In 1954 a little court case called Brown v. Board of Education declared all laws regarding the segregation of Schools unconstitutional. In 1957, The Civil Rights Act kick started the Civil Rights movement. On September 4th of ’57 the Arkansas National Guard was called out by the governor to prevent the integration of a high school in Little Rock by nine black students. It was a tense moment in American history where issues of race stirred up the fears of many white people who felt like their way of life was being threatened by the black community. In December of 1957, Universal International pictures released a film titled The Monolith Monsters. This why I love writing this blog…
The Monolith Monsters is about a little desert town called San Angelo. A meteor hits in the desert there and a piece is brought into town by a government official of the Department of the Interior. Once it is exposed to water, it grows until it destroys the man who brought it in. Meanwhile, a school teacher takes her students out to the desert on a fieldtrip where a little girl brings back a piece of the meteor to her home and places it into a tub of water to wash it. Same thing happens – it grows and destroys her home, kills her parents, and infects her. Long story short, these pieces of black meteorite get rained on just as the scientist figure out that it’s water that motivate their growth. They grow into huge monoliths and the collapse destroying everything in their paths…and they are heading STRAIGHT TOWARDS THE TOWN.
The scientists finally figure out that by adding salt to water it stops the growth of the monoliths and renders them inert. The only way to stop the oncoming juggernaut of the monoliths is by blowing up the dam and having the water run through the abandoned salt mines thus flooding the monoliths with salt water just in the nick of time. The Governor made the right call and the sleepy little desert community of San Angelo is saved from the huge, falling rocks.
Now comes the fun part…all the people in this community are white and see their way of life being threatened by these huge black monoliths. This can be read as a commentary on the race situation during this time: Black people invading White community in an attempt to destroy their way of life. The most notorious event at this time took place in Little Rock, Arkansas where nine black students enrolled in a white high school and were meet with threats, violence, and extreme racism…even the national guard.
In this film, it’s the Black HUGE Rocks who are depicted as the threat to the white community. It’s the government intervention that first brings the black rock into the community. It’s also on a school trip that the black rock causes so much harm after entering the community. The Monoliths are depicted as malevolent in their pursuit of expansion into the white community. They speculate about the destruction it will cause and band together to try and prevent it. The solution???? White Salt added to the White rush of damn water in a kind of baptism. It’s ironic that the white community has to destroy a dam created for their benefit in order to stop the onslaught of the Black Monoliths. Kind of like shooting yourself in the foot to prevent athlete’s foot.
The progressive stages of contamination to the little white girl by the black rocks. One character says of the governor, “When he sees what’s happening here, he’s sure to give permission to blow up the dam.” And the Arkansas governor did just that. He actually shut down all the public schools for quite a while rather than comply with the Supreme Court Ruling harming white students, black students, and the faculty of the time.
The interesting thing for me is that the meteor which grows into the monoliths is shown as a part of the natural universe. Yet one character comments that “the desert is full of things that don’t belong.” In an historical sense they are correct. Black people are not indigenous to North America, but in the grander “universe” they have been a part probably longer than Whitie! The Monoliths are also anthropomorphized as having some malicious intent against the white community when they are simply reacting to their environment and their nature. The rush of water that stops them at the end calls to mind the horrible race riots where fire hoses were used to subdue black protesters.
This is how a historical reading of a text works, though I doubt this was the intent of the film producers, it’s difficult not to see the historic associations in regards to the ideology of the film.
Chief Dan Corey: Evacuate? The entire town?
Dave Miller: Chief, the rocks are gonna come crashing through here like an avalanche over an anthill. There won't be a living thing left. You won't even be able to tell where San Angelo was.
Prof. Arthur Flanders: When they're no longer confined to the walls of the canyon, when they break out into the valley floor, their rate of multiplication is going to be frightening.
Chief Dan Corey: You mean they'll grow even faster?
Dave Miller: Each one that shatters will make a hundred more.
Prof. Arthur Flanders: When that hundred shatters, there'll be ten thousand of them. The third cycle will create a million. Unless we stop them, they'll spread over the whole countryside.
Chief Dan Corey: Evacuate? The entire town?
Dave Miller: Chief, the rocks are gonna come crashing through here like an avalanche over an anthill. There won't be a living thing left. You won't even be able to tell where San Angelo was.
Prof. Arthur Flanders: When they're no longer confined to the walls of the canyon, when they break out into the valley floor, their rate of multiplication is going to be frightening.
Chief Dan Corey: You mean they'll grow even faster?
Dave Miller: Each one that shatters will make a hundred more.
Prof. Arthur Flanders: When that hundred shatters, there'll be ten thousand of them. The third cycle will create a million. Unless we stop them, they'll spread over the whole countryside.
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