WEEK ELEVEN
Terms:
UFO: Unidentified flying object
Flying Saucer: not naturally occurring controlled craft
Project Sign: Project organized 22 January 1948 and ran until Feb. 1949 to investigate UFO’s
Project Grudge: 1949-Dec. 1949
Project Blue Book: A March 1952 – 1968 and ends with the Condon Report which is very similar to all other reports.
Xenophobia: Fear of foreigners
Aliens: outsiders but outside of what????
Plot/theme text/subtext: The story as opposed to an underlying meaning.
Before the Film
WWII ended in 1945. Serious questions about the Russians and the start of the cold war. June 24, 1947 Kenneth Arnold, spotted objects in the sky from his plane, which he described their flight saying “The flew like saucer would if you skipped it across the water”. This was the birth of the “flying saucer”. Within weeks, there were dozens of sightings
There followed a number of sightings and the government began investigations which are held by some to have been done specifically to discredit sightings. There are many problems in the reports of the projects that were organized from all sides in the issues. Initially Project Sign gave way to Project Grudge, and then Project Blue Book appeared There were rifts in the scientific community that were conducting the investigations and the whole thing produce little other than an expense to the tax payers.
Aliens are first sighted, then parts of machines are found and finally even alien “bodies” a re reported. People are abducted, there are cattle mutilations and more and more complex stories occur.
By 1951 flying saucers were known to virtually everyone. Science fiction programs were becoming rather popular. 1951 saw the appearance of Space Patrol, a Saturday morning program for children; Tales of Tomorrow, an evening show that ran for several seasons, and a relatively unknown program, Out There that has something of a reputation for its unusual stories both then and now. These were well before the more recent and better known Twilight Zone which first add some 8 years later in 1959, In films, 1951 saw not only The Thing but also The Day the Earth Stood Still
The flying saucer appearances (which come and go) have been explained by social phenomenon leading to mass hallucination and so on. It concludes that:
"1. Evaluation of reports of unidentified flying objects constitute no direct threat to the United States.
2. Reports of unidentified flying objects are the result of:
a. A mild form of mass hysteria or 'war nerves.'
b. Individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetrate a hoax or seek publicity.
c. Psychopathological persons.
d. Misidentification of various conventional objects."
It is very close to the Grudge report which is more or less cited in the film as “Air Force regulations”
Arguments about why flying saucer reports tend to group in certain time periods have been explained by the pressure of the times in which many sightings have occurred by anti Flying Saucer contingents and as problems on the “home planet” by pro flying saucer contingents (e.g. why have there been no recent lunar landings by Earth – while there are several all relatively close in time?
By 1950 McCarthy was also becoming a figure to wrestle with and communist infiltrators were seen as everywhere. Like flying saucers, there are people today who believe that McCarthy was right (that is communists were infiltrating the government) and that his evidence was poor, but his “intuition” was correct. Some go as far as to indicate the current state of the US (naturally bad) is a result of communist plots to disrupt the society. So in a strange way the communists parallel the flying saucers, and their potential pilots
Since we have no documented contact with aliens, we must conclude that the films are forced to construct aliens in appearance and as metaphor. What are these?
Like the disaster films we will discuss next term, there are certain “roles and status” that regularly occur in these films – scientists, the military, the “civilians” and so on.
After the film
In films dealing with fictional monsters and outer space critters, there is no real life equivalent of the monster, hence one must take the creature as metaphor. But for what?
This can vary from time to time and place to place. This film, like any other, has to situated in the time in which it was made, and which to some degree we discussed above.
What do monsters represent? They pose an interesting problem for the actors playing them, since the actors must commonly make decisions relative to the subtext or theme in more complex ways than most performers.
In this film, what does the Thing represent? (aliens – foreigners)
What is the nature of the Thing (remember Marcus Aurelius as quoted by Hannibal Lechter). Is it good or bad? (Comes to destroy the Earth).Compare this film with The Day the Earth Stood Still (comes to save the Earth). Compare 2001: A Space Odyssey Are there aliens in that film? Are they apparent? Do they have a function? What is it?
What positions do the other characters in the film take and what social roles do they have?
Scientists, military, civilians.
The scientist role is ambiguous. Do all the scientists feel the same about what to do?
Carrington is epitome of one side rather than the other.
How does Pat describe scientists – like kids with a new toy. What does this do to the image of scientists?
Nikki uses same expression about Carrington (this toy might bite him says Pat)
Who (which group of people) appears to be correct from the film’s point of view on how to deal with the alien?
What do the final lines suggest?
How does the film work?
Opening Shots under the credits – bleak isolated cold landscape – inhospitable,
Music:
Frightening – odd sounding instrument (theremin) discordant
Appearance of monster:
Film is 87 minutes long – when does thing first appear? Just under 50 minutes in when we see him running on the ice, and nearly and hour in before the first attack on people.Plenty of time to build tension.
Dialog:
Realism? Overlapping sentence – lines cut off and finished by someone else.There is a need in science fiction films to have strong cnotacts with some aspect of reality to "ground" the film and make it somewhat "reaL Consider the "ads" on the space station in 2001: A Space Odyssey
Lots of scientific discussion (often with opposing ideas)
Function of humor:
Sudden change in film makes more frightening, and at same time Air Force shows no fear (only one person hysterical – first to see) and he is calmed down almost immediately and apologizes
Tension building
Length of time before we see creature
The dead dog falls out of the cabinet in the green house
Suddenness of appearance at green house
Darkness of screen for following appearances (lights out for fire sequence) generators out for part of final moments. Things is at a distance. Silhouette in doorway – large and imposing.
Repetitive theme in music (like Jaws, Halloween, Psycho)
Viewer given information that is denied to the characters, such as the melting ice, water dripping, snow in room, dogs responding outside to something wrong, then shadow falls, airman freezes, drops cup runs fires, knocks over boxes. We have seen everything leading up to this, but only the actor sees the thing. We do not.
Some descriptions of things that are btter left unseen for the moment. Crew Chief Bob and the airman who shots the Thing describe it with no hair, terrible eyes and making a “mewing” sound
Geiger counter as trope of approach of alien. Increasing numbers builds tension as we know the Thing is coming (compare Alien and Aliens)
Text:
Discussion of horror story to read
Romance story - contrast human emotions with creatures lack thereof
Carrington says "No pain, no pleasure, no heart. Our superior in every way". Why does this make the thing superior? What does it say about a western theme that contrasts "emotional" with "rational"?
What does the political philosophy say about the relationship between communism and capitolism as it relates to the creature and the humans?
Who are the people who should be allowed to handle "aliens" in the film? The military or the scientists?
In fact, don't most of the scientists come over to the military's side by the end of the film?
Aren't there squabbles among the scientists right from the beginning? Do you see how this parallels the splits in the scientific committees in Project Sign, Grudge and Blue Book?
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