A brief history lesson before I begin. In the 1950s and 1960s, following the development of the atomic bomb, folks were a tad bit nervous. Atomic bombs are scary things, after all. Boys and their toys, especially powerful boys with powerful toys, tend to make the rest of us a wee bit frightened. Folks had nuclear fallout shelters. (Watch Grease 2 for an example of one good use for such things.) School children were taught to hide under their desks in the event of a nuclear attack, because elementary school desks were apparently made of some kind of nuclear protection device.

As is often the case, science fiction writers saw an opportunity to point out the futility of such weapons by telling the big boys what fools they were being for developing such destructive toys. One movie from 1951 that did just that, and has since become a sci-fi classic, was The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Here's the trailer for those of you who are unfamiliar. … continue reading