The black-and-white 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still is now a cult movie, and its fans all know a key bit of dialogue. In the film the alien Klaatu (Michael Rennie) arrives on our planet with a stern message: “You Earthlings better stop this nuclear weapons stuff” (Not his words, of course). That’s not the key bit of dialogue, but I’ll get to that shortly. As often happens in such movies, we Earthlings shoot the alien. Trouble is, this one has landed with a giant, powerful, and protective robot named Gort.
Before he is shot, Klaatu tells Helen Benson (Patricia Neal) that if anything happens to him, she must tell Gort: Klaatu barada nikto. Why? As Klaatu explains, Gort is capable of destroying Earth. That wouldn’t be good. Because Helen gives the message to Gort, it refrains from destroying Earth and revives Klaatu, literally bringing him back from the dead. The movie ends with Klaatu and Gort ascending to the heavens in their spaceship.
Nothing changed. That is, nothing changed in real life. We built more, not fewer, atomic weapons in the 1950s, going from 299 the year the film was made to more than 18,000 by the end of that decade. Apparently, not even the threat of a destroyed planet keeps us from doing whatever we want to do.
Right! It was just a movie. No Gort has come to threaten us from afar. But the film has a message about reality: If we keep playing with matches, we are going to burn something, possibly ourselves.
Almost every alien Gort turns out to be an empty threat. And that’s the way it is with almost all threats over human vices. Oh! Yes. We are afraid when Gort’s threat seems immediate. But when the robot leaves, the threat leaves. Was there ever a time when humans heeded warnings of dire consequences for their actions? Look at history, and look around now. I don’t know where you live, but in a large city near me there appears to be a murder just about every day. Drug arrests, too. Gang wars and family wars. Abuse and indignity. Where’s an objective Gort to stand over us when we need him? If he could only threaten us with a power capable of stopping everything we do that poses or actuates harm, maybe we would come to our collective senses and stop our destructive behavior.
Alas! Gort always leaves us to our own doings. Klaatu and Gort can’t save a world that doesn’t want to be saved. Buddha tried. So did Jesus. Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr., also. Many unknown others. Still, here we are, a world of countries making weapons of terrible destructive power and a species that harms itself, one by one, neighborhood by neighborhood, all working on extinction.
Even if a Christlike Klaatu arrives to warn us, most likely we’ll shoot him. And even though he rises from the dead and ascends to the heavens with important parting words, we probably won’t pay much attention. Maybe the only way we’ll change personally and collectively is by threat. Apparently, a Klaatu can’t accomplish much by sending a Helen with a message that will prevent a Gort from destroying. Barada nikto appears only to postpone the inevitable as history seems to verify; we are our own Gorts unleashed upon ourselves. In wars we ironically seek peace by destroying.
Nevertheless, it might be wise for us just to consider the parting words of Klaatu in the cult B-movie, “Your choice is simple: Join us and live in peace or pursue your present course and face obliteration.” After millennia of Cains v Abels and wars, is there any indication that humankind will listen to those who advocate peace? If human history is our guide, then in every generation there will be some who inevitably choose self-obliteration.
Before he is shot, Klaatu tells Helen Benson (Patricia Neal) that if anything happens to him, she must tell Gort: Klaatu barada nikto. Why? As Klaatu explains, Gort is capable of destroying Earth. That wouldn’t be good. Because Helen gives the message to Gort, it refrains from destroying Earth and revives Klaatu, literally bringing him back from the dead. The movie ends with Klaatu and Gort ascending to the heavens in their spaceship.
Nothing changed. That is, nothing changed in real life. We built more, not fewer, atomic weapons in the 1950s, going from 299 the year the film was made to more than 18,000 by the end of that decade. Apparently, not even the threat of a destroyed planet keeps us from doing whatever we want to do.
Right! It was just a movie. No Gort has come to threaten us from afar. But the film has a message about reality: If we keep playing with matches, we are going to burn something, possibly ourselves.
Almost every alien Gort turns out to be an empty threat. And that’s the way it is with almost all threats over human vices. Oh! Yes. We are afraid when Gort’s threat seems immediate. But when the robot leaves, the threat leaves. Was there ever a time when humans heeded warnings of dire consequences for their actions? Look at history, and look around now. I don’t know where you live, but in a large city near me there appears to be a murder just about every day. Drug arrests, too. Gang wars and family wars. Abuse and indignity. Where’s an objective Gort to stand over us when we need him? If he could only threaten us with a power capable of stopping everything we do that poses or actuates harm, maybe we would come to our collective senses and stop our destructive behavior.
Alas! Gort always leaves us to our own doings. Klaatu and Gort can’t save a world that doesn’t want to be saved. Buddha tried. So did Jesus. Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr., also. Many unknown others. Still, here we are, a world of countries making weapons of terrible destructive power and a species that harms itself, one by one, neighborhood by neighborhood, all working on extinction.
Even if a Christlike Klaatu arrives to warn us, most likely we’ll shoot him. And even though he rises from the dead and ascends to the heavens with important parting words, we probably won’t pay much attention. Maybe the only way we’ll change personally and collectively is by threat. Apparently, a Klaatu can’t accomplish much by sending a Helen with a message that will prevent a Gort from destroying. Barada nikto appears only to postpone the inevitable as history seems to verify; we are our own Gorts unleashed upon ourselves. In wars we ironically seek peace by destroying.
Nevertheless, it might be wise for us just to consider the parting words of Klaatu in the cult B-movie, “Your choice is simple: Join us and live in peace or pursue your present course and face obliteration.” After millennia of Cains v Abels and wars, is there any indication that humankind will listen to those who advocate peace? If human history is our guide, then in every generation there will be some who inevitably choose self-obliteration.
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