Today’s title is wrong! Lot’s of newsworthy things have happened and will happen today!
However the UK MSM appear to be locked into endless repetitions of what has become known as the Partygate saga!
You know, looking at the background image above one must admire the sheer dedication of one’s local “Trot”! They turn up in all weathers to public meetings and organise a demo at the drop of a red hat!
It was therefore no surprise to see them outside Fortress Downing Street.
Indeed, I think that if they did not turn up the local police would get concerned thinking that something was wrong!
In lieu of covering the latest “Who thinks what about Boris’s chances….” OR the travails of the Duke of York, the BG presents a film review!!!
And why not???
The Day the Earth Stood Still was a 1951 American science fiction film from 20th Century Fox, produced by Julian Blaustein and directed by Robert Wise. The film stars Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Frank Conroy, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Billy Gray, Frances Bavier and Lock Martin who famously played the robot “Gort”.
Set in the Cold War during the early stages of the nuclear arms race, the film’s storyline involves a humanoid alien visitor who comes to Earth, accompanied by a powerful robot, to deliver an important message that will affect the entire human race. In 1995, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry (USNFR) as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
The BG agrees with the UNSFR’s decision. It is an important film. This because as with most Sci-Fi movies, it is more a commentary on the mores, happenings, politics and values of the human beings living at the time the movie was made than any future imaginary world or society.
The film contained key elements that were probably overlooked by the audiences at the time the movie was first screened in the cinemas and to a great extent are still overlooked by many.
Although the commentators tend to focus on the performances of the two stars, Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal playing the principal characters Klaatu and the war widow and single mother Helen Benson (who gets to speak the now iconic command in a fictional alien language, “Klaatu barada nikto….”), the actor who played the Mr Harley, the US Secretary of State has a role that is significantly undervalued by the movie critics.
You see, it is Frank Conroy’s performance as Mr Harley which is the key element in this suspenseful drama. This is because it is through the authority and actions of Mr Harley that Klaatu’s mission is thwarted.
Klaatu wanted to deliver his warning message to the human race represented through all the nations on the planet. Secretary Harley was very much opposed to this. Not that he came straight out with that to the alien visitor. Mr Harley played the perfect dutiful civil servant reporting upon the practical and procedural difficulties that attended Klaatu’s request.
Of course, the movie assumes that Mr Harley had the approval and backing of the named US President to pursue the course of action he pursued.
Had they had been willing to accede to Klaatu’s request the simplest and most obvious way to achieve what Klaatu wanted to achieve was to contact the Secretary General of the United Nations in New York and to arrange for Klaatu to address the General Assembly of the United Nations.
But this was NEVER going to happen in the movie and IF such a contact (by an alien visitor) has taken place had NOT happened.
This because the governments of the nations of this world are only too aware as to the momentous effects the confirmation of the existence of a highly advanced ETC will have upon the citizenry. In addition, the governments of the world will seek to control the situation in terms of how the events unfold on Earth.
Governments will want to manage technology transfer and the communication of scientific knowledge. They will not want to loose control of their own populations. Most of all they will want no transfer of military technologies to any other power other than themselves.
The movie also contained some deliberate errors that the producers saw fit to allow. One of the most glaring is how far through outer space Klaatu had travelled. So you see when Klaatu spoke the words “two hundred and fifty million of your miles” he was talking of a distance of 0.000425269487558 of a light year.
This is well within this solar system. That is to say our solar system orbiting our star, the Sun.
For instance the outermost marker or boundary of the solar system is the Oort cloud (sometimes called the Öpik–Oort cloud) first described in 1950 by the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, is a theoretical concept of a cloud of predominantly icy planetesimals proposed to surround the Sun at distances ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 AU (0.03 to 3.2 light-years).
So let us get our heads around some of the astronomical distances involved.
One Light Year equals 5,878,625,373,183.6 Miles.
That is to say; five trillion, eight hundred and seventy eight billion, six hundred and twenty five million, three hundred and seventy three thousand, one hundred and eighty three point six miles!
A VERY long way!
One Light Month equals 482,843,973,156.764 miles.
One Light Week equals 112,700,000,000 miles.
One Light Day equals 16,090,000,000 miles.
One Light Hour equals 670,600,000 miles.
One Light Minute equals 11,180,000 miles.
One Light Second equals 186,300 miles.
Which means that 250,000,000 miles equals 22.3613595707 Light Minutes or 22 Light Minutes and 21.681574242 Light Seconds.
So had Klaatu said the words “two hundred and fifty trillion of your miles” he would have been talking of a distance of 42.5269487558 Light Years.
There are in fact quite a a number of stars around this distance from Earth:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_systems_within_40%E2%80%9345_light-years
There was a logic to Klaatu using the human distance of a mile when speaking to the US Secretary of State, called Mr Harley in the movie. Herewith a memorable excerpt:
Mr. Harley : Your impatience is quite understandable.
Klaatu : I’m impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it.
Mr. Harley : I’m afraid my people haven’t. I’m very sorry… I wish it were otherwise.
The actor who played Frank Conroy was born on 14th October, 1890 in Derbyshire and died aged 24th February 1964. He was therefore a contemporary of the man who was the US Secretary of State at the time the movie was made. This was Dean Acheson (11th April, 1893 – 12th October, 1971) he had been trained and worked as a lawyer before entering politics.
You see, the term light year would be hard to grasp to the average lawyer in 1951 whereas the lawyer would have known how far a mile was.
Of course, there are those who suggest that Klaatu would have come from “Counter-Earth” the fabled planet on the opposite side of the Sun. The problem with this is that Klaatu makes mention of a community of worlds, thus putting the mockers on the suggestion. In any event the Counter-Earth is impossible. Herewith an informative and entertaining YouTube video explaining why:
I heartily recommend you have a look at this film. There is in fact a version on BluRay.
GOTO: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Day-Earth-Stood-Still-Blu-ray/dp/B001GPTCDE/ref=asc_df_B001GPTCDE