“Only when we have to fight to stay human do we realise how precious it is. How dear to us.”
Today is cold at 46Ā°. The air is perfectly still, the sky blue and the sun shining but to no avail. They are merely props to make the day a pretty one. Tonight could get as low as the 30’s. I had the window open in my bedroom last night, and I woke up with Fern and Gracie huddled beside me to stay warm. I came downstairs and turned on the heat as the house was really cold. Fern is now asleep warmed by the sun coming through the front door and Gracie is having her morning nap on the couch. It’s a typical morning.
Many of us are of the duck and cover generation. We grew up in the 1950’s and 1960’s when the world seemed always on the brink of war. Our movies were filled with monsters grown out of control because of A-bomb testing. We had aliens bent on the destruction of our planet. We knew, though, that all would be right in the end because we were the good guys. I was never scared by those movies. I knew the monsters could never be real, and I didn’t think a UFO had us in its sights.
Today the syfy channel is presenting the Earth may not survive movies. The first one had the Earth off its orbit, and it took a hydrogen bomb in the Marianas Trench to right the orbit and save us all. New York City is now in danger of being destroyed by tornadoes and in a later movie a UFO will crash in Puget Sound and spawn more killer tornadoes. The weather is our movie enemy, and we are far less prepared to defeat it. It didn’t take much to kill a bunch of giant ants, a few bombs and lots of bullets, but the heroes of those movies, the brave soldiers, are now out-matched. Our new heroes are scientists at first ignored by soldiers who need a flesh and bone enemy, but who prove their worth to even the most hardened generals.
I figure all these movies, even the B&W 50’s films, are art in some strange way imitating life.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsThis entry was posted on April 28, 2012 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: Ants, enemies'weather, Marianas Trench, Science fiction, UFO, Unidentified flying object
Both comments and pings are currently closed.15 Comments on ““Only when we have to fight to stay human do we realise how precious it is. How dear to us.””
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April 28, 2012 at 12:50 pm
And I belong to the generation that watched TV from behind the sofa on a Saturday evening as the Daleks ran riot. thank goodness for Dr Who. “Exterminate” said the Daleks, the image on the TV went to negative and …bad things had happened.
The Prince owns a remote control Dalek…he likes it
April 28, 2012 at 3:38 pm
My Dear Hedley,
Exterminate! Exterminate!-I remember those Daleks first from the 60’s then the more recent, updated ones of the last few years. I have long been a Doctor Who fan and still watch it on BBC America.
The Prince has discerning taste!
April 28, 2012 at 4:14 pm
BBC America has become such a disappointment. There used to be such a wide variety of shows including Bargain Hunt and Cash in the Attic but now they repeat the same programmes over and over and I don’t really like Top Gear.
To their credit they do show the Rugby and the Boat race, but ….
April 28, 2012 at 12:53 pm
Hi Kat,
It’s sunny and 50 here. Rocky is curled up on the couch but he would rather be somewhere else. He is little kid bored but I have some things to do before I can entertain him.
I am of the duck and cover generation but I can’t say I ever had to practice it. The closest I got to post apocalyptic survival skills was high school when someone showed us it was safe to eat a banana that had been contaminated with Strontium 90 as long as only the peel had been exposed. If we had been over 18, we could have eaten a banana that had been contaminated with something more lethal like U235.
It sounds a bit like a Monty Python sketch. How do you defend yourself if someone attacks you with a radioactive banana? š
I’m off to finish laundry, grocery shopping and taking my poor bored dog to someplace interesting. Enjoy the day!
April 28, 2012 at 3:43 pm
Hi Caryn,
We made it to about 53Ā° but it still felt chilly. I went to the dump and did a wash so I have a small sense of accomplishment today.
I remember practicing iduck and cover under my desk when I was in the first and second grades but never after that.
It’s good to know about the banana in case I run across one doused in Strontium 90. I figure it’s easy to outrun anyone who’d ever use a banana as a threat unless, of course, it’s a baboon!
April 28, 2012 at 1:50 pm
I think you could be a movie critic for the NY Times. Even work from home. I think the new Syfy movies are overdone. Too much time confronting a landing on a mysterious planet with gadgets that detail the planets floor plan. All goofy stuff to me. So the older movies, made in the 80’s forward are a little more believable. Worth a second or third watch. I like searching for alien movies too but most end with spotting something 21 light years away. Boring.
April 28, 2012 at 3:47 pm
Z&Me,
Computers sort of wrecked traditional scifi movies. Our home computers do so much it is easy to believe that military ones can do so much more. Then there are the gadgets which talk to us, give directions and on and on. We have entered the age of Hal in 2001.
I love Independence Day and Men in Black and a few others which are quite low tech. They have ingenuity as the most important element.
April 28, 2012 at 2:05 pm
Sunny and warm a big part of the day but clouds came and it got even a bit warmer. The kitchen door has been open most part of the day.
We never had the duck and cover here, we knew no bomb would fall here but that the radiation would kill us anyway š š š I think most swedes felt the world was safer during the cold war, no one would ever start a war like that even if they threatened to do so š
I do love those old scifi movies š Especially those Japanese ones with Godzilla, Mothra and all the other monsters š There was this huge spider too, that fought with Godzilla but I can’t remember the name on that one.
But I do like the disaster movies they make now days too, like The Day After tomorrow and 2012 š Independence day was a good alien will kill us all movie too. So were Men in Black one and two and I’m looking forward with great anticipation to Men in Black 3 š
Have a great day!
Christer.
April 28, 2012 at 3:49 pm
Christer,
Cool all day today though the sun was shining.
I could watch those old scifi movies all day long. Invasion from Mars was on today, and I watched the whole thing for about the 10th time. It is really hokey, but I love it.
All 3 of your disasters movies are favorites of mine was well. I have seen a couple of trailers for Men in Black 3, but I don’t know. I was disappointed by 2.
April 29, 2012 at 12:24 am
I saw MIB2 first so I thought that one was great and then I saw 1 and thought it was so so š Better than most other things though š
April 28, 2012 at 2:14 pm
I never figured out, even as a kid, how hiding under the desk or crouching in the hall covering my head was going to protect me from a hydrogen bomb blast. And, if I survived the attack how could I avoid the radio active fallout that would follow such an attack. But like fire drills we dolefully followed our teacher’s instructions and obeyed. This survival exercise was as fictitious as those old sci-fi movies.
The only time I ever felt the threat of nuclear war was real was in 1962 during the Cuban Missile crisis when the world came very close to going to war with the Soviets. During this time some of my school chums parents were building fall out shelters in their backyards. I figured having them as friends was cheap insurance. In those days I thought about how I would survive the nuclear war and my kid sister would perish.
The only sci-fi movie I really enjoyed from that era was the original “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. It still holds up well today. Who could forget the line Patricia Neal said to the robot to save the earth, “Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!”. That movie had a great cast with Michael Rennie and Sam Jaffe.
Summer is visiting early here in North Texas with highs in the lower 90s, high humidity and clouds. Unfortunately, we have a beautiful but short spring.
April 28, 2012 at 3:59 pm
Bob,
We did duck and cover only when I was in the first and second grades, 6 and 7 years old, and, unlike you, I didn’t figure out back then it was useless because of the size of the blast and fallout. I was older before fallout became part of my vocabulary.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis I think most of us felt the threat of a nuclear war. I remember watching the President’s speech on television and feeling a sense of foreboding, even of doom. No one I knew had a fallout shelter so we’d all go together.
I think Forbidden Planet is a fantastic movie and way ahead of its time. The robot in today’s picture is Robby who was in that movie. He was like a person, not a machine, which was also innovative. I agree that The Day … holds up well, but I think there are others as well. Invasion of the Body Snatchers is another.
April 28, 2012 at 4:27 pm
Thanks for jogging my memory on Forbidden Planet. It came later and was in color. I didn’t recognize Robby in the picture with the cop. I didn’t like Invasion of the Body Snatchers because it was more like a horror film than science fiction.
April 28, 2012 at 4:35 pm
Bob.
Invasion of the Body Snatches wasn’t even close to horror: no blood, nothing awful. It was supposed to be a metaphor for Communism taking over if we slept.
April 28, 2012 at 4:36 pm
My Dear Hedley,
You are so right-I used to watch BBC American all the time. Now I only watch Doctor Who and an occasional program which sounds good in the TV Guide.