The Day the Earth Stood Still
Faced with the potentially world-destroying consequences of humanity’s development of nuclear weaponry, a Christ-like representative of a higher authority imposes a Golem-like solution, consisting not in turning the other cheek but in submission to an omnipotent automated system (“the test of any such higher authority is, of course, the police force that supports it”, which in this case is computerised and robotic). Fatally suffers from a rudimentary screenplay that fails to come to grips with the premise and shows on multiple levels that Hollywood had yet to learn how to think in terms of vast differences of scale. Still, at least it acknowledges the existence of a problem, not just concerning the dangers of the absolute pharmakon (as Derrida called it), but also concerning that other earth-shattering pharmakon emerging at that time – television.
In relation to the almost childlike screenplay, which is nevertheless also trying to aim at adults (Peary, 1987, p. 113, describes it as “an extremely well-directed and -acted adult film”), it so happened that, on the very same day I watched this movie, I also by chance re-read the following quotation from Adorno’s “Culture Industry Reconsidered” (written in 1963):
”It is no coincidence that cynical American film producers are heard to say that their pictures must take into consideration the level of eleven-year-olds. In doing so they would very much like to make adults into eleven-year-olds.” (Adorno, 1991, p. 91.)
With this in mind, and with all due respect to its “adult” theme, “classic” status and “liberal” intention (“perhaps the only ‘liberal’ science fiction film of the decade”, a decade in which “World War II left a culture full of anxiety, […] the atomic bombs that ended the war provoked a fear of science’s unknown dangers, and [where] the birth of anticommunism added the final fear to the mix” – Kolker, 2016, p. 244), Wise’s film can quite easily be understood as a prime early example of the tendency described here by Adorno, the ultimate accomplishment of which would really begin twenty-five years after the release of this film with the increasing reign, if not hegemony, of the science fiction (and then superhero) blockbuster.
In relation to the almost childlike screenplay, which is nevertheless also trying to aim at adults (Peary, 1987, p. 113, describes it as “an extremely well-directed and -acted adult film”), it so happened that, on the very same day I watched this movie, I also by chance re-read the following quotation from Adorno’s “Culture Industry Reconsidered” (written in 1963):
”It is no coincidence that cynical American film producers are heard to say that their pictures must take into consideration the level of eleven-year-olds. In doing so they would very much like to make adults into eleven-year-olds.” (Adorno, 1991, p. 91.)
With this in mind, and with all due respect to its “adult” theme, “classic” status and “liberal” intention (“perhaps the only ‘liberal’ science fiction film of the decade”, a decade in which “World War II left a culture full of anxiety, […] the atomic bombs that ended the war provoked a fear of science’s unknown dangers, and [where] the birth of anticommunism added the final fear to the mix” – Kolker, 2016, p. 244), Wise’s film can quite easily be understood as a prime early example of the tendency described here by Adorno, the ultimate accomplishment of which would really begin twenty-five years after the release of this film with the increasing reign, if not hegemony, of the science fiction (and then superhero) blockbuster.
Mini Review: Faced with the potentially world-destroying consequences of humanity’s development of nuclear weapons, a representative of a higher authority imposes a solution consisting not in turning the other cheek but in submission to an omnipotent automated system. Fatally suffers from a rudimentary screenplay that fails to come to grips with the premise and shows on multiple levels that Hollywood had yet to learn how to think in terms of vast differences of scale. At least acknowledges there's a problem.
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