sheridan), who is referred to as a “pinup girl,” so you might think things would be a little easier for him in this film; but then, Faith Domergue also had experience playing the beautiful, cold scientist, Dr. Ruth Adams, resisting the charms of Rex Reason playing Dr. Cal Meacham in This Island Earth (1955), so I guess that made them even.

A lot of old movies are sexist by twenty-first century standards, but science fiction movies from the 1950s, with their inevitable beautiful female scientists, often have a feminist theme in them, pushing back against that sexism.  As a result, the message tends to be mixed, with the movie expressing a sexist attitude one minute and a feminist attitude the next.  For example, in Rocketship X-M (1950), Dr. Lisa Van Horn is a female scientist who is going to be part of a crew on the title spaceship.  Much is made of her qualifications. But then, when it comes time for the astronauts to secure themselves for blastoff, we see that the men can easily strap themselves in, but one of the men has to strap Lisa in.  This strange combination of sexism and feminism is especially flagrant in It Came from Beneath the Sea.

Joyce’s colleague is Dr. John Carter (Donald Curtis).  Other than when first names are being used, he is always addressed as Dr. Carter, never as Mr. Carter, but while Joyce is frequently referred to as Professor Joyce, she is often addressed as Miss Joyce as well, presumably because her status as a nubile maiden takes precedence over her professional qualifications.  They have both been called in to investigate a hunk of mysterious substance that got caught in the diving plane of Mathews’ submarine.  After an initial inspection, however, Joyce is not willing to spend any more time studying the specimen, because she has more important matters needing her attention elsewhere.  In other words, she is just as hard to get as a scientist as she is as a woman.  However, her expertise in marine biology makes her indispensable, and she is forced to continue with the investigation.

Of course, once Mathews has seen what Joyce looks like without her protective radiation suit on, he is especially glad she will be forced to continue on, and he wastes little time making his moves on her.  He wants to know if there is anything going on between her and Carter. “Oh, you mean romance,”  she says, as she picks up a foot-long test tube.  While gently holding this scientific prop with phallic significance, she teases him about the lack of women aboard a submarine, but she refuses to say whether there is anything between her and Carter.  Later, when Joyce definitively determines the nature of the substance, Carter kisses her on the cheek, and then she nestles in his arms as Mathews calls Naval Intelligence.  If they were actually involved romantically, this would not be so strange.  But they are not.  As a result, we once again get that strange mixture of feminism and sexism:  on the one hand, she is the expert in her field and has found the solution; on the other hand, she is a pretty girl that men just naturally kiss and hold in their arms, even when that man is a colleague in a professional setting.

Anyway, the substance turns out to be a piece from a giant octopus.  The octopus has been exposed to a lot of radiation owing to tests of the hydrogen bomb.  Radiation did not make the octopus big as it did the title character in The Amazing Colossal Man (1957) or the ants in Them! (1954), because this octopus has always been big.  However, the fish it was used to eating have natural Geiger counters in them that make them avoid the octopus, forcing it to leave its natural habitat and seek food elsewhere.  It is amazing what lengths these 1950s movies would go to in order to make radiation the cause of whatever monster they had to deal with.

Joyce and Mathews are somewhat contemptuous of each other’s profession.  She says to Mathews, “my mind just isn’t attuned to discuss things on your level, Commander.”  Later, hearing that Joyce and Carter will be meeting in Cairo to investigate the sinking nature of the coast of the Red Sea, Mathews says to Carter, “Sounds ideal.”  When Carter refers to it as mixing work with pleasure, Mathews responds, “Work?  Oh yes, that is your work, isn’t it?”

On their last night in Pearl Harbor, they all decide to have dinner together at a restaurant.  Mathews is bossy, practically pulling Joyce out of her chair while announcing they are going to dance and even telling Carter to order her a steak.  She refuses to dance, says she does not want a steak, and sits back down.  But she agrees to his suggestion of lobster and finally agrees to dance with him.  While discussing the weather in Hawaii, which is always balmy, she says she likes the winter and the snow, which naturally suggest frigidity on her part.  At first, we think that Mathews is going to try to kiss her, but she moves her head forward and kisses him instead, and then puts her arms around him.  So, contrary to appearances, she is a sexually aggressive woman.  Then they return to the table and have their meal.  When Mathews realizes that Joyce still intends to go to Cairo, he is shocked.  Presumably, he thought that since they kissed, she was going to give up all this foolishness about a career, marry him, and have babies.  He leaves in a huff.

Their plans to go to Cairo, however, are foiled by the occurrence of another incident.  It seems a tramp steamer has disappeared at sea, and Admiral Norman has rescinded their release so they can investigate to see if there is any connection to the previous one with Mathews’ submarine.  Fortunately, they find a few survivors.  In order to get the facts, a doctor examines them.  After the first survivor tells his story, in which it is clear that the giant octopus attacked the ship, the doctor indicates that he does not believe him, starts humoring him, and tells him in an ominous manner that he is to be taken down the hall to talk to another doctor about what he thinks he has seen.  The other three survivors are not fools.  They realize the other doctor is a psychiatrist and that their mate is likely to be diagnosed as mentally ill and confined to an insane asylum.  So, they deny having seen anything.  They are given lie-detector tests, which show that they are lying when they deny having seen anything.  And then the first survivor recants his story so that he can be released from the infirmary.  Mathews and the other officers are exasperated and just don’t understand why they can’t get the truth out of these guys.

Professor Joyce rises to the occasion.  Removing her coat so as to expose a little more of her soft, warm flesh, she tells the officers she will talk to the first survivor when he is released, and then contrives to be alone with him in a room.  Using her womanly wiles—giving him sexy looks, touching his hand, showing a little leg—she gets the man to admit he saw the sea monster, which the officers hear through the intercom.  So, you see, that’s why we need female scientists, because they have special ways of getting to the truth.

Mathews and Joyce decide to investigate reports of poor fishing along the northwest coast, because it may be that the octopus has been eating all the fish.  They spot what might be called an octopus footprint on the beach and they send for Carter.  Meanwhile, they decide to check out the fish population in the area, which they do by putting on the swim suits they just happened to have with them.  No fish, so they do a little hot necking on the beach.

When Carter arrives with the deputy sheriff, Mathews asks Carter to help him persuade Joyce to leave and let the Navy take over the job.  When Carter asks what Joyce has to say about that, Mathews responds, “What’s the difference what she says?”  At that point, Carter proceeds to lecture Mathews about women:  “There’s a whole new breed who feel they’re just as smart and just as courageous as men.  And they are.  They don’t like to be overprotected. They don’t like to have their initiative taken away from them.”

Joyce picks up the argument:  “A, you’d want me to miss the opportunity to see this specimen, one that may never come again. B, you’d be making up my mind for me. And C, I not only don’t like being pushed around, but you underestimate my ability to help in a crisis.”  Carter says that he is entirely on her side, as she nestles into the arm her puts around her.  Mathews concedes to having lost the argument.

Suddenly, the octopus appears and kills the deputy, causing Joyce to scream like a girl.

The octopus starts wreaking havoc on San Francisco, Mathews and Carter take turns saving each other’s lives, during which Joyce screams again, finding solace first in Carter’s arms and then Mathews’, until at last the octopus is killed.

They have dinner again.  Mathews, noting that women can change, says he wants Joyce to marry him and start a family.  She says she hasn’t time for that, indicating that she is an independent, career-minded woman, who wants nothing to do with a life of domesticity.  But then she offers to collaborate with him on a book, How to Catch a Sea Beast, a title that lends itself to more than one meaning, inasmuch as Mathews, as captain of a submarine, is something of a sea beast himself.  From this we gather that her ultimate goal is to trap a man.

The basis for The Hunger Games is just a contrivance. It is said that the games referred to in the title, in which two teenagers from each of the Twelve Districts of Panem are forced to fight one another to the death, are punishment for a rebellion that took place seventy-four years earlier. Seventy-four years? Reconstruction only lasted about ten years after the Civil War. And whom would the Capital be punishing? Most of the people who rebelled would have long since died, and most of the people being punished would not even have been born when the rebellion took place.

The squalor of the districts people live in looks like something from the Great Depression. But when the Hunger Games begin, we find that technology has developed to the point that the people monitoring the games can cause three cats to materialize by pressing a button. Well, if they can do that, why not materialize a bunch of cows for the starving people in the districts to eat? Oh yeah, I forgot. They are still being punished for stuff they didn’t do.

We expect all movies to be politically correct to some degree, but when the political correctness is too obvious, you just have to groan. In particular, all the evil people in this movie are white; all the people who are not white are good. Oh brother!

When The Day the Earth Stood Still opens, a UFO is spotted, circling the Earth at a high rate of speed. A man on the radio announces that this is not another flying saucer scare, that scientists and military men have agreed that this is something real.  Nevertheless, another radio announcer says that in the nation’s capital, there is some concern, but no sign of panic, as people are enjoying a nice spring day.

We see the familiar landmarks of Washington, D.C.  At a park, people are lying about, others having a picnic, while a bunch of children are playing baseball. Suddenly, it becomes clear that the flying saucer is going to land there, and they all scatter.

This is not realistic.  A UFO always lands in some isolated area, where only a few people see it, one of whom is taken into the flying saucer so a needle can be stuck into her navel.  And then when she tries to tell her story, no one believes her, except a few government officials, who keep it a secret because we must never know.  Landing right in the middle of the nation’s capital in broad daylight with everybody watching just isn’t the way UFOs do things.

The flying saucer is surrounded by infantry, artillery, and tanks, as well as by onlookers.  Eventually, a ramp appears, and a door opens.  An alien emerges in the shape of human being.  That’s reassuring. He starts speaking with a male voice, so men apparently run things where he comes from too.  He is wearing a space helmet, but only because every well-dressed alien from outer space is expected to have one.  Otherwise, it serves no useful function:  he wouldn’t have needed it on his flying saucer, and he has no trouble breathing when he takes it off.  When he does take it off, we see that he is white, so apparently white people run things where he comes from too.  We later find out that his name is Klaatu, played by Michael Rennie.

He is able to speak English, which he learned from listening to our radio and television broadcasts.  He says, “We have come to visit you in peace and with goodwill.”  But when he whips out what appears to be a space switchblade, one of the trigger-happy soldiers shoots him.

Then a great big robot comes out, and with rays of light beaming out of the slit in his head, he starts vaporizing all the rifles, artillery, and tanks, but without harming any soldiers.  Klaatu struggles to rise up from the ground, addressing the robot, “Gort!  Deglet ovrosco!”  Apparently, the robot’s name is Gort, and he doesn’t speak English.

As some soldiers approach, Klaatu picks up the broken device he had been holding, saying, “It was a gift for your president.  With this he could have studied life on other planets.”  Perhaps the president could also have studied the planets that used to have life on them before they were annihilated for disobedience.  But Klaatu brought only one with him, so we’ll never know.

Klaatu is brought to a hospital to treat the wound to his shoulder.  He is visited by Mr. Harley, the president’s secretary.  Klaatu tells him he has traveled 250,000,000 miles from his planet to reach Earth.  That means he could be from Mars, but it is not clear what was intended by the scriptwriters.  Later in the movie, Klaatu speaks of a confederation of planets, but we can’t be sure whether they are supposed to be within our solar system or beyond it.  At the time this movie was made, the possibility of intelligent life on other planets in our solar system and even on their moons was widely accepted in science fiction.  On the other hand, Klaatu at one point says, “The universe grows smaller every day,” not, “The solar system grows smaller every day.”  Therefore, it is more likely that Klaatu’s home planet is not in our solar system.  But that means that its distance from Earth would have to be measured in trillions of miles, not millions.

Klaatu demands that he be allowed to address the United Nations.  Mr. Harley is hesitant, saying there are problems with that, saying that “evil forces have produced tension in our world.”

Klaatu replies, in a voice that is not at all friendly, but rather threatening, “My mission here is not to solve your petty squabbles. It concerns the existence of every last creature who lives on Earth.”  So much for all that talk about “peace” and “goodwill” in his initial greeting.  Later, he refers to earthlings as being childish and stupid.  However, when he learns that he cannot get anywhere with the political leaders of the world, he decides he must mingle with ordinary people of Earth, so as to understand their “strange, unreasoning attitudes.”

He is locked in his room in the hospital, but of course he is able to escape.  He rents a room at a boardinghouse, using the name Mr. Carpenter, where he meets Helen Benson (Patricia Neal) and her son Bobby.  According to an online script, Bobby is supposed to be eleven years old, even though he is played by Billy Gray, who was thirteen at the time.  Although “Mr. Carpenter” becomes quite familiar with these two, as well as with others who live there, he never encourages anyone to call him by a first name. This is consistent with his persona, which affects an aloof, superior attitude.

The next morning, at the breakfast table of the boardinghouse, Mr. Carpenter reads in the newspaper that a Professor Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe) has invited scientists from all over the world to study the spaceship.  He seems to be getting an idea:  if he cannot get anywhere with politicians, he might do better with scientists.  That places this movie on the left, politically speaking. Conservatives don’t trust scientists the way liberals do.

Also at the breakfast table are other tenants, listening to the radio, where the announcer refers to the spaceman as a monster, who must be tracked down like a wild animal and destroyed.  However, he expresses concern that destroying him might involve retaliation.  We are supposed to disapprove of this xenophobic attitude on the part of the announcer.  This is ironic, for once we find out why Klaatu has come to Earth, we realize that the announcer was right:  Klaatu is a monster, and the only misgivings we should have about killing him is the possibility of retaliation.  Of course, the movie does not want us to think that way, not even at the end when his threat to destroy all life on this planet becomes clear.

One of the tenants, a Mr. Barley, turns off the radio in disgust, complaining about the way the government isn’t doing anything because they are Democrats. Because he comes across as dogmatic and narrowminded, this remark further establishes the leftwing orientation of this movie.

Mrs. Barley, his wife, doesn’t even think he is from another planet, but from right here on Earth. Given the year this movie was made, we may guess that she thinks the man is a Communist.  Only Helen defends the spaceman, suggesting he is not a menace at all.

Mrs. Crockett, the landlady, enters the dining room and tells Helen that Tom Stevens is here to see her. She goes into the lobby, where they kiss romantically. Apparently, they were planning a picnic, but Helen says she hasn’t been able to find a babysitter for Bobby.  She tentatively suggests taking him with them, but we can see that Tom doesn’t like that idea.  Right then, we know we aren’t supposed to like him, not surprising since he is played by Hugh Marlowe.  Furthermore, he is an insurance salesman.  In real life, an insurance salesman might be a fine fellow, but when a scriptwriter decides to make one of the characters in a movie an insurance salesman, he wants the audience to have a negative feeling about him. Tom wants to marry Helen, but she isn’t sure.

In any event, Mr. Carpenter offers to take care of Bobby, so Bobby can show him around the city. Before Helen has a chance to think about that, Tom says, “Say, that’ll be great, wouldn’t it, Helen?” Helen is hesitant, but she finally agrees.  Bobby and Mr. Carpenter begin by going to Arlington National Cemetery, where Bobby’s father is buried.  Mr. Carpenter is deeply moved by the fact that all those men died in wars. He says that they don’t have wars where he comes from.  Then they go to the Lincoln Memorial, where he reads the Gettysburg Address, which was given during the Civil War. Again, Mr. Carpenter is deeply moved.  Referring to Lincoln, he says, “That’s the kind of man I’d like to talk to.”

I hate to get ahead of this story again, but since we all know what is coming, I guess it will be all right. The whole reason Klaatu is here on Earth is that earthlings fight wars.  Since they now have atomic weapons and are experimenting with rockets, this will make them a danger to the whole universe, once they move beyond Earth and venture on to other planets.  As a result, Earth may have to be incinerated, wiping everyone out, including Bobby, I might add.  In order for this to make sense, Klaatu should be showing disgust at the way earthlings not only fight wars all the time, but also honor those who died in those wars, thereby duping future young men to fight and die too.  That he should become sentimental about those who died in wars, and that he should admire a man who presided over a war, is incongruous, given the kind of death and destruction that he threatens to inflict on all of mankind on account of the wars they are always waging.

Since Lincoln is no longer available, Mr. Carpenter asks Bobby who the greatest man in America is today, meaning the greatest philosopher, the greatest thinker. Bobby says it’s Professor Barnhardt. They go to Barnhardt’s house, but he’s not home.  Mr. Carpenter and Bobby go inside anyway, where they see a blackboard full of equations, representing an effort to solve a problem in celestial mechanics. Mr. Carpenter writes on the blackboard, essentially solving it for Barnhardt, leaving his address with the Barnhardt’s secretary when she interrupts them.

Eventually, Barnhardt and Mr. Carpenter get together, the latter revealing himself as Klaatu.  He says that the warlike earthlings are beginning to be a threat to other planets, now that they have atomic energy and rockets.  Klaatu says that if he does not get the hearing he demands, he may have to resort to violence to get one, such as by destroying all of New York City.  If he gets a hearing and fails to get the results he demands, the entire planet Earth will have to be eliminated. In the meantime, he agrees to settle for a nonviolent demonstration of some sort.

That night, Bobby follows Mr. Carpenter to the flying saucer, where he sees him interacting with Gort and then entering the spaceship.  He tells his mother what he saw, and, you guessed it, she insists he was dreaming, one of the most irritating plot devices in the movies.  How refreshing it would have been to see her immediately pick up the phone and call the police.  Instead, we have to resign ourselves to suffering through this routine until Bobby is finally believed, and then only because Mr. Carpenter tells Helen that he is Klaatu.  He admits to what happened because he found out that Bobby saw him entering the flying saucer, and he was afraid Helen would believe Bobby and call the police.  It never occurred to Klaatu that Helen would dismiss what Bobby told her as being a dream because he is from another planet and has never been in an Earth movie before.

Right after he tells her this, the demonstration he promised Barnhardt begins, when all electric power throughout the entire world is turned off, including that of automobiles.  That’s impressive, all right. Even more impressive is the fact that this is done differentially, with exceptions being made for hospitals and airplanes in flight.  Problem is, if Klaatu, all by himself, has the ability to do this, he could shut off the electricity of any rocket ships trying to leave Earth. In that case, the other planets that Klaatu represents would have nothing to fear, and Earth would not need to be destroyed.  But Klaatu doesn’t think of that.

Anyway, Tom figures out that Mr. Carpenter is the spaceman.  That’s because Klaatu carries perfect diamonds around in his pocket like loose change, a couple of which he gave to Bobby, one of which Tom accidentally found.  He and Helen start arguing about it.  He wants to report this to the Pentagon, and she wants to protect Klaatu by keeping it a secret.

Tom says, “He’s a menace to the whole world.  It’s our duty to turn him in.” He’s right, of course. Klaatu casually spoke of murdering everyone in New York City just to make a point, that point being that he is willing to murder everyone on this planet, if we don’t do what he says.  By our standards, he is a psychopath, although on the planet he comes from, he may be perfectly normal.

But the movie doesn’t want us to think that way.  For some reason, we are supposed to think Klaatu is a good person, and that Helen is right to protect him. Therefore, the movie must make Tom out to be even more unlikable than he already is.  He continues:

You realize what this’d mean for us? I’d be the biggest man in the country. I could write my own ticket….   You’ll feel different when you see my picture in the papers…. You wait and see. You’re going to marry a big hero.

It might be one thing for him to think that way, but no matter how vainglorious a man might be in his heart, he would know not to say something like, “I want to be a hero.” Rather, what we would expect is that Tom would continue to say he is turning Klaatu in because it’s the right thing to do.  Later, when surrounded by reporters, who speak of him as a hero, he would say, “Oh, no.  I just did what anyone else would do in my situation.”

In any event, after he tells Helen that he doesn’t care about the world, that he only wants to be big and important, that marriage is off.

Of course, in another sense, Tom was wrong about informing the Pentagon, as a practical matter. Even if Klaatu were to be arrested or killed, Earth would be destroyed anyway. Klaatu says that is exactly what would happen, that Gort would destroy the whole planet if anything happened to him.  Gort may end up doing that eventually, but right now it would be premature.  To prevent Gort from so doing, he tells Helen that if anything happens to him, she must go to Gort and say the words, “Klaatu barada nikto.”

Later, when Klaatu is shot down in the street by soldiers, he tells her to get that message to Gort right before he dies. Meanwhile, Gort has been sealed in a rectangular prism of plastic, which is harder than steel.  Nevertheless, he simply vaporizes it and frees himself.  A couple of soldiers approach. This time, Gort doesn’t simply vaporize their rifles. He vaporizes the soldiers too.

Then Helen shows up.  Gort is about to do the same to her, but she utters the all-important words, “Klaatu barada nikto.”  There must be a lot of meaning in those words because Gort picks up Helen and brings her inside the flying saucer.  Then he goes to the cell where the body of Klaatu has been locked up, vaporizes the wall, and brings Klaatu’s body back to the flying saucer.

When Gort brings Klaatu back to life, Helen asks, “You mean he has the power of life and death?”

Klaatu responds, “No, that power is reserved for the Almighty Spirit.”  This is the only explicit reference to God in this movie, although his use of the name “Carpenter” is intended to make us identify him with Jesus, as does his resurrection.

All the scientists that Klaatu wanted to speak to have convened around the flying saucer.  Klaatu emerges and gives a short speech.

Essentially, he says that the other planets in the universe have created a race of robots to act as policemen.  Their job is to enforce the peace. They have absolute power over those who live on those planets, and their power cannot be revoked. If the people on Earth try to extend their violent ways beyond their own planet, the entire planet will be burnt to a cinder.  Having given this ultimatum, he gets in his flying saucer and flies away.

Earlier, I noted that the political orientation of this movie is on the left, given its positive attitude toward scientists.  Furthermore, regarding those scientists now surrounding the flying saucer, we see they consist of men and women of all races and from all parts of world, suggesting an equality of the sexes and the races, which also puts this movie on the left.  In the original script, Klaatu compared the organization of the planets of which he speaks to “A sort of United Nations on the planetary level.”  Even without that line in the movie, the similarity between the organization of the planets and our United Nations is obvious. This further marks the movie as being on the left, given that liberals tend to have a more favorable attitude toward the United Nations than conservatives do.

As opposed to this, I would have expected conservative viewers of this movie to react with revulsion at the thought of having to submit to Klaatu and his robot.  I should think they would regard the loss of sovereignty of planet Earth to some interplanetary government, which in turn has given up its sovereignty to a race of robots, not as a positive thing, but as a cautionary tale as to what could happen to American sovereignty if the elitists and globalists are allowed to have their way.  Moreover, I should have thought that those on right would have been appalled at the way we are supposed to admire Klaatu and appreciate what he is doing for the people on Earth, while threatening them all with death if they don’t behave.  Finally, given the intensity with which conservatives embrace their Christian faith, I should have thought they would regard the suggestion that Klaatu was Christlike as blasphemous.

And yet, I have found none of this.  With professional critics, it is sometimes difficult to tell whether they are liberals or conservatives, but that doesn’t seem to matter.  Whatever their political orientation might be, they all seem to approve of the way Klaatu bestowed upon mankind the blessing of peace on Earth.  As for those I have known personally, their response has invariably been the same, even though I have lived in Texas most of my life and am surrounded by Republicans.  It strikes me as paradoxical that, though I am a Democrat, yet my reaction to this movie is further to the right than it is for those who actually belong there.