Endless Ends

[investor2020]

https://64.media.tumblr.com/82bb7d7469e552f579221cc50094a792/f1df94214533e865-d5/s540x810/cecee9643be4f28f65d4135df929d1b196453d24.jpg
"The Day the Earth Stood Stil" - 1951 . . . still one of my all-time favorites.

 

[Endless_Night]

"The Day the Earth Stood Stil" - 1951 . . . still one of my all-time favorites.

What is it about this movie that makes it a favorite?

 

[investor2020]

The theme and the warning to mankind, the characters, the visitor meeting the professor and solving his blackboard problem, the robot Gort, the crucial message ""Klaatu barada nikto", and the technology of the extraterrestrials.

 

[hotwords229_A]

^^^ And the theramin based musical score!

 

[Endless_Night]

The theme and the warning to mankind, the characters, the visitor meeting the professor and solving his blackboard problem, the robot Gort, the crucial message ""Klaatu barada nikto", and the technology of the extraterrestrials.

This movie is such a classic, bu or some reason it's never resonated for me. Maybe my first view of it was too young? It always seemed rather . . . bland.

That's why I asked for your thoughts. I want to go back and watch with a different lens.

 

[Endless_Night]

^^^ And the theramin based musical score!

I had to google theremin.

 

[hotwords229_A]

I had to google theremin.

I love the theremin and, apparently, don’t know how to spell it.

 

[Endless_Night]

I love the theremin and, apparently, don’t know how to spell it.

It's part of your charm.

 

[investor2020]

This movie is such a classic, bu or some reason it's never resonated for me. Maybe my first view of it was too young? It always seemed rather . . . bland.

That's why I asked for your thoughts. I want to go back and watch with a different lens.

It's early sci-fi without the bug-eyed monsters . . . our world is dangerous with wars, etc. and the ET's believe that the people of Earth must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets. The heroine and the professor try to convince Klaatu that's not the case, and the world's governments and scientists race to understand what is happening and how to stop it.

The core message of the film is that humanity must learn to live in peace and cooperation with each other and with other civilizations, or face the consequences of self-destruction.

Producer Julian Blaustein set out to make a movie about the paranoia and fear that gripped the world in the post-World War II atomic era; he was specifically interested in promoting a strong United Nations and said as much during press for the film. He looked around for a science fiction story that could be used as a basis for such a film and found Harry Bates’ short story “Farewell to the Master,” published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1940.

It should not be compared with the abundant sci-fi horror films, as it is a message film. I don't care for the 2008 version with Keanu Reeves.

 

[Endless_Night]

Producer Julian Blaustein set out to make a movie about the paranoia and fear that gripped the world in the post-World War II atomic era; he was specifically interested in promoting a strong United Nations and said as much during press for the film. He looked around for a science fiction story that could be used as a basis for such a film and found Harry Bates’ short story “Farewell to the Master,” published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1940.

Huh. I don't think I realized it was based on a short story.

I've seen some other black-and-white message-oriented science fiction from that period - both America and British made. They rarely seem to spark my enjoyment as much as other categories. I view them as intellectual science fiction. Rather like Arrival (2016) or Interstellar (2014). Interesting, certainly, but . . . .

I like the bug-eyed monsters and the creature features.

My movie tastes are notoriously low brow.

They are just so much more relaxing.

It should not be compared with the abundant sci-fi horror films, as it is a message film. I don't care for the 2008 version with Keanu Reeves.

I did not care for this version, either. The characters seemed . . . poorly developed? Or perhaps their behavior didn't seem realistic? I'm not sure, but I don't remember feeling that way about the original.

Whatever the reason, I could not sit through the whole movie.

 

[hotwords229_A]

It is a slow movie. But it is very well made.
I have it on DVD, but I rarely ever watch it. I’m much more likely to grab Earth vs. The Flying Saucers.

I, too, am low brow.

 

[Endless_Night]

I, too, am low brow.

We can low brow together. Solidarity, plus it gives @investor2020 the opportunity to feel all satisfied in his intellectual superiority.

Little does he know we are secretly mapping a creature feature and alien conquest of the world.

 

[investor2020]

I beg to differ with that assessment ! Only of average intellect, I simply drift to the side of sci-fi intelligence rather than alien war and gore. HOWEVER, I do happen to have a personal contact with Klaatu and would certainly enlist his and Gort's assistance in any attempt by aliens allied with nasty creatures !

 

[Endless_Night]

I beg to differ with that assessment ! Only of average intellect, I simply drift to the side of sci-fi intelligence rather than alien war and gore. HOWEVER, I do happen to have a personal contact with Klaatu and would certainly enlist his and Gort's assistance in any attempt by aliens allied with nasty creatures !

See how he spills us his defenses, Muscles? We've lured him into chattiness with our low-brow tastes.

Bwahahahahahahah!

 

[Endless_Night]

This weekend so far.

-Unpleasant news.
-Near escape from certain death.
-Broke the rod deck lift rod on the Zero.


I'm staying inside today and have my phone on silent. Because the universe is trying to tell me something. I have not idea what, but something.

 

[investor2020]

Need clarification on the Zero . . . lawn mower, motorcycle, skateboard, or car ?? Want to understand more to see why the universe is messing with your psyche.

 

[Endless_Night]

Need clarification on the Zero . . . lawn mower, motorcycle, skateboard, or car ?? Want to understand more to see why the universe is messing with your psyche.

Zero mower. Which was also involved in the Near Escape From Certain Death. Either it, specifically, is possessed, or there is some universal message involving movement.

Or perhaps heavy machinery.

 

[Endless_Night]

Also, what a beautiful day it turned out to be!!!

 

[Endless_Night]

Articles like this make me crazy.

(Or, you know, crazier. )

Scientists Say They Have Resurrected the Dire Wolf.

Such bad reporting. Such wild claims. Sensational rather factual reporting. The dire wolf has been extinct ~12,000 years.

(Seems Game of Thrones made dire wolves iconic? I have never seen GoT. )

What actually occurred what the company took grey wolf cells and did DNA edits with fossilized dire wolf DNA. The results (three super cute pups) are hybrids, at best. The dire wolf has not been de-extincted.

Anyhoo, what really gets me is that in this case it's the biotech company that's using that verbiage rather than the press!!!

Madly irritating. Irresponsible.

The company in itself is something of a curiosity. De-extinction - in the loosest definition of the word - is their speciality. They've done the dire wolves and a wooly mammoth calf is next. The dodo and the thylacine are also on the agenda.

Crazy stuff! I had no idea this was a thing.

 

[Endless_Night]

I've been pondering the Strauss-Howe generational theory.

Labelled as pseudoscience, and both lauded and lambasted in different quarters. Events of the last few years have rather fallen into place as the turnings would suggest. It makes me wonder if a war is imminent.

Previous discussion.

 

[Endless_Night]

In slightly more cheerful news:

-Theatre tickets! *squeal*
-Two book collector's edition of This is How You Lose the Time War. *double squeal*

 

[investor2020]

I recall an old way to determine whether or not one should worry about something . . . adapted from an old Irish proverb.

Why worry? There are only two things to worry about. Either there will be a war or there won't.

If there is no war, you have nothing to worry about. If there is a war there are only two things to worry about.

Either you will be directly impacted or not. If you are not impacted there is nothing to worry about.

If you are directly impacted by a war, there are two things to worry about.

Either you will not survive the war or you will. If you survive the war there is nothing to worry about.

If you do not survive the war, there are two things to worry about.

Either you will go to heaven or to hell. If you go to heaven, there is nothing to worry about.

If you go to hell . . . well, you will be so busy shaking hands with all your friends that you won't have time to worry about anything.

 

[Endless_Night]

I recall an old way to determine whether or not one should worry about something . . . adapted from an old Irish proverb.

Well, now. That's a curious piece of inductive reasoning.

 

[Endless_Night]

I have done all the things.

Not sleeping well lately, so settling into a movie. Wolfen (1981) .

I vaguely recall having seen this before, but can't remember the plot, or indeed, any of the details. Presumably it is about werewolves? I mean, with that title one can only hope.


There may, or may not, be updates.

 

[Endless_Night]

1) This has Gregory Hines. (Who, for some reason, I thought was a dancer?)

2) Also Albert Finney. (I remember seeing him in a rerun of Tom Jones (1963) won television when I was about 12. That eating scene that was - apparently - supposed to be sexy scared me forever. )

3) I've also learned way more about beheadings during the French Revolution than I cared to know.