theyre democratsUpdated: An apropos line (or two) from the original 1951 sci-fi movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still” got a big response from a packed house Monday night at the Heights Theater in Columbia Heights, just outside Northeast Minneapolis. The movie’s main theme, with the Cold War coming on, was a plea for world peace, but the “Democrats” line in particular seemed to speak to the current political war over health care reform. Video clips after the jump.

The exchange that drew laughs and applause at the Heights:

MR. BARLEY (snorting, he tosses his paper down): Why doesn’t the Government do something — that’s what I want to know.

MR. KRULL (mildly): What can they do? They’re only people – Just like us.

MR. BARLEY: People, my foot! They’re Democrats!

Barley seems to think the Democrats in government quite capable (even superhumanly so) and thus obligated to do something about the problem facing society — in this case, not runaway health care costs but an alien from outer space on the loose in the nation’s capital. (Little does he know that the alien Klaatu is in fact seated just across the table.)

The setting of the scene, a boarding house in Washington, D.C., could itself be ripped from recent headlines. It’s like the C Street House where members of the crypto-religious group known as The Family live and try to talk one another out of extramarital (though not extraterrestrial) affairs.

Update: Commenter Bob Moffit cites another timely health-related line that drew howls at the Heights, in which a military doctor allows that American medical care is inferior to that on Klaatu’s home planet: ”He says their medicine is that much more advanced.”

Here are the video clips, followed by excerpts from the final draft of the screenplay:

Boarding house scene:

Hospital scene:

INT. BOARDINGHOUSE – DINING ROOM – DAY

Five of the boarders — Mr. and Mrs. Barley, Mr. Krull, Helen Benson and Klaatu – are finishing their Sunday morning breakfast. Mrs. Barley is a middle-class Helen Hokinson lady, form and unrelenting. Her husband is a born complainer. Mr. Krull is a shriveled little accountant, precise and finicky. As they finish their coffee, all except Helen are immersed in the Sunday papers. Helen seems preoccupied with her own thoughts. From a portable radio on the table comes Gabriel Heater’s voice.

GABRIEL HEATER’S VOICE
–and so, this Sunday morning, we ask the question that’s been plaguing; the entire nation for two days now: “Where is this creature and what is he up to?” If he can build a space ship that can fly to Earth — and a robot that can destroy our tanks and guns — what other terrors can he unleash at will? …Obviously we must find this monster. We must track him down like a wild animal and destroy him.

INSERT – NEWSPAPER PAGE IN MRS. BARLEY’S HANDS

It is a full page layout, in the style of the American Weekly, showing a demented artist’s conception of a mass invasion of space ships. Weird-looking creatures are slaughtering Earth people with ray guns. The caption at the top of the image reads: “Are We Long For This World?” (Gabriel Heater’s voice continues uninterruptedly over this and the next two scenes.)

CLOSE SHOT – KLAATU

He is reading his paper with considerable interest.

INSERT – NEWSPAPER STORY

The third-page story reads: SAVANT CALLS MEETING TO STUDY SPACE SHIP. Professor Jacob Barnhardt, world-famous scientist and Nobel Prize winner, has invited fellow scientists from all over the world to meet with him in Washington and study the recently landed “Space Ship.”

CLOSE SHOT – KLAATU

His face is thoughtful as he finishes reading. This story seems to impress and interest him. Then suddenly he finds his attention caught at what the Radio Voice is saying.

GABRIEL HEATER’S VOICE
But where would such a creature hide himself? Would he disappear into the north woods? Or would he slither off into the sewers of some great city?

Klaatu has a reaction of affronted dignity at this monstrously distasteful idea.

GROUP SHOT

AS THE RADIO VOICE CONTINUES:

GABRIEL HEATER’S VOICE
There is grave danger — everyone agrees to that. The question is what can we do to protect ourselves? What measures can we take that will–

During the above, Mrs. Barley has turned to her husband in sharp annoyance.

MRS. BARLEY
George, I wish you’d turn that radio off. I’m trying to concentrate.

Mr. Barley reaches out and snaps off the radio.

MR. BARLEY
(snorting, he tosses his paper down)
Why doesn’t the Government do something — that’s what I want to know.

MR. KRULL
(mildly)
What can they do? They’re only people — Just like us.

MR. BARLEY
People my foot! They’re Democrats!

MR. KRULL
It’s enough to give you the shakes. He’s got that robot standing there — ten-foot tall — just waiting for orders to destroy us.

HELEN
(thoughtfully)  This space man — or whatever he is. We automatically assume he’s a menace… Maybe he isn’t at all.

MR. BARLEY
(glaring at her for this silly notion) Then what’s he hiding for? Why doesn’t he come out in the open?

MR. KRULL
Yeah. (indicating the radio) Like the fella says: “What’s he up to?”

HELEN
Maybe he’s afraid.

MRS. BARLEY
(with a derisive snort) He’s afraid!

HELEN

After all, he was shot the moment he landed here. (she pauses for a moment thoughtfully)  I was just wondering what I would do.

KLAATU
(to Helen, helpfully) Perhaps before deciding on a course of action, you’d want to know more about the people here — to orient yourself in a strange environment.

MRS. BARLEY
(sharply) There’s nothing strange about Washington, Mr. Carpenter.

KLAATU
(quietly, tongue in cheek) A person from another planet might disagree with you.

INT. SITTING ROOM – WALTER REED HOSPITAL

Two Medical Corps officers, a Captain and a Major are interestedly studying a series of X-ray films.

MAJOR
The skeletal structure is completely normal. (pointing) Same for the major organs -– heart,
liver, spleen, kidneys.

CAPTAIN
And the lungs are the same as ours. Must mean a similar atmosphere – similar pressure.
(nodding, toward Klaatu’s room) How old do you think he is?

MAJOR
Oh, I’d say forty-five.

CAPTAIN
(smiling) He told me this morning when I examined him. He’s seventy-eight.

MAJOR
I don’t believe it.

CAPTAIN
Their life expectancy is a hundred and thirty.

MAJOR
How does he explain that?

CAPTAIN
He says their medicine is that much more advanced. (the major stares at him blankly) He was very nice about it. But he made me feel like a third-class witch doctor.

The door to Klaatu’s rooms opens and Major White appears. He’s the man who attended Klaatu the day before. He closes the door behind him and stands motionless facing the other two, his face wearing a blank expression.

MAJOR WHITE
I took a bullet out of that man’s arm yesterday.

FIRST MAJOR
What about it?

MAJOR WHITE
(utterly bewildered) 
I just examined the wound and it’s all healed.

FIRST MAJOR
What does he say about it?

MAJOR WHITE
Said he put some salve on it — some stuff he had with him.
(shows them a small, odd-looking tube in his hand)

CAPTAIN
What are you going to do with it?

MAJOR WHITE
Take it downstairs and have it analyzed. (on his way to the door, shaking his head)
Then I don’t know whether I’ll just get drunk or give up the practice of medicine.