The Day the Earth Stood Still

Earlier this week, I re-watched The Day the Earth Stood Still for the first time in many years, and I noticed some religious overtones.

When Klaatu arrives on Earth, he says, "We have come to visit you in peace and with goodwill," which echoes what the angels say in Luke 2:14 when they announce Jesus' birth to the shepherds:  "'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!'" [NKJV]

When Klaatu escapes from the military hospital, he disguises himself in clothing belonging to a Major L. M. Carpenter, and he takes on Carpenter's name as his own.  In the Bible, Jesus is referred to as "the carpenter" (Mark 6:3) and "the carpenter's son" (Matthew 13:55).

Klaatu also acknowledges a higher power.  After he is apparently revived from death by Gort, Helen asks him, "You mean, he has the power of life and death?" and he replies, "No, that power is reserved to the Almighty Spirit; this technique, in some cases, can restore life for a limited period."

American Graffiti

A couple times over the last two months, I had some vague thoughts about American Graffiti.  Last week, I watched it again in order to pay close attention to details and write this post.

The DJ Wolfman Jack holds great significance for the characters, and every radio is tuned to his station.  When Curt goes to the radio station to talk to him, "Crying in the Chapel" by Sonny Till & the Orioles is playing.  This is the only non-secular song in the entire soundtrack, and its subject matter and placement underscore the godlike status that the characters attribute to the Wolfman.  In this light, Curt's trip to see the Wolfman at the radio station takes on the same meaning as a pilgrimage to a deity's shrine.

The Wolfman's comment "that's just a dedication, man; what I can do is I relay it, it'll be on tomorrow or Tuesday" suggests that the current day is Sunday, which also figures into this quasi-religious aspect since Sunday is the usual day for church services.

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Until the end of the movie, Bob Falfa is always wearing a hat, and he displays an arrogant confidence that he's faster than Milner.  The two features are connected:  Falfa's hat acts as a sort of victor's crown representing a status that he doesn't really deserve.  Falfa loses the race with Milner when he crashes, and it's in this crash that he's de-crowned.  After Milner helps him stumble away from his wrecked car, he's left merely holding his hat:

The Ray Bradbury Theater - "The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone"

Last week, I watched "The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone," an episode of The Ray Bradbury Theater.  At the beginning of the episode, celebrated writer Dudley Stone is having a book signing, and he's approached by John Oatis Kendall, an aspiring author who feels hopelessly overshadowed by Stone.  Kendall passes a note to Stone that reads, "Dudley Stone, I have come here to kill you!" and shows him a gun concealed in his pocket.  Stone doesn't seem too perturbed by this and invites Kendall to his house the following day.  There, he explains that there are many things he wants to do with his life besides writing:  "All the books I promised myself to read but I've never read; all the symphonies yet to be heard; all the films as yet unseen; spices waiting to be snuffed; beef joints, ham hocks waiting to be devoured; tapestries yet to be woven; sculptures to be shaped; paintings waiting to be painted; sons and daughters to be advised; grandchildren to be raised; far countries to be flown over, to be walked through; hang gliding yet to be tried; tides yet unswum to be swum; all of it around me, free and vital, beckoning, waiting:  my reasons for letting you kill me."  He urges Kendall to kill him, but more metaphorically than literally.  Stone shows Kendall a multitude of his unpublished manuscripts, and Kendall kills Stone's writing career by throwing the manuscripts into the sea:

Freed from the burden of writing, Stone can now do what he wants with his life.

I'm not sure which level to take this on (whether it's Stone's design, Bradbury's allusion, or just a coincidence), but the same sort of event is described near the end of Shakespeare's The Tempest.  In Act Five, Prospero says,

I here abjure, and when I have required

Some heavenly music, which even now I do,

To work mine end upon their senses that

This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,

Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,

And, deeper than did ever plummet sound,

I'll drown my book.  [V.i.51-57]

Prospero is a magician, not a writer, but for him, as for Stone, throwing his book into the sea marks a definitive end.

Star Wars: Rebels - S2E1 - "The Siege of Lothal"

In re-watching Star Wars: Rebels, I recently started season two, and I noticed a detail in the first part of the first episode, "The Siege of Lothal."  After a successful rebel mission, there's a meeting on one of the command ships.  Significantly, Kanan is sitting apart from the others:

Shortly after this scene, he complains to Hera about joining a larger rebellion:  "When you and I started together, it was rob from the Empire, give to the needy:  a noble cause.  Now we're gettin' drawn into some kind of military thing, and I don't like it."  The distance between him and the others in this meeting visually indicates his misgivings.

It's a Wonderful Life

Earlier this week, I watched It's a Wonderful Life (for only the second time).  I noticed that in the scene where George and Clarence are drying their clothes after having jumped in the river, the framing is such that George is enclosed by the clothesline.

I may be making too much of it, but I think this could mean two things.

First, this could illustrate George's skepticism about who Clarence is.  He doesn't fully accept his claim to be an angel, and this visual divide between the two represents the barrier of George's unbelief.

Second, this separation of George could act as a foreshadowing of the world Clarence will show him where he's never been born.  He's set apart visually to prefigure his absence from Bedford Falls.

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I also noticed a slight but significant difference between George's two interactions with the man whose tree he runs into with his car.  Right after George hits the man's tree, the man complains to George and says, "My great-grandfather planted this tree!"  After George wishes that he'd never been born (and thus hasn't run into the tree), he encounters the man and comments about his tree, and the man mentions that it's "one of the oldest trees in Pottersville."  In both, the man is concerned with his tree, but in the world with George, his concern is more personal (related to his great-grandfather), while in the world without George, his concern is centered on the status of the tree itself.  Such a difference in the man's concerns seems to suggest that in the world with George, a greater emphasis is placed on personal connections.

Julie & Julia

Recently, I re-watched Julie & Julia and noticed the significance of a detail.

The day after Julie experiences many disappointments (she falls asleep and doesn't hear her timer so she burns the stew; Judith Jones, the editor of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and Julie's dinner guest, cancels because it's raining; and then, worst of all, Julie has a fight with her husband over how concerned she's become about her blog), she goes to work wearing a turtleneck, over which she conspicuously wears the necklace that her husband gave her for her thirtieth birthday earlier in the movie:

This prominent display of the necklace tacitly indicates that Julie is thinking about those better days in her relationship with her husband.

Indiana Jones

Lately, I've been reading Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? from Science to the Supernatural, the Many Mysteries of Indiana Jones by Lois H. Gresh and Robert Weinberg.  Recently, I read a section about zeppelins and how they relate to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  The book claims that "after recovering the Grail diary in Berlin, the Joneses attempt to leave Germany aboard the majestic LZ 138 zeppelin," but when I referenced the film, I found that the ship's designation is actually D-138.  It's glimpsed in only a couple shots, though:

I hadn't noticed this detail before, but since it was drawn to my attention, I now think that it's slight reference to THX 1138, George Lucas's first feature film.  There are similar references in the Star Wars movies.  In A New Hope, Luke, in disguise as a stormtrooper, fabricates a "prisoner transfer from cell block 1138;" in The Empire Strikes Back, General Rieekan gives the order "Send Rogues 10 and 11 to Station 38;" and in The Phantom Menace and Revenge of the Sith, there are battle droids whose markings bear passing resemblances to the number.  (See more details here.)

When I re-watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull earlier this year, I noticed a 138 there, too.  It's one of the house numbers in the mock town that's destroyed by an atomic bomb test.