The%20Day%20the%20Earth%20Stood%20Still

1
The Day the Earth Stood Still
2
The Political ContextCommunism After WWII
3
The Political ContextFear of Communism
A 1947 comic book published by the Catechetical
Guild Educational Society warning of the supposed
dangers of a Communist takeover.
4
The Political ContextThe Rosenbergs

• 1944 The Rosenbergs gave information about
  atomic bomb to Russians
• January March, 1951 The trial and death
  sentences

5
The Political ContextMcCarthyism and HUACLate
1940s to Late 1950s

• 1950 Alger Hiss trial
• Early 1950s Sam Jaffe blacklisted reduced to
  teaching high school math and living with his
  sisters.

6
The Political ContextAtomic and Hydrogen Bombs

• 1945 US drops atomic bombs on Japan.
• 1949 Soviet Union tests first atomic weapon.

7
The Political ContextFear of Nuclear Anihilation
1957
8
The Other ExtremeCandide
1953 Playwright Lillian Hellman proposed to
Leonard Bernstein to adapt Voltaire's Candide for
the musical theater. Oh Happy We The Best
of All Possible Worlds Voltaire's novella of 1758
satirized the fashionable philosophies of his day
and, especially, the Catholic church whose
Inquisition routinely tortured and killed
"heretics" in a ghastly event known as an "Auto
da Fé" ("act of faith"). Hellman observed a
sinister parallel between the Inquisition's
church-sponsored purges and the "Washington Witch
Trials" being waged by the House Un-American
Activities Committee. Fueled by rage and
indignation, she began her adaptation of
Voltaire's book.
9
Pygmalion

• In our image
• Klaatu
• Gort
• Seeking perfection

10
Who Gets to Play God?

• Klaatus creation
• Klaatus resurection

11
Running Amok
Or not