“They tend the injuries of my people as though they were just a scratch while saying, ‘Peace. Wholeness,’ when there is none” (Jeremiah 6.14).
Released in September 1951, The Day the Earth Stood Still, unlike others we’ve covered these past few months isn’t a “summer movie” since it was released after Labor Day. Of course, it’s also quite unlike so many movies in this or any list; because, it gives us a very different type of alien: one who isn’t interested in being our friend or our conqueror.
Directed by the great Robert Wise (who also helmed The Sound of Music along with other classics), The Day the Earth Stood Still tells the story of the alien Klaatu’s visit to Earth. who comes to Earth with a message: You need to grow up. We’re cool allowing you to destroy yourself, but if you take your violent ways to the stars…well, have you met Gort?
Gort, the seven-foot robot, is part of an interstellar police force. Their job is to cap the aggressive tendencies of spacefaring people. Live in peace, and you enjoy the fruits of an interplanetary alliance. Act violently or attempt to make war on any other world and the Gort-like force will destroy you.
The movie has some deliberate Christian allusions: Klaatu comes with a message of peace for all humanity, takes the identity of Carpenter while living amongst us, and is killed and brought back to life. And while I won’t begrudge the screenwriter for these additions to the script, but the distance between Klaatu and another carpenter who spoke of peace is about as wide as the stars.
Peace, as we talked about before here, is difficult. Achieving it on a world scale seems impossible when you contemplate that to have peace means we’ve learned to share resources, forgiven resentments that are decades if not centuries old, and begun to act as though the person across the table or the border is just as human as we are. In other words, Jesus’ idea that he could convince even one person, much less the world, that love, charity, and kindness were the Way was either genius or madness.
Imposition of peace from without, as the peoples represented by Klaatu have done, seems like the most long-lasting, effective means to a society that looks like Jesus’ vision. After all, what better than the threat of punishment or destruction to keep any of us in line. At least, for a while.
I wonder how long this alliance of worlds behind Klaatu lasted. Yes, they had found peace, but if aliens are anything like us, they would begin to chafe underneath their collars. And no matter how powerful or unbeatable the robot police, there’s always a way out from under what anyone perceives as an oppressive authority.
Which, I think, is why Jesus refused to impose his dream upon us. It’s why today he doesn’t just show up with angels and saints on white horses to set up Divine rule. Because, unlike Klaatu and his people, he understands that peace, true lasting peace must come from within us. It must grow from our hearts, be the thing we want more than food, air, or power.
And maybe he knew it was better that people look forward to your return than to fear it.
Jesus, let the seed of your dream for us, for our world, begin within me.
Postscript: Next Sunday is 1 September; so, this will close out the theater on this Popcorn Summer, which I hope you’ve enjoyed. I am going to take a break from posting here for several weeks to focus on other projects (and because this summer has been hectic).