The Old Man in the Cave

Thought provoking, yes, but Serling's closing statement tends to annoyingly simplify the meaning in a way that I just cant accept. The people who have survived a nuclear war are so wretchedly hungry and miserable it is hard to judge them whoever they follow. Other TZ's depict some sort of survival after a nuclear war but this one shows a pointless encore for the human race. There just isn't a palpable human spirit among the survivors. Is faith more useful than knowledge?- not for me! An 'old man' in a cave who never comes out is an absurd rationale for detecting which food sources are contaminated by radiation. This story shows me that a lack of knowledge is dangerous - not lack of faith.

You can easily find real world counterparts to Major French and Mr Goldsmith but I grew a little tired of this post-apocalypse preachy stuff.

Do you put your faith in an unseen person who has kept you safe 10 years or do you put your faith in a authoritative person you can see, but is new to you?

We always put our faith in something whether it be science, religion, family, friends, political parties, government, etc. or ourselves. Unfortunately this is like trying to guess the future, sometimes we are correct, sometimes not.

In this case putting your faith in the wrong thing can have dire consequences, but who is to say it would have turned out differently if the choice of faith was different? Our target of faith may be fallible or our interpretation of directions may be incorrect.

In 1974, ten years after the ultimate nuclear war, a group of survivors under the leadership Goldsmith lives in a small town. Goldsmith is the liaison between the survivors and an old man in a cave that gives advices of how to live in the destroyed land. When four soldiers under the command of Major French arrives in the town, they question Goldsmith and wants to see the old man.

"The Old Man in the Cave" is a tragic episode of "The Twilight Zone". The plot is based on the fear of American people in the cold war and is presently dated. Nevertheless, is a great episode, with a great duel of Major French and Goldsmith. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Velho da Caverna" ("The Old Man from the Cave")

I'm not religious, but it's pretty clear that this great apocalyptic episode is pretty much taken straight from the Old Testament Biblical parable of Elijah leading a village of Israelites in the wilderness. In the parable, God, through his prophet Elijah, withholds food from Elijah's people. The non-believer Ahab comes to the village and confronts Elijah, asking how a true God could deny His people food. Ahab also says a true God would not speak just through one person- Elijah-and demands to be shown proof that this God exists. In the episode Goldsmith is Elijah and James Coburn's army commander is Ahab. The Old Man In the Cave is you-know-who. This episode asks: what would happen if the people followed the non-believer instead of the true prophet? The arch-eyebrowed Rod Serling pretty much sums it up at the conclusion when he states that those who do not have "faith" must pay. Pretty heavy handed but nice.

Depending on which part of this show you pick, you can get different interpretations.

The final dialogue in the show talks about "faithlessness". But, what I got from the show revolves around the people's destruction of "the old man in the cave". People have difficulty trusting someone or something that is different from themselves. Difficulty trusting something they can't understand or relate to.