When a UFO lands in Washington, D.C., bearing a message for Earth's leaders, all of humanity stands still. Klaatu (Michael Rennie) has come on behalf of alien life who have been watching Cold War-era nuclear proliferation on Earth. But it is Klaatu's soft-spoken robot Gort that presents a more immediate threat to onlookers. A single mother (Patricia Neal) and her son teach the world about peace and tolerance in this moral fable, ousting the tanks and soldiers that greet the alien's arrival. Fear of outsiders, whether aliens, people from other countries, or people of other ethnicities, is a powerful theme that lends itself well to science fiction. The Day the Earth Stood Still was released in 1951, the peak of the Cold War, when America was gripped by fear of nuclear war and Communist invasion. (The Day the Earth Stood Still/ Screenplay- Edmund H North)
A Pandemic has emerged on Earth. Mysterious in origin, dozens of rumors as to its origin, but a mystifying invisible array of bacteria and mangled viral creatures with hooks and claws, floating through the air via, a sneeze, a cough, spittle and finding footing in the oxygen we both inhale and exhale. The Earth has stood still, we call this stillness, quarantine! At least for the moment, most of the Earth’s nations, bold enough to admit that this alien organism has arrived seem concerned. An invasion, nothing a large as a space ship, or a giant robot towering above all mankind, but a smaller version, with as much power as its larger warrior, but even in its invisible diminutive stature is still a menacing presence. The people of Earth, in the movie the Day the Earth Stood Still, at first, feared the monster, but were assured the government, their particular government would have enough weaponry to fight the enemy. And acting as self-serving agents, using their own armies, it was to no avail in defeating this enemy. Bring all the guns you want, yell and scream all you wish, insist that we ARE the superior race…insist your God will vanquish this FORCE, even deny that the threat to destroy all of mankind, did not include, your own personal well-being. And then, of course, begin to use irrational thinking and blame the other bad players on Earth for this invasion.
CORONAVIRUS has landed. A moment of despair for all the population of the world in which we live, and yet there are those among us, who refuse to accept that ALL of us, have lots to lose and that ALL of us, fighting this alien invasion, not as a unified force but as independent soldiers, have nothing to gain! Republicans blaming Democrats, Geographic Areas of this nation decided that the “lifestyle or culture choices” are to blame for outbreaks, and hot spots, Politics replacing Medicine and Science, Profits over People…and worst of all an odd an almost unbelievable sense that it is okay to sacrifice some non-essential Earthlings to appease this monster, so the rest of us can remain in a dreamlike fantasy, assured that will assist that all the bad will go away. The Day the Earth Stood Still, at least in the movie after a brief demonstration of the frailties of mankind, the absurd machinations of acting like wild animals passed, added to the selfishness and narcissistic psychosis of insecure individuals failed, WE ALL realized WE ALL, had to face this challenge TOGETHER. GORT the Robot is not standing at the ready to annihilate us if we act like the stupid, but COVID-19 has been challenging us to respond with one voice, and so far none of us has decided that speaking in unison is the answer. “Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself”: FDR's First Inaugural Address. Well, there is plenty to fear, but it not only comes in the form of Novel Virus, but from the emptiness of those who prefer to point fingers outward, instead of placing those fingers to their own bodies, and saying WE ALL must act as one!
