Almost always in the cinematic world, when aliens come to visit Earth, there ends up being a smackdown. Whether it’s Will Smith chomping a cigar and punching an alien pilot, or half a dozen Hollywood A-listers being massacred by Martian ray guns courtesy of Tim Burton, extra-terrestrials are usually cast as invaders, whether they’re body snatching or just fancy blowing up the White House for no apparent tactical reason.
In honour of Close Encounters of the Third Kind getting a loving re-release, however, we thought we’d take a cue at Set The Tape from that slice of Spielbergian sweetness and take a look at a few films that buck the trend. Films where beings from another world haven’t come to enslave or destroy all humans but actually are, y’know, quite nice.
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951)
In one of the earliest, classic 1950’s B-pictures which evolved out of the darkness of the Second World War, and the growing craze of flying saucers in popular culture, The Day the Earth Stood Still saw the arrival of Klaatu, an alien who looks suspiciously human, who lands in Washington DC in his ship with his tall, alien robot Gort, and imparts a crucial message to humanity: if you carry on as you have done, with global conflict and the threat of atomic war, you are doomed to destruction. Like many 50’s sci-fi movies, a strong anti-Cold War message ran at the heart of Robert Wise’s seminal film, and many have drawn significant parallels between Klaatu and one Mr Jesus Christ subsequently. Intentional? Well he uses the pseudonym ‘John Carpenter’. Go figure.
Remade incidentally in 2008 with Keanu Reeves as Klaatu. It was unsurprisingly a critical flop, even if frankly Keanu sometimes makes a more convincing alien than he does human.
SUPERMAN (1978)
Speaking of Christ parallels! The most famous kindly alien of all in 20th century cinema has to be Superman aka Clark Kent, a geeky journalist and son of a farming couple after he crash-lands in middle America as a baby after the destruction of his planet, Krypton. Already one of the most famous comic book characters in history, dating back to the 1930’s, it took until 1978 for Supes to get the proper big screen treatment thanks to Richard Donner’s ground breaking superhero film. Numerous sequels have followed, many with Christopher Reeve as Superman in the role that marked his tragically short career, but none come close to the magic of this original, alongside John Williams’ legendary score.
Let’s try and forget the fact recently Superman has been pitched, in Henry Cavill’s version, as a morally dubious alien God-figure. Superman is the purest of pure alien hero characters who falls in love with a human girl and humanity itself.
E.T. THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL (1982)
The year of my birth saw the year loveable E.T. struggled to “phone home” in Steven Spielberg’s heartwarming tale of a lonely boy named Elliott, who befriends a stranded alien creature and along with his friends attempts to keep him secret from his family and the US government, aides ET in his efforts to return to his home planet. Though not the same story as Close Encounters, in some respects you could consider E.T. a companion piece to his 1977 picture, focusing on an alien visitor who is more in danger of human forces than the reverse. That seems be a common thread across these ‘kindly alien’ stories – the real bad guys are us, quite often.
Spielberg told this story with his usual eye for family friendly visuals – who can forget ET and Elliott cycling past the moon?
CONTACT (1997)
Adapted from an earlier novel by scientist and all-round believer in extra-terrestrial life Carl Sagan, Contact is an antithesis to a decade which saw the rise of the alien invader picture in a way not seen since the even more paranoid 1950’s. Jodie Foster gives a heart felt performance as astronomer Ellie Arroway, who balances living with the loss of her beloved father as a child with her determined search for alien intelligence. Robert Zemeckis has much the same touch of magic as his frequent producing partner Spielberg, and pushes away from the alien paranoia aspects of the 90’s typified in shows such as The X-Files by making Ellie a scion of discovery and forward thinking as historic attempts to contact an alien civilisation are forged.
With an outstanding supporting cast (including Matthew McConaughey in an early, great turn as a priest who is willing to believe in aliens), it’s a hugely underrated, often quite gorgeous example of aliens turning out to be a force for good.
ARRIVAL (2016)
Oddly enough there feels like similarities between Contact and Arrival, from rising director Denis Villeneuve, who last year delivered an Oscar-baiting take on making contact with an alien intelligence. It has a strong female in the lead role, this time Amy Adams as an expert linguist drafted in to help the government make contact with an alien ship that has landed, without preamble, in the middle of Montana, as have others around the world. The difference is that we don’t know for some time whether or not an invasion is underway, with the film playing its cards close to its chest, while delivering a rather emotional undercurrent of a backstory for Adams’ character.
To reveal more would do an excellent, intriguing film a disservice and rob a level of payoff, but Arrival ends up subverting the ‘evil aliens’ trope in fascinating, modern ambiguous ways, making it one of the standout films of 2016.
Let us know your favourite films which feature friendly aliens? Do you have different choices? Leave a comment below or on our social media pages!