#725: It Came From Outer Space

It Came from Outer Space

Jack Arnold
Initial release: June 5, 1953 (USA)
Alternate title: The Meteor (working title)

For as long as people have had a fascination with the idea of extraterrestrial life, so too has it been used to reflect political or social concepts of the day. The ancient Greeks, in pondering the physical structure of the cosmos, ultimately founded the basics of geometry to better understand the world and how to shape it. The early Christian church debated whether belief in other worlds was even permissible under Christianity. Starting from the 19th century, after the concept of evolution was introduced to the popular consciousness, aliens began to take on more of the characteristics we associate them with, and also began to reflect much more earthly concerns: they've represented everything from fascism to communism to just plain foreigners. Would that radio play of The War of the Worlds have scared anybody half as much as it did on the eve of World War II? Maybe, maybe not. H.P. Lovecraft sublimated much of his antediluvian xenophobia into alien races and the sinister cults that worshipped them. The Covenant of Halo fame reflect the steady rise of religious extremism that has been occurring since the 1980s, a coalition of invaders who view the existence of humans as an affront to their gods. (Hmm...) And of course, during the UFO craze of the 1950s, it's a sure bet that scary space communists out to destroy any trace of individuality became the norm in American science fiction. But that wasn't always the case. In Jack Arnold's classic It Came from Outer Space, the titular "it" is a fable about the destructive nature of xenophobia.

An astronomer who lives outside of a small town in Arizona and his assistant are witnesses to a meteor crash one night. Upon investigation, the astronomer realizes, that the meteor was in fact an alien ship of some sort, and whatever might have been in it has disembarked. The ensuing landslide has covered up any proof, however, and the town, which already distrusts him for being a scientist as well as not living in the city limits, grows increasingly hostile to his claims. He's soon proven correct, however, when people start disappearing and being replaced by emotionless doppelgangers, which certainly seems to anticipate the later film Invasion of the Body Snatchers. In the end, it's revealed that all the aliens want is to fix their spaceship and leave, and that their kidnapping and replacing of townsfolk was a means of ensuring security until they were finished. Naturally, that's not an answer that fills the Earthlings with confidence, and our astronomer is the only thing standing between a peaceful resolution and mutual destruction.

It Came from Outer Space isn't what I would call a good movie, but it has good parts to it. Ray Bradbury's original script cleverly manages to bring an anti-xenophobic message, all too important at a time of widespread racial segregation and global tensions between East and West. But I can't really say that the special effects are particularly convincing; they managed to create a rather terrifying-looking alien (one that seems to have influenced the design of Phantoom, the alien ghost from Super Metroid) but couldn't even spring for a real spider in a scene where a perfectly normal tarantula wanders across the sand. There's some pretty decent acting (with a wonderfully surreal moment with the astronomer talking to a telephone lineman waxing philosophical out in the desert) which somewhat makes up for some of the goofier special effects, such as when we get multiple POV shots of the aliens as they kidnap locals.

While it's not as famous as some of Jack Arnold's other films, chiefly Creature from the Black Lagoon, It Came from Outer Space is still great fun, at times genuinely scary, and while its ultimate message is a little muddled, that very muddling feels true to life, that as much as we have ideals for getting along as people, the reality is that it's not so simple — and yet we should strive for peace anyway.

That's not such a far out idea, is it?

-june❤