the day the earth stood still

“Does that mean I have to be a bigger, badder bad-ass than the source of all badness?”--Willow, “Beneath You,” Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The other day, I corrected a great omission in my science fiction literacy: I watched the classic 1951 allegory of the atomic age, The Day the Earth Stood Still (director, Robert Wise). The film tells of a humanoid alien Klaatu (Michael Rennie) who comes to Earth--in an honest-to-goodness flying saucer--to warn the human race that if they insist on spreading their destructive proclivities into space, they will be destroyed by a league of space nations dedicated to peace. The metaphor is clear: if you pursue atomic warfare, it will destroy you. If you haven’t seen this movie, see it. Its 1950s sci-fi-ness notwithstanding, it’s worth your time on several counts.