Some of the main themes in The Day the Earth Stood Still include militaristic ideas and peaceful democracy. At the conclusion of the film I felt that it was mostly about a "utopia with a catch". I felt that w
ay because the alien race had apparently achieved some sort of utopia where peace reigned, always. However, at the same time they were under the control of these "police-like robots" that would deal justice wherever necessary. It seemed to me that those people were living in fear, fear of their police.
I also saw another message: perhaps their peace was genuine peace. Perhaps I, or we, was [were] looking at it too cynically. This was apparent to me when I saw the machine Gort had put Mr. Carpenter into. It gave him life back, after he had died. This teaches the
audience that if you use peace creatively for "advancement", it can be used to create great machines that can even give life to the dead. True: he knew he was going to die, but not yet.
A question that had stuck in my mind after the discussion was: do we as humans need to have a certain amount of chaos, or not have peace? At the time the film was released, in the 50's, it was evident later that American life was really....boring. You could see that in the way little Bobby lived his life. He always was a good little boy and his mom never had any trouble with him at all (at least until the UFO came) and family life was just perfect. The most excitement he ever got was pulling out his train set when he should be sleeping! He's really a rebel! The truth is that everything was becoming too uniform in American society at the time. Yes, there was the whole cold war thing but as for here in the states, something closer to home, there was no real excitement and culture seemed to be at an all-time low.
ay because the alien race had apparently achieved some sort of utopia where peace reigned, always. However, at the same time they were under the control of these "police-like robots" that would deal justice wherever necessary. It seemed to me that those people were living in fear, fear of their police.I also saw another message: perhaps their peace was genuine peace. Perhaps I, or we, was [were] looking at it too cynically. This was apparent to me when I saw the machine Gort had put Mr. Carpenter into. It gave him life back, after he had died. This teaches the
audience that if you use peace creatively for "advancement", it can be used to create great machines that can even give life to the dead. True: he knew he was going to die, but not yet.A question that had stuck in my mind after the discussion was: do we as humans need to have a certain amount of chaos, or not have peace? At the time the film was released, in the 50's, it was evident later that American life was really....boring. You could see that in the way little Bobby lived his life. He always was a good little boy and his mom never had any trouble with him at all (at least until the UFO came) and family life was just perfect. The most excitement he ever got was pulling out his train set when he should be sleeping! He's really a rebel! The truth is that everything was becoming too uniform in American society at the time. Yes, there was the whole cold war thing but as for here in the states, something closer to home, there was no real excitement and culture seemed to be at an all-time low.
Little Bobby's generation would later find excitement in music and drugs in the coming decades, as the hippie generation rose and eventually grunge in the 90's. Is this rise and fall in culture necessary for it to survive and not become too dull? Maybe the people in control think all is fine and swell but, sooner or later the people inside get bored
I don't think that the aliens were living a utopia or dystopia. I think they were pretty much in the same position that we were in during the cold war and now. Everyone's afraid of their own destruction from the robots if they used nuclear weapons so no one used them and resorted to diplomatic ways of finding compromises. The fact that everyone has atomic bombs replaces the robots as in we'll get destroyed if we use them, and that makes the world a safer place. Mutually assured destruction kept the world mostly at peace during the cold war. The aliens were not in much of a better position that we are now, just with better technology.
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