I was hoping this was some early space exploration film, it starts off fairly interesting with alleged messages from Mars, coupled with images of the unexplained loss of the Martian polar ice caps. That got me interested in it almost right away. But then at the moment that Peter Graves "wife", Andrea King, starts whining, I knew something funny was up- moments after her first outburst, this film immediately degrades into anti-communism baloney and malarkey, McCarthyism all wrapped up in stupid pseudoscientific dialogue, with semi inaccurate jargon thrown in designed to make people believe that what they were talking about was actual science, when in fact it was equivalent to what creationists try to cram down peoples throats these days. On a side note, I appreciated the idea of Creationism when Dr Walter Martin spearheaded the field, but without him, its proponents have removed every facet of real science from their "theories".
Apparently this film started off as some play, that might have gotten enough attention from a producer in Hollywood to turn it into a movie. Whoever decided to make this into a movie thought it might be a good vehicle to cram their fear propaganda down the throats of forward thinking people, the same kind of people who would go to science fiction movies who became progressive idealists and futurists like Gene Roddenberry, I imagine he rejected this film instantly, but that's exactly the target that this film was designed to put hooks into. Ironically, Peter Graves was clever enough to depict his irritation with this kind of thinking in a couple of scenes. I was born at the end of the red scare era, even after McCarthy was discredited and censured, there were still people who continued to believe the propaganda, years later. It was bad enough that I had to grow up with it. It's bad enough that this kind of thinking has magically reappeared and the word "commie" is being tossed around as an insult now to people of intelligence. This movie is a direct kick in the groin to anybody who loves science.
As a science-fiction film, I should have heard about this movie because I am a fan of all of the classics from the 50s there were some great films in the 50s, especially the day the earth stood still which is the polar opposite message of this film, and forbidden planet which is another film that gives us a message completely the opposite of this pile of crud.
As much as I love old movies like this, even some that have these kinds of negative messages, I just couldn't stomach the anti-intelligence, the stupidity of this film it. It was too much for me to take so I stopped watching about halfway through.
But that doesn't mean that this film is not important this film is actually something that we can look back upon to show the backward thinking of that era, this movie teaches us a lesson, don't use science to push backwards thinking agendas, use science for improvement.
Peter Graves character had that idea all along, but his wife was just too much to bear. We cannot be ruled by fear any longer.
Apparently this film started off as some play, that might have gotten enough attention from a producer in Hollywood to turn it into a movie. Whoever decided to make this into a movie thought it might be a good vehicle to cram their fear propaganda down the throats of forward thinking people, the same kind of people who would go to science fiction movies who became progressive idealists and futurists like Gene Roddenberry, I imagine he rejected this film instantly, but that's exactly the target that this film was designed to put hooks into. Ironically, Peter Graves was clever enough to depict his irritation with this kind of thinking in a couple of scenes. I was born at the end of the red scare era, even after McCarthy was discredited and censured, there were still people who continued to believe the propaganda, years later. It was bad enough that I had to grow up with it. It's bad enough that this kind of thinking has magically reappeared and the word "commie" is being tossed around as an insult now to people of intelligence. This movie is a direct kick in the groin to anybody who loves science.
As a science-fiction film, I should have heard about this movie because I am a fan of all of the classics from the 50s there were some great films in the 50s, especially the day the earth stood still which is the polar opposite message of this film, and forbidden planet which is another film that gives us a message completely the opposite of this pile of crud.
As much as I love old movies like this, even some that have these kinds of negative messages, I just couldn't stomach the anti-intelligence, the stupidity of this film it. It was too much for me to take so I stopped watching about halfway through.
But that doesn't mean that this film is not important this film is actually something that we can look back upon to show the backward thinking of that era, this movie teaches us a lesson, don't use science to push backwards thinking agendas, use science for improvement.
Peter Graves character had that idea all along, but his wife was just too much to bear. We cannot be ruled by fear any longer.