Warning from Space, a Japanese sci-fi “thriller” from 1956, is an extremely ridiculous movie.
But I had confused it with Message from Space, also Japanese but from 1978, which is in fact not as good. (What is he talking about?!)
I had wanted to entitle this cast “Message from Space”.
That is because the messages we need so urgently to receive from Space, i.e., from God, come in often ridiculous, and certainly unexpected forms. (“O Little Town of Bethlehem”)
One is constantly trying to shoehorn reality into a preconception. So I want to believe a particular person is_ this_ way, i.e., my way; but he or she is not. They are their way. I’m desperate for someone to approve of me who doesn’t, while all the time not seeing the person who does approve of me and who is actually right there in front of me.
This is why I love Ritchie Blackmore — or the Ritchie Blackmore whom Joe Meek kept calling on in the early 1960s to insert flashy guitar solos into otherwise lame material. It happens again and again! ‘God’ — in this case equivalent to Ritchie — shows up and blows away the “reality” of the dumb song and makes it into something… well, transcendent.
I invite you to listen to the Ritchie Blackmore oddnesses in your own personal history — and even now. “That’s what the Good Book says”: Remember.
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