SPOILER ALERT- There's more to this than what's on the surface. Sure it's an hilarious, amateurishly made film that Ed Wood thought was "Art," but consider the time when it was made. American military might was unquestioned, and it was a given that whatever we did was the right thing to do; in that light, this is an amazingly subversive movie for 1958. The aliens are trying to save us from ourselves as well as trying to save the rest of the universe; jet jockey Jeff Trent (Gregory Wolcott) is a stereotypically lunkheaded example of 1950's militaristic thinking- he won't listen to reason, assuming that possession of the Solaranite bomb would only make America stronger. Bigger and better bombs were the key to survival to such people. He is indeed the headstrong young fool Eros (Dudley Manlove) pegs him as.
Of course, along came Vietnam and proved that more and better technology wasn't necessarily the answer to a determined enemy who saw his survival, and that of his people, at stake.
The film is an impassioned plea for arms control when general public opinion held that those who advocated it were fools, Communists or tools thereof.
Of course, along came Vietnam and proved that more and better technology wasn't necessarily the answer to a determined enemy who saw his survival, and that of his people, at stake.
The film is an impassioned plea for arms control when general public opinion held that those who advocated it were fools, Communists or tools thereof.
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