"Good Alien" Films - Reflections of Sociological Evolution



                                    

     Most science fiction films of the Fifties that featured aliens from

outer space usually portrayed them negatively, as evil threats against

humanity. The films that did have good aliens in them were relatively rare,

compared to "bad alien" films. It is only fairly recently that science

fiction movie plots have started to concentrate on treating the space alien

as a friend and ally, rather than an outright threat. 

     The advent of the "good alien" film in the science fiction genre is

reflective of a general maturing of intellect in society. Aliens in the

Fifties were analogous to the unknown; after all, they came from outer

space, and what could be more mysterious than the night sky? Aliens

replaced the hobgoblins and bogeymen of an earlier age, the unseen enemy

that was watching every move you made. The negative portrayal of aliens,

then, alludes to the insecurities and fears of the unknown that usually

accompany an immature mentality. In "good alien" movies, the conventions of

the typical alien invasion movie are inverted to portray the alien as a

benevolent or benign presence, while the humans are relative children

compared to these highly advanced beings. 

     The generally negative portrayal of aliens in the "Golden Age" of

science fiction film is obviously linked to the ongoing Red Scare at the

time, as well as the recent world wars and the Korean war. Since the

predominant theme of films and other forms of entertainment tend to follow

the general public feeling of the time, the science fiction format, with

its endless horizons, provided the perfect outlet to put a new angle on old

stories. As such, many early science fiction films can be easily identified

as thinly veiled anti-Communist propaganda. Any sign of a flying saucer in

such films was usually met with a full battalion - or more - and the worse

was expected. Such an attitude is more than adequately reflected (and

criticized) in Robert Wise's 1951 classic The Day The Earth Stood

Still.

     When the flying saucer lands on the lawn in front of the Washington

Monument, military troops, tanks and cannons immediately surround it - the

image reinforced further by the formation of a ring of soldiers around the

saucer itself. The opening of the saucer immediately sends every soldier

reaching for his gun. Klaatu's first words - "We have come to visit you in

peace, and with good will" - do nothing to dissolve the tension in the

soldiers. Klaatu then reaches into his pocket and withdraws a wand-shaped

object. As the object springs open, one of the soldiers fires and Klaatu

falls, wounded. Then the giant robot Gort emerges from the saucer, firing a

beam from his visor that destroys only the weapons and not the soldiers,

and Klaatu stops him with a word. Even though Klaatu is obviously wounded,

the soldiers approach him with their hands on their holsters. A close-up of

the broken wand is shown as Klaatu picks it up - and once again, the

soldier nearest him reaches for a gun. Klaatu explains patiently, with an

air of quiet exasperation, "It was a gift for your President. With it,

he could have studied life on the other planets." 

     The main message of The Day The Earth Stood Still is one of

pacifism, certainly an unusual theme given that American troops were facing

down "the Commies" in Korea at the time of the film's release. Klaatu, a

member of a highly advanced race, comes to Earth as a representative of an

"organization for the mutual protection of all planets",  which sounds

suspiciously like NATO on a galactic scale. He wishes to address the

world's leaders, but, as the Secretary of Defense explains, the current

political situation on Earth makes it impossible for such a gathering to

take place. The sample messages he reads from the Russian Premier and the

British Prime Minister, both of whom refuse to attend the proposed meeting

unless it is held on what they consider safe ground (Moscow for the former,

Washington for the latter), ring with childish petulance. Klaatu, who

professes to be "impatient with stupidity", decides to take matters into

his own hands, escaping from the hospital he is confined to and spending

some time among the common people. He takes the name of Carpenter and gets

a room in a boarding house, where he befriends a young widow, Helen Benson,

and her son Bobby. Having failed in his attempt to meet with Earth's

political leaders, Klaatu makes contact with the eminent scientist Dr

Barnhardt, who arranges for a meeting of his fellow scientists from around

the world. "The greatest thinkers" are beyond the machinations of politics;

no borders hinder their search for knowledge. Meanwhile, Barnhardt suggests

that Klaatu demonstrate the powers that he holds in order to draw the

world's attention. Klaatu agrees, and the next day, all the power on the

Earth ceases for thirty minutes. Unfortunately, Klaatu's benign

demonstration only serves to alarm the military, who step up the search for

the fugitive alien. Klaatu is cornered and shot dead, and his body is

placed in a locked cell. Helen Benson, following his instructions, goes to

Gort, who has broken free of a super-plastic block that was placed around

him by the military and who has disintegrated two guards. She gives him

Klaatu's order - "Klaatu barada nikto" - and Gort retrieves Klaatu's body,

taking it back to the ship, where Klaatu is resuscitated. Klaatu then

addresses the group of scientists that Barnhardt has assembled. His mission

is revealed at last: the Earth, in the infancy of atomic power, could soon

be considered a threat to the security of the universe. He gives Earth both

a warning and an opportunity to save themselves: "Join us and live in

peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration...The decision

rests with you." The fate of mankind is left to humans themselves to

decide; the assumption is made that they will be wise enough to make the

right decision.

     In Jack Arnold's It Came From Outer Space, the aliens have no

evil intent, having crashed on Earth completely by accident. Here, the

threat comes not from the army, but from the small town of Sand Rock,

Arizona; however, it is no less deadly to the aliens. At first no one

believes amateur astronomer John Putnam, the only person in the town who

realizes that a crashed "meteor" is actually a spaceship. Soon afterwards,

two telephone linesmen start behaving oddly and materials begin to

disappear from the town hardware store. The aliens' harmlessness is

revealed when one of the workmen awakes to see his double standing over

him, and the duplicate explains, "We cannot - we would not take your souls,

or minds, or bodies. Don't be afraid." When Putnam's fiancee Ellen

disappears as well, he goes out to the crash site, where one of the aliens

explains to him that they are only trying to fix their ship so that they

can leave. All they need is time. Putnam insists on seeing the alien's true

form, and the alien reluctantly concedes - the sight of it is so hideous

that Putnam recoils in disgust. Nevertheless, he takes them at their word.

He tries to convince the sheriff that the aliens' intentions are benign,

but the sheriff is suspicious. "Then why don't they come out in the open?"

he asks. "Because what we don't understand we try to destroy," replies

Putnam. However, by now the strange happenings in town have alarmed the

populace, who immediately assume that the aliens are invaders out to take

over their bodies and the world. The sheriff, too, gives in to pressure

from his deputy, who criticizes his hesitance to take action, playing on

his insecurities. The sheriff leads a posse out to block the road to the

crash site, killing one alien as it is trying to return to the ship.

Putnam, however, convinces the aliens to release the hostages they have

taken to show their good will, and then foils the posse's attempt to reach

the crash site by dynamiting the entrance to the crater. The aliens

complete their repairs and leave as the posse - and Putnam and Ellen -

watch. Putnam optimistically predicts the aliens' return, saying "It wasn't

the right time for us to meet just now. There'll be other nights, other

stars for us to watch. They'll be back."

     Many of the early "good alien" films are also the strongest in terms

of plot and action. While alien invasion films were often nothing more than

stock "Earth vs. [fill in the blank]", with few deviations from the norm,

"good alien" movies had solid stories at their core. The Day The Earth

Stood Still, for instance, is regarded as one of the classics of

science fiction because of the relative maturity of the subject matter.

This film also featured newscasts by real-life radio and television

personalities - a first in science fiction film that also contributed to

the realism of the movie. An outstanding facet of this film is its air of

authenticity; previous films tended to take place in their own alternate,

obviously artificial universe, but the concepts in this film are uniquely

feasible. It is quite possible that the earthly repercussions in this film

might have actually occurred if a flying saucer had indeed landed in front

of the Washington Monument in 1951. The reactions and attitudes of the

people in the film are also accurate for the time in which the film was

released - one woman comments, "If you ask my opinion, he comes from right

here on Earth. And you know where I mean." This emphasis on realism as far

as the Earth characters are concerned indicates a refinement of

storytelling technique in science fiction film.

     The characters in "good alien" films, too, undergo a visible maturing

of their judgment and attitudes. The townspeople in It Came From Outer

Space undergo a substantial change in their beliefs about life in outer

space - at the beginning of the movie, they ridicule John Putnam for

believing that the meteor is actually a spaceship. Even a renowned

astronomer, Professor Snell, joins with the people of Sand Rock in

debunking Putnam's insistence that it was no mere rock that crashed - as

Putnam complains to Ellen, "They've talked about me before. Snell agrees

with the sheriff, the sheriff agrees with the others, I'm crazy." Later,

when the town at last becomes convinced that there is something unusual

going on out in the desert, they immediately assume that it is something

malevolent and resolve to kill it. Here, again, John Putnam is one step

ahead; he has discovered that the aliens mean no harm and wish only to be

on their way. Ultimately he succeeds in keeping the townspeople away from

the ship, and the aliens are able to return to the stars, though not

without casualties among their number. Meanwhile, the watching crowd is

left with a new perception of aliens.

     As previously mentioned, "good alien" films have come to the fore only

fairly recently. Perhaps the best recent example of this subgenre is Steven

Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, in which aliens make

formal contact with Earth. The aliens first make their presence known by

returning ships and airplanes that have gone missing in the past. In this

film, the military is an invisible presence - unlike in earlier films, they

are not in charge of the proceedings, but function on the periphery as

"crowd control". The actual contact mission is placed in the hands of

scientists and specialists, as it should be. The film's climax, in which

the mother ship descends on Devil's Tower, is a finely tuned (literally!)

sequence.

     The visual image of the huge spacecraft dwarfing the "ampitheatre" in

which the humans have assembled, combined with the deep, resonating tones

of the obviously powerful aliens answering the timid, careful chirps of the

puny humans, forms a powerful mental image that suggests a very old, very

wise sage addressing his diminutive student who has climbed a mountain to

reach him. As indeed the humans have, since those assembled at Devil's

Tower - the scientists as well as Roy Neary - have had to make intuitive

leaps and bounds in order to reach this meeting place. At this point, a

reference to Milton's Paradise Lost seems to be implied - man is a

thinking being who must rationalize each step of his way to find the truth,

but higher life forms are able to conjecture and learn by instinct. Roy

Neary has had little to no experience with the sciences outside his job

with the power company - yet he is called and chosen by the aliens

themselves to join them as they continue their voyage. 

     The ultimate "good alien" movie is 1982's E.T. The

Extra-Terrestrial. In this film, the image of the alien has turned

around 180 degrees - it is no longer a threat, but is now the threatened.

At the same time, the focus of the story has shifted - the emphasis is not

on the alien, but the effects that the alien has on the human it comes in

contact with, an angle rarely explored in previous films of its ilk. E.T.,

a harmless little botanist, is inadvertently left behind when his team is

surprised in the midst of collecting plant specimens. He is found by a

young boy, Elliott, with whom he forms an empathic link. At first glance,

this seems like every young boy's dream come true - an alien friend with

special powers who's come to stay. However, during his encounter with E.T.,

Elliott undergoes a rite of passage into adulthood as he assumes

responsibility for the safety of the alien. Through the empathic link,

Elliott experiences a range of strange new emotions that contribute to the

maturing of his mind and attitudes. He feels all of E.T.'s desperation to

return home, which drives him to help the alien to call his ship, even

though he knows that success will be painful. Nowhere is this more clear

than at the end of the film, when E.T.'s ship returns for its lost 

passenger. E.T. says to Elliott, "Come?" inviting him to join him on the

ship, and Elliott replies "Stay." 

     But the audience knows that Elliott's plea is a reflex action; having

shared E.T.'s loneliness, he cannot with all sincerity ask E.T. to stay.

      This final letting go is the definitive sign of Elliott's newfound

maturity - he selflessly places his friend's priorities ahead of his own.

The child is well on his way to becoming a man. 

     In the final analysis, there appears to be obvious progress in the

evolution  of the science fiction "good alien" films mentioned here: in

The Day The Earth Stood Still and It Came From Outer Space,

the aliens are vastly more powerful than Earthlings, and Klaatu, though he

is benevolent, is still distant and separate; Close Encounters of the

Third Kind indicates that humans have reached a level of intelligence

that is capable of accepting, communicating, and fraternizing with alien

life, and by the time E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is left behind, the

gap between man and alien has narrowed even further as E.T. uses household

materials to build his communicator. 

     It is much easier to find a "good alien" science-fiction movie today

than it was forty years ago. Back in those tense, paranoid days, the alien

was just that - an alien, an unknown quantity, something strange to be

feared and shunned. As humans progress, however, the unknown is no longer

dreaded - rather, it is regarded as an opportunity for expanding our

horizons, an attitude clearly reflected in today's influx of positive alien

portrayals.