Messenger From The Stars

Long before we were entertained by films dealing with adorable little aliens (E.T.), magnificent Motherships flying over Devil's Tower, Wyoming (Close Encounters) and mysterious black monoliths on the surface of the moon (2001: A Space Odyssey) we had already received messages and messengers from the stars.

One of the greatest sci-fi/message films within this genre is the '51 classic, 'The Day the Earth Stood Still.' Even now, some 55 years since its theatrical release it delivers a timely, almost prophetic message to the world that is more important today than ever. We are not alone in the universe and what we do affects more than just this one little planet. Whether you interpret the films message spiritually or environmentally, what is ultimately at stake is undeniable. Learn to live in peace, or perish.

He's not from around here

A strange thin handsome man comes into her life and makes friends with her young son. And, there's been a war and there are no men. She watches him. He is kind and soft-spoken and neatly groomed. But, he is so different. He is there and he is not there. And, there are no men. So she takes an interest in him and allows him to touch her secret cold heart. He can stop the earth. He can come back from the dead. He's not from around here. He has to go back home. And, there's been a war and there are no men. There are never enough men.

Essential science-fiction cinema

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL is an eminently watchable flick in its own right and one of the essential science-fiction movies of the 1950s -- along with THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD, FORBIDDEN PLANET, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, and THEM! There are others we love (I myself have a great and abiding fondness for I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE, and some folks swear by WAR OF THE WORLDS), but these five, though they did not exhaust the genre (as Hollywood understood the genre), certainly defined it during their decade and well into the 1960s, until 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.