Pics for the Day the Earth Stood still and a seminar reflection

http://www.scificool.com/images/2007/12/the-day-the-earth-stood-still.jpg

http://api.ning.com/files/ygX4ZD6pzsHgX3qaXfc81F-0rUmDiAe6rmdIMaqR8eFI9Wy3*8*uGku9q3JQdHo65ORYbfXZLDaC6Yhx*c83zBw97SinnKvY/earth_stood_still.jpg

http://www.kevinmccorrytv.com/klaatu.jpg

http://www.collectorsquest.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/klaatu_and_gort.jpg

In this new seminar we talked about Gort and Klaatu and the Movie, the Day the Earth Stood Still. I think that the seminar went really well. We talked about the power elites. Klaatu and Gort were both power elites that had control over the people's fears and emotions. The soldiers were also like Power Elites because they coudl influence the people to remain calm because they think the soldiers will be able to protect them. Someone also mentioned how their fear led to irrational thinking. And as the the movie progressed the radio started to say the alien was an enemy and not a friend anymore. Monica brought up that the soldiers were a little bit like Leviathan because the civilians wanted the soldiers to protect them and they listened to the soldiers.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Was Klatu being fair with his demands on earth? Were his actions justified?

I think that Klatu's demands were justified and they were fair because it just an act of self defense. He comes from a different planet but there are many planets there. They all live in peace and are patrolled by cops like Gort. Klatu said that the Humans were coming very close to making spaceships that could travel far. He says that the humans can fight all they want but if they disturb the other planets, Earth will have to be destroyed. In other words Klatu means that if you attack us, it will mean war, which is fair. If Earth attacks then the planets can defend themselves. His actions were justified, when the soldier attacked him, Gort disarmed the army, it was the military that attacked first.

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3 images from The Thing and a Reflection on the Seminar.

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http://varifrank.com/archives/TheThingFromAnotherPlanet.jpg

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In the seminar we discussed the article that Peter gave us a while ago that explained how many of the movies back in the day had connections with the Cold War. We discussed many things abut The Thing. We said that the Thing's perspective was not shown and we could not truly know if he was really harmful or if he was trying to retaliate against the human's attack. We also thought that the Scientist was being discriminated against because he didn't want to harm the creature while the military did. The military also did not obey an order which we discussed, people put their emotion before their duty or thinking. Perhaps the Thing was a nuclear bomb and the military were anti ballistic missiles. It's as if, if you attack them, they will attack back. I don't really have any questions but I would like to know if the alien meant any harm in the beginning.

The Thing Reflection

What does the film say about the role of scientific elites in society? Why? What scenes demonstrate this?

I think that the movie portrays the scientists and greedy humans that only want to have more knowledge. In the movie they were very bias towards the soldiers because the soldiers disagreed with the lead scientist and wanted to destroy the creature unlike the leader scientist which wanted to study it. Such scenes that demonstrate this is when the scientist tried to persuade the thing that he was on his side and that he didn't want to harm him. But he was attacked by the thing anyways. He also tried to save the alien plants while other people wanted to destroy it.

Seminar Reflection

A lot of things were said in the seminar that hep clear up a few things on what we learned in class. Some things that were said were like Dr. Strangelove's name which makes sense when the subtitle is put into it as well. I think that people were right to say that Dr. Strangelove's views still had some Nazi views inside it. They also related Herman Kahn to Strangelove on the bunkers that should be built to help survivors. In Fail-Safe the president bombed New York after Moscow which also relates to Kahn who doesn't care if there has to be a few casualties. I think that my classmates have got the right idea about Herman Kahn, Fail Safe, and Dr. Strangelove. I think that a lot of them were still a bit confused on what was going on beforehand. I find it interesting how Kahn and Strangelove talk about after the war as if it isn't too bad of an event. In Fail Safe I think they are are trying to take advantage of the nuclear war before it starts.. Most of my questions were cleared up and I understood the rest of it.

5 images on Dr. Strangelove

http://blogs.freshminds.co.uk/talent/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/nuclear20plant.jpg

http://www.essexportal.co.uk/photos/secret-nuclear-bunker.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Interview_with_Herman_Kahn,_author_of_On_Escalation,_May_11,_1965.jpg
http://images-cdn01.associatedcontent.com/image/A3236/323695/300_323695.jpg

http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/9393/imagefm8.jpg

http://actdcmetro.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/nuclear-bomb-badger350.jpg

Dr. Strangelove review.

Dr. Strangelove was certainly strange, and I didn't understand why part of the name had to do with him when he barely spoke in the entire movie. Dr. Strangelove is certainly a strange character that is sort of like the other person in fail safe and can be related to Herman Kahn as well. They all believe that nuclear is possible, although Dr. Strangelove believes that the doomsday was obvious.

The movie, just like Fail safe had an ending where something was destroyed that was not meant to be. I still am a bit confused on how or why but they both have aircrafts that weren't supposed to attack that did. Herman Kahn suggested bunkers jsut like Dr. Strangelove when they talked about the doomsday machine destroying the earth up. But Dr. Strangelove's reason was for reproduction while Herman Kahn's was for survivability and a better chance to recruit other countries. The general in Dr. Strangelove also has similarities with the professor in Fail Safe. The general attacked the soviets while after the planes started to move towards Moscow in Fail Safe the Professor suggested a full scale attack.

Something I would like to know more about is the novels that had to do with these movies and other theorists that were in the cold war era tht contributed.

6 images based of fail safe.

There is something wrong and I cannot post the links but I have the links saved.

Response to Fail Safe

What do you think about Kahn’s ideas after having read more of the article and having seen the film? Why do you hold these ideas?

I think that Kahn is correct in most of his theories about how Nuclear War is quite possible and countries can win it. I don't think he was insane or anything because his ideas just make sense, I don't know why other people did not see it as well. Anti nuclear missiles can take out the enemy's nuclear missiles and that countries would take sides with the country that has the higher chance of winning. Like when Herman Kahn said that by making nuclear shelters it will make countries side with the U.S. because it has a higher chance of survivability. I can't relate to the movie very well because I can't remember exactly what it was about and what the argument was. I think that Herman Kahn would be very much like the philosopher inside the movie that talked about Nuclear War.

The New Yorker, First Read

Herman Kahn was a futurist that gave lectures on the deterrence theory. Princeton University Press made a book on his lectures called "On Thermonuclear War". He entered a Ph. D. Program at Caltech but he failed to pass. He spent a semester at Princeton before he started lecturing. His book was about how nuclear war is possible and that the nuclear war is winnable.
He gives a lot of different examples of what would happen in nuclear warfare such as millions of people will die and parts of the planet will be too dangerous to be inhabitable. He says that the war nuclear war brings a new element after the war is over. It's the survivability, he says that it would cause of incovenience and make life unpleasant but life is already inconvenient and unpleasant as well as saying that 4% of babies have birth defects so a little more wouldn't matter.