great sci fi

I also thought this was a critique of the human race, not Cold War rhetoric.

Agreed. This film offers an intelligent and provocative exploration of human nature as well as mankind's capacity for either self-destruction or self-preservation. 8 out of 10 from me.

I am the Duke of IMDb bio writers! I am A#1!

Agreed. Easy to write it off as simplistic, low budget and western centric (perhaps I just mean American centric) but I enjoyed this pleasingly old fashioned film.

Watched it today and I loved it

Always amazing to find defenders of this film... SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT!
In the finale of the film the destructive capsules provided by the alien are proven to have a special feature... They can be programmed to simply destroy "All known enemies of freedom" worldwide. Now, I have to wonder at the word "known" in that phrase, because, apparently they are known both to the characters in the film and to the aliens who designed the capsules. Their identities were assumed to be self evident to Mr. Mantley, who wrote the book and the screenplay, as all the communist leaders and apparatchiks.

That's all there is to it in the film, and it can really only be seen as an anti-communist screed. The book is not a lot more nuanced... Those commies die but there is a more general effect.
"If the power could be set to attack only human cells, it obviously could be set to attack specific kinds of cells." ***
“Now, supposing that the evil man, which is not really very far from the angry man, has another kind of secretion—supposing his brain cells or his bloodstream, or perhaps every cell in his body, has a higher percentage of this malignant secretion than the average. The Alien power certainly could be set to attack those cells where the secretion index was above a certain level. With those high above the basic norm, so many cells would be destroyed that die attack would be fatal. With those with somewhat less, it would be highly painful.” *** “On the other hand, the explanation may be even ampler. Perhaps what we call ‘evil’ in men is only the instinct of aggression developed to an abnormal degree. And it is possible that aggressive impulses are the product of a certain segment of the brain, like the speech or memory centers. It may be that the capsules merely attacked this segment of the cortex and killed our aggressive instincts. It’s too soon to tell, but we may discover we now live in a world where competitive sports do not exist any longer."

i am watching it now