The Mysterians is one of the great titles in all of the history of film. I immediately want to know what they are, who they are, what they want. Well it turns out that they are aliens who have come to Earth covertly to steal women to help reinvigorate their declining population. It's not a novel motivation for aliens, as we've known that Mars and other planets need women for women time. Women are certainly something that many of us want. But Ishiro Honda's The Mysterians presents this hoary theme with no small amount of imagination and vigor.
Honda's message in The Mysterians is simple. Mankind must put aside its petty differences and worth together in harmony to fend off greater threats from beyond. There's a naive elegance to the idea, but it's aspirational simplicity demands attention, at least in my eye. We fight among ourselves here, with often terrifying consequences, but we much quench those pugnacious passions to achieve greater goods as our footprints begin to spread into the depths of space. This was a real goal in the time when The Mysterians was made, though sadly the world has grown all too inward looking in past decades to really and truly reach for the stars.
More to come.
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This and George Pal's War of the Worlds defined "alien invasion spectacle" for me as Earth threw it's best and bravest at the nasties in all-out conflict!
ReplyDeleteThis time, though, we came out the victors due to our own ingenuity, not sheer luck!
Toho's follow-up, Battle in Outer Space loosely ties-in as Earth has formed an international space force to battle alien threats, which are apparently lining up to take a crack at us.
There's a third film, Gorath, using the same international organization to avoid Earth beging destroyed by an asteroid...by moving the Earth off its' orbit!
I very much enjoyed Battle in Outer Space. It's a strange tale which moves slowly at times, but with momentum to a satisfying conclusion. It has some real heroism if some goofy military tactics. Gorath I have read about but never seen. I'd love to find a copy some day for relative cheap and give it a go.
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