The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 1951)

It was the first of the “serious” science fiction pictures that came out of the Roswell incident in the late ‘40s, when people were starting to talk about flying saucers seriously. And because it was a big studio production, directed by Robert Wise, it has managed to survive, in the company of a lot of lower budget pictures that didn't quite have the aspirations The Day the Earth Stood Still did. It’s a pacifist movie that some have called a fascist movie, since the alien says we’re going to have to wise up or they’re going to blow us out of the universe! But it’s technically a terrific film, it’s got very good acting, and it’s got an amazing score by Bernard Herrmann using the theremin, which really set the tone for a lot of the subsequent music that we heard that decade.