Lousy SF, Bad aliens, bad alien tech, etc; and low budget, shabby film making, although I can't blame the producers much for that, in those days SF wasn't attracting much in the way of interest or support from filmakers or audiences. That whole era only gave us three decent SF flicks, War of the Worlds, The Thing, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The first was scary and creepy and had great SFX, the second featured tight dialog, precise pacing, and terrific claustrophobic suspense, Snatchers had real actors in it, and they acted! What a concept.

As for Day's value as a moral document or ethical statement, it was wimpy, limp-wristed, feel-good Kumbaya liberal propaganda, and I recognized it as such when I first saw it as a kid. No, I don't disagree with the idea that war is phoobah, but I don't like getting hammered over the head with the lecture as if I were some drooling warmongering Prussian. War is a complex and tragic afffair, and just telling me its bad, and using a Gort- out-of-the-machine plot device to carry the story, does little to examine the roots of the problem or possible solutions to it.

In essence, the film is a cinematographic analog to the statement: "Violence never solves anything." Bullshit! As Heinlein pointed out, violence is the ultimate solution to EVERY problem. It may not be the best, in fact, it is usually the worst, but it works every time.

AAAARGH! I'm on a roll now!