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On
"The Day The Earth Stood Still!"
"The universe is getting smaller day
by day. It is not possible to tolerate
or to permit any kind of attack, dispute,
war threat and danger in any corner of
the Earth from any group. Security must
be for the whole of the Earth and for
everybody; otherwise nobody and nowhere
can be safe. The atomic energy is a big
danger not only for the peace and security
of the Earth but also for the neighbor
planets and the entire universe..."
Klatu, the Alien protagonist of the film
titled The Day The Earth Stood Still,
addresses the most developed, most distinctive
brains of the world when he gives his
speech in Washington DC, the capital of
USA: "If you keep on killing each
other in wars and threaten the peace on
Earth by using atomic energy (in our day
the nuclear weapons), this is a direct
threat for us too. For this reason, in
any attempt of yours threatening us and
the universe, you should have no doubt
that we are able to destroy the entire
Earth and humanity in one instant."
This film, which was directed by Robert
Wise, won a Golden Globe award in 1951.
The main theme is taken from a story of
Harry Bates. Michael Rennie played Klatu.
It is obvious that the character Prof. Bernard in the film represents
Prof. Einstein. Because Einstein's famous
saying, "When peace is endangered
in any corner of the world, peace in the
entire Earth is under danger," is
the same with the essence of Klatu's message
he gave to the Earth.
Even when watching this film more than a half century after it
was made, it still makes one think that
the film includes some scientific facts
and events beyond being a mere science-fiction
production. We still read every day that
one more theory of Einstein has been proved.
At the same time, the rapid advances in
science and technology regarding other
planets and space can be counted as an
indication to this.
For the ones who saw this film, this article might serve as a reminder.
For those who do not know about The
Day the Earth Stood Still, they should note the
film in their minds with reference to
the year it was made. Because from the
space, only peace will come; and of course
it will be so only if we do not threaten
the neighbor planets and the entire universe
as well as our own Earth.
I certainly am impressed by the film very much. But beyond that,
if such a film is made in those years,
my mind will almost explode in thinking
that how humanity has remained so indifferent
to wars and nuclear threats that still
threaten the Earth more than ever and
the neighboring planets, today!
* * * * *
A Rapidly Moving Object in the Sky!
When these thoughts didn't leave me alone,
I wanted to share with you the story of
this film. An object is approaching from
the sky toward the Earth in a speed that's
never seen until that day!
USA being on the lead, all the military forces of the world from
west to east are on the alarm, watching
this object rapidly approaching the Earth...
On all radio and TV channels, there are
live broadcasts regarding this object
and the General Secretary of USA, with
his felt hat on him, is conveying the
advances minute by minute on TV.
The entire Earth is almost breathless...
This object, in the form of a huge disc, lands on the area where
the Washington Monument is in Washington
D.C.
Curiosity, tension and panic are at the highest level throughout
the government, military, and public.
At that moment, those who are at the park, picnickers, those in
traffic and those who watch it from a
distance gather to the area where the
huge disc, in other words the UFO, lands
on. At the same time, all Pentagon officers,
with their tanks and armaments, take their
places around the disc in full equipment,
and form a cortege.
Military forces, journalists, TV crews
and public are waiting around the disc
in wonder and the USA General Secretary
is making live explanations on the TV.
The first movement what was waited for
happens after two hours and is reflected
on the TV screens.
Greeting the Alien
From that disc, seeming as one piece,
first comes out a ladder to make the landing
easy. At the same time, while the disc
is opening like a slice from inside outward,
an alien in the guise of a human, a tall,
handsome man in a uniform made of plain,
soft, shiny fabric, like the ones we see
in Star Wars, approaches the military
cortege walking to the fore from the door
of the disc.
All the military forces are ready to shoot him; media members and
public are watching breathless, wondering
what will happen!
When the Alien approaches the cortege
closely and he is about to put his hand
in his uniform, all the guns are ready
to shoot. From his high necked, thin shirt,
he takes out something thin and tall with
metal sharp edges. He pushes on a button
on it and as soon as something like a
metal whirligig opens, the first bullet
is shot in his left arm and he collapses.
Right after that, a two meters tall robot, which moves like a block,
comes out of the disc. The Robot's body
and head look like steel. Its face is
concealed with three steel bands horizontally.
The Robot walks up to the ladder part
of the space ship and stands at the edge.
The steel band on its eye level opens
from the middle slowly. From within a
pitch dark block eye, sharp light waves
spread. These light waves target the long
ranged weapons in the soldiers' hands
and the tanks after that. The targeted
weapons and tanks melt like ice melting
in fire and they vanish instantly. The
Alien shows the metal whirligig which
has fallen and broken, and he says: "I
had brought this as a present to you."
At the same time, he turns his head back
and commands the robot named Gorth to
stop the light waves melting the weapons
and tanks.
Following this, the Alien is brought to
the hospital under military control. There
is an extensive surveillance on the Alien.
The General Secretary of the President
visits the Alien in the hospital. The
Alien explains to the General Secretary
that he has come to the Earth from 2.5
million miles away after a journey of
five months with a very important mission
and message, and his name is Klatu.
The General Secretary excitedly tells
him he was wondering from where and why
he had come.
Klatu says that the message he brought
is too important to tell one person or
one country representative. He warns:
"Your killing each other and continuing
wars is not our business, but you disintegrated
the atom and you are building nuclear
reactors. This not only threatens the
Earth but the neighbor planets and the
entire universe as well. We cannot allow
this to go on. If you do not stop this
and make peace, the entire Earth and humanity
will be destroyed in a very short time."
And he demands for all the world leaders
to be brought together so that he can
explain the mission and the message of
his coming to the Earth to all and at
the same time.
The Alien demands for all the country
leaders, members of the UN, to be called
for a meeting with this purpose. The General
Secretary is surprised at the Alien's
knowledge of the UN. He replies: "We
have been following you for a while; we
learned your language through the UN's
broadcastings." The General Secretary
says that the UN does not represent all
the world countries. (Let's remember that
the film was made a very short time after
the WWII and was shown in 1951.) Klatu
then suggests that all the world leaders
should be brought together. The General
Secretary leaves the room saying, "I
will convey your message to the President."
The next day, the General Secretary visits
Klatu again in his hospital room. The
President’s answer is negative.
Then Klatu demands to live among them
to understand the Earth and its habitants.
This demand of his is refused too.
When the General Secretary leaves the
room, the door is locked and steel barriers
are placed on his window. Klatu looks
at the measures taken to prevent his escape
and just smiles.
The Escape and Blending Among Humans
Klatu, after deciding to blend among people
and get to know them, escapes from the
hospital room. With the name Karpenter,
he finds a room in a house where three
generations live together. So, he can
monitor the interest and reaction of the
Earth people to his story on the radio
and TV. At the same time, he finds the
opportunity of understanding their daily
lives and routines closely.
At the house where he stayed, Bobby, a
9-10 year old boy who has lost his father
in the WWII, is the one who shows most
interest in him and becomes his best friend.
Klatu, still looks for the ways of conveying
the important message he brought to all
the world leaders.
Bobby tells that his mom is working as a secretary at an office
next to the house of Prof. Bernard, who
is one of the most important scientists
of the world. Klatu goes with Bobby to
visit Prof. Bernard in his house. He is
not home; the doors are locked, but through
the window of his study, Klatu sees a
formula on the blackboard that the professor
has been working on; he knows that he
won't be able to solve the equation. Then
he opens the door automatically while
Bobby watches him in astonishment. While
Klatu is solving the equation on the blackboard,
the professor's secretary enters in. Despite
the secretary's reaction and surprise,
he leaves the address where he stays stating
the professor will want to talk him.
When they return to the house, they find
an officer waiting for Klatu. Klatu is
taken to the professor's house after eleven
questionings. The professor has been trying
to reach him all afternoon because of
the equation he solved and the address
he left. The professor first asks Klatu
how he can be sure that this equation
will work. When Klatu says, "the
technology which has been advanced through
this equation has brought me from a distance
of 2.5 million miles; that's a proof,"
the professor tells the officer waiting
outside to tell the minister that he knows
this man and he lets the officer go.
While Klatu thanks for this first belief
in himself, the professor replies: "A
scientist can become a good scientist
not through belief but trying to satisfy
his curiosity," and so the trust
bridges are built between them. Klatu
repeats to Prof. Bernard his demand from
the General Secretary. The professor replies:
"What do you say to bring together
the greatest minds of the world not only
from the scientific field but from all
fields?" Klatu says that it is all
up to the professor. With the reason that
the scientists can be doubtful and biased,
Prof. Bernard asks him if he can create
an event before the meeting to make them
grasp the importance of the meeting and
make them perceive the power and dimension
of the danger. While asking this, he is
at the same time concerned. He says "something
dramatic but not destructive." Klatu replies: "Your people only understand from
what's destructive," and mentions that this is the most
difficult part. And he repeats to himself,
"something dramatic but not destructive;
I'll figure something out, don't worry."
That night, at the house where he stays, with a flashlight he gets
from Bobby, he goes near the UFO and sends
light signals to the Robot that he's there.
The Robot makes everyone around ineffective
and Klatu enters in the space ship, makes
the program for the next day and returns
the house.
* * * * *
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The next day, toward noon, while Klatu is visiting Bobby's mom
at her workplace, her boyfriend tells
her on the phone that he wants to go to
lunch with her immediately to talk about
the diamond he found in Klatu's room last
night. Bobby's mom is still in the astonishment
of Klatu's sudden visit. Klatu tells her
that he needs to talk with her about a
very important subject. When they walk
toward the elevator to go outside, since
there's a big crowd around the entry to
the elevator, they take the loading elevator.
After they enter the elevator, Klatu tells
Bobby's mother that he will tell all the
truth for her to believe him. While the
woman is still in awe, the elevator stops
suddenly. Klatu says it's 12:00 o'clock.
The woman looks at her watch; it's 12:00.
Klatu says: "We're in this elevator
for another half hour."
Not only that elevator has stopped in
Washington D.C. for half an hour, but
in all America and at every corner of
the world, every machine that worked by
electricity, all transportation, everything
that comes to mind, from washing machines
to cow milking machines, cars, motorcycles,
the bridges that opened but not closed,
everything has stopped working, were frozen
at 12:00.
At that moment, even for half an hour,
the entire world is frozen to show that
the danger is great when a wrong step
is taken. Only the airplanes and the hospitals
are left out of this scheme.
Washington and all governments of the
world and military forces are again on
the alarm.
All army forces are commanded to catch
Klatu either alive or dead as soon as
possible.
Yet, the only thing Klatu wants is to tell his message he brought
from 2.5 million miles away not only to
the USA leader but to all the world leaders.
This time, Klatu is ready for the meeting he planned for that night
with Prof. Bernard about what would happen
if the Earth does not collaborate. For
this purpose he asks for help from Bobby's
mother. Bobby's mother grasps the importance
of the message and the greatness of the
danger.
But, she suddenly realizes that her boyfriend
had found a diamond the previous night
in Klatu's room and he might have heard
Bobby telling her about Klatu's entering
the space ship. She says that it might
be dangerous for Klatu to go to the house.
The woman is not wrong about her intuition.
Her boyfriend has learned from the jewelers
to whom he showed the diamond that it
is a jewel never seen on Earth until that
day. The man is sure that Karpenter is
the space alien that Pentagon is looking
for.
With this realization, he calls the division manager responsible
of finding the Alien in Pentagon and just
then Bobby's mother enters in. The woman
tries to stop him, tells him that this
is very dangerous and if he denounces
Klatu, the entire Earth will be in danger.
The man says "I don't care about
the Earth." He only dreams about
the headlines that will take place on
the papers the next day and thinks that
this is a big opportunity for him. Bobby's
mother rapidly leaves there, gets a taxi
to gather Klatu from the house and make
him catch the meeting before he's captured.
When they leave the house with Klatu in
the same taxi, all military forces have
taken the city under siege. They come
to the house's door and the kids on the
street show them the direction the taxi
went.
* * * * *
The Bullet Rain on the Alien
In the midst of the big military action, the Alien and Bobby's
mother in the taxi, with no defense, proceed
to the place where the meeting will take
place and the UFO is.
Both of them are aware of the greatness
of the danger. Klatu tells her "if
something happens to me, take this message
to the Robot right away: KLATU, BRADA,
NIKTO. Or else, the Robot might destroy
the Earth."The woman repeats the
message to herself.
When Klatu gets off the cab, he collapses
being exposed to the bullets shooting
on him. While all the military forces
gather around him, Bobby's mother rapidly
leaves there, jumps on the subway to take
the message. The Robot is aware that something
is not right. It spreads lights in a rectangle.
It notices the woman has arrived and he
melts and destroys the security forces
around. The woman approaches the Robot
in fear and worry and finally gives it
the message from Klatu. Robot carries
her in its arms to the space ship.
Even though Klatu is dead, the Robot takes him from where he is
by demolishing the walls of the building
surrounded by security weapons and brings
him in the space ship. After a series
of ray treatments Klatu gets back to life.
* * * * *
The huge disc, or the space ship, is again
as one piece. Around it, there are chairs
aligned and Prof. Bernard and the most
distinguished minds of the world are gathered
there in the shock and wonder of the world's
being stopped for half an hour.
Prof. Bernard is commanded to cancel the
meeting by the military representative.
The professor tells him: "..but we
got the permission." The representative
replies "the Robot has disappeared;
all of you might be in danger." Under
this condition, the professor thinks he
has no choice but to cancel the meeting
and starts his sentence to tell them the
meeting is cancelled. Just then, the door
of the space ship starts to open again
like a slice. Klatu, the second time,
before everybody's amazed and breathless
state, walks toward the platform the speech
will take place. Bobby's mother and the
Robot follow him.
Finally the Message Conveyed to the Earth
Klatu tells that he is going to leave the Earth because of what
he witnessed there and asks to be excused
if his words are harsh. Finally he gives
his message to the most distinguished
minds of the world brought together by
Prof. Bernard.
"The universe is getting smaller day
by day. It is not possible to tolerate
or to permit any kind of attack, dispute,
war threat and danger in any corner of
the Earth from any group. Security must
be for the whole of the Earth and for
everybody; otherwise nobody and nowhere
can be safe. The atomic energy is a big
danger not only for the peace and security
of the Earth but also for the neighbor
planets and the entire universe. Our planet's
security is assured by the robots. Our
robots will not allow anything to endanger
our planet's peace and security. When
they see danger, they instantly destroy
it. We cannot do anything at that point.
With this reason, for everyone in our
planet, we built a system to make living
possible in peace, without fighting, war,
and killing. We came here to tell you
about this system. If the Earth continues
the attempts to endanger neighbor planets,
all the humanity and the Earth might be
destroyed in a very short time."
It is useful to bring this very serious
warning and message that was given 54
years ago through the film The Day
the Earth Stood Still, in a language that
will be understood by everyone: When
will the Earth stop its persistence on
keeping on its destructivity by making
wars, killing each other, and endangering
both hers and other planets' peace and
security?
Or, are all of the funds and natural sources
of the humanity are put to use to rapidly
break into pieces and destroy of the entire
Earth in the void of deepest side
of the space?
-- Translated from Turkish by Figen
BINGÜL
Note: Based on the film, The Day The
Earth Stood Still, another version
of this article was appeared on www.24haber.com.
B.Ü.
©Bircan Ünver, 30 August 2005,
New York
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