If you haven't seen the "The Day The Earth Stood Still" remake don't worry, you're not missing much - well except for what was an anti war movie now has an environmental twist. In a nut shell the Earth is visited by an alien who has decided the planet needs to be saved and the one species who have fraked it up needs to go - that would be us. But reasoning with the alien ( Keanu Reeves ) on a scientific level is none other then . . . Basil Fawlty or rather in a very serious role, Monty Pythons very own John Cleese.
In what was one of the few if not only standout moments in this rather odd remake caused for me what can only be called an "ah ha" moment when it came to Cleese and Keanu.
Cleese plays a Nobel Prize-winning scientist ( I'm not joking ) – the dialogue which I painstakingly had to use the pause, rewind, play and pause button several times went something like this:
Cleese: Well, there must be alternatives. You must have some technology that could solve the problem.Keanu: The problem is not technology. The problem is you. You lack the will to change.Cleese: Then help us change.Keanu: I cannot change your nature. You treat the world as you treat each other.Cleese: But every civilisation reaches a crisis point eventually.Keanu: Most of them don’t make it.Cleese: Yours did. How?Keanu: Our sun was dying. We had to evolve in order to survive.Cleese: So it was only when your world was threatened with destruction that you became what you are now.Keanu: Yes.Cleese: Well, that’s where we are. You say we’re on the brink of destruction, and you’re right. But it’s only on the brink that people find the will to change; only on the precipice that we evolve. This is our moment – don’t take it from us. We are close to an answer.
This past week I've heard the term "political will" along with "being on the brink" then comes this flick and it all makes sense. Seemed poetic to see this nicely summed up in a random viewing of a movie I never had pegged as a call to action to protect the planet.
When we are at the brink of Copenhagen and global climate change this coming week I hope they play this movie on the airplanes of all those who are going because we are close to that answer and we are on the brink. This is our moment otherwise the ending of this movie may become a reality where we pay the ultimate price: no electricity, no cars, no trains, no oil, no man made pollution - wait a minute I'm waiting for the bad part.
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