This film, perhaps Spielberg's best among his more entertaining fair, is essentially about the war between wonder and fear. As human beings, we have an innate sensibility of fearing the unknown as a defense mechanism to combat those things which could be hostile and threaten our existence, be they at the individual level or at the societal level. History is filled with examples, usually of a tragic nature, in which human beings perpetrate against each other the worst kinds of inhumanity in the name of fear, be it religious, economic, or political. In large conflicts, human beings on each side rationalize that their adversaries are heinous monsters intentionally engaging in wrong-doing as an act of evil. Both sides, in other words, believe they are on the side "right" and vilify the other. In this circumstance, all behavior is dictated by fear rather than wonder.