The Monitors

Those who complain about this movie's production values should remember it's a Bell & Howell production--in other words, done by a company that may have known cameras, but not film production. So give it a break. I haven't seen it in many, many years. What do I remember? 1. The Monitor's radio/television jingle, the lyrics of which varied: "The Monitors are here, oh boy, they . . ." (Forgot the next 2 and a half lines.) Ending, in one case, with "God Bless America . . . and The Montors!" 2. A confrontation between Monitors and rebels on a flight of wide steps--one of many cinematic versions of the Odessa Steps scene in Eisenstein's Potemkin. 3. Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois, posing in his office in front of a framed ear of corn. (He passed away the year of the film's release.) 4. Ed Begley as the President, celebrating the Monitors' departure: "Back to the good old, bad old, good old days!" All told, a fun movie.

I remember watching this movie on late nite TV many times as a child. Although a bit slow it is a good movie and worth watching. The Monitors are a group of aliens which inhabit Earth and take responsibility as a sort of police force, bringing peace to the planet as well as technological and medical advancements. Although the Monitors are truly benign, an underground movement does not want the planet to be controlled by outsiders.

The TV series Earth Final Conflict seems suspiciously similar. The social statements are similar to those found in Metropolis, 1984, and Planet of the Apes, and Colossus: The Forbin Project, to name a few. The commentary questions government intervention in affairs domestic as well as foreign, and seems to question whether peace is better than the freedom of self-governance, and if "peace" can be enforced. It is also one of the few cold war science fiction movies that does not focus on the USSR by proxy.

I've begun to wonder if there are more than a few hundred people on earth who remembered Keith Laumer at all...but now I KNOW there aren't more than a few hundred people...

THE MONITORS is a sloppy movie (as befits the era it was made in, where people sometimes went against convention simply because it WAS convention), but the basic humor and theme are definitely still timely. Whoever owns this is a fool for not releasing it on DVD as a cult film.

However, if I had 10 or 20 million to make a film with, I wouldn't re-make what is actually one of Laumer's more minor works. I would commit Keith Laumer's greatest literary creation to celluloid; something that should have been done long ago.

Or is there no one left out there who remembers Jame Retief of the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne?

I've been hunting this movie down for the last 10 years. Saw in on late night TV and loved it. But no one thinks that it ever existed. Hopefully the parties involved in this movie decides to make some quick cash and release it for all of us poor chumps to watch and buy!

This used to turn up at 3AM on those stations you had to stick a coat hanger in the back of your TV to get semi-clearly, but I haven't seen it crop up in twenty years now. Aliens conquer the Earth, but the twist is that they bring peace and prosperity and the population rebels against it. Based on a book by Keith Laumer one of the movies more memorable moments are the recurring commercials promoting the Monitors that begin with a chorus singing "the moooo-nitors mmmm-mmmmmm....." Worth a look if you ever stumble across it.