But I have just about lost faith in Hollywood to produce anything that has socio-political undertones in a way that transcends thier one sided and myopic worldview.
One great thing about the original TDTESS is that it's arguable that Klattu is not exactly a hero.
He is part of an advanced alien race that has studied Earth and knows that they are in a period of high tension.
He lands in the middle of a public place and goes out of his way to be alarming by coming out in a spacesuit that covers his face so you can't even see that he is similar to humans until he activates something that could be a weapon and gets shot at. It always seems to me that Klatuu was trying to inspire a hostile response. Either he was incompetant or making sure he had an excuse to put the hammer down on the people of Earth.
Then he smugly demands that all the world leaders meet with him when he knows darn well (if he has studdied the socio political landscape as he has said he did) that it is about 2% likely to happen.
His final message, far from being a message of peace and wisdom seems more like a threat.
It's almost as if Robert Wise was telling us, we'd better get our socio-political act together or some other more powerful alien society will impose thier own repulsive dictums upon us.
Klattu boasts of his society being non-violent but only because they are under the control of a whole bunch of Gorts. Apparently Klatuu views this as all societies should be.
Finally, when he has the ability to stop all electrical power, that would render us harmless without turning us to a cinder. Klatuu could do so to protect us from the Gorts (and ourselves).
I have a feeling all these nuances will be lost in the new version but will make up for it with CGI
Leave a comment: