#23
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
[YT]OfpSXI8_UpY[/YT]
[YT]sIaxSxEqKtA[/YT]
[YT]1aK8I-CDQGQ[/YT]
[YT]rYbHpXca7U0[/YT]
Directed by … Robert Wise
Story by … Harry Bates
Screenplay by … Edmund H. North
Produced by … Julian Blaustein
Cinematography by … Leo Tover
Make Up Design by … Ben Nye
Costume Design by … Travilla and Clinton Sandeen
Art Direction by … Addison Hehr and Lyle R. Wheeler
Set Decoration by … Claude E. Carpenter and Thomas Little
Editing by … William Reynolds
Original Motion Picture Score composed by … Bernard Hermann
Michael Rennie ... Klaatu
Patricia Neal ... Helen Benson
Hugh Marlowe ... Tom Stevens
Sam Jaffe ... Professor Jacob Barnhardt
Billy Gray ... Bobby Benson
Frances Bavier ... Mrs. Barley
Lock Martin ... Gort
An alien lands and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets.
----------------------------------------------
A robot and a man . . . hold the world spellbound with new and startling powers from another planet!
----------------------------------------------
It's odd to think that fifty years from now there may only be a handful of movies released during this past decade that will be remembered at all. I won’t presume to make any guesses as to what they may be (though perhaps “The Dark Knight” remains the most prominent).
But it's easy to see that, while so many other films from 50 years past sank into obscurity, one of them remains exceedingly prominent and relevant.
One of the most intellectual films of its kind, 1951’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still” is a superior and unique example of 50s science fiction that chooses to provoke its audience to think and remain as realist as possible rather than bamboozle them with flying saucers running amok and the traditional Ed Wood fair.
Interesting both in itself and as a reflection of its era, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" may seem unspectacular now to those who are used to the extravagant science fiction pictures of the present time, but it deserves its place as a cinema classic.
Don’t misunderstand though, it IS visually arresting…just that the visuals don’t dominate the proceedings and are only utilized in favor of the storytelling.
The story is worthwhile in itself, and as soon as you set aside any preconceptions about what science fiction should involve, it also builds up some pretty good drama and suspense. Its perspective is also interesting to see as a reflection of the concerns of its era, which have such obvious similarities with those of the present.
The film gets straight into the action.
Behind the opening credits, we briefly observe the approaching spacecraft's journey across the Universe, into the Milky Way, and towards a tiny planet Earth. The spacecraft steeps into our atmosphere, the clouds disperse and we glimpse the familiar open ocean. Radio and television stations announce the mysterious UFO's presence to the world. It travels at supersonic speed – 4000 miles per hour – and nobody can identify exactly what it is (to add another layer of reality, some of the era's most famous broadcast journalists were hired to provide cameos as themselves – including Gabriel Heatter, H.V. Kaltenborn and Drew Pearson). Miraculously, the spacecraft slows above Washington D.C., and, to the horror of onlookers, lands dramatically on the Ellipse at President's Park.
A curious crowd begins to gather around the mysterious craft; squadrons of heavily-armed army personnel cautiously surround it. Along the spacecraft's perfectly smooth body, an entrance opens and a ramp is lowered to the grass. A spaceman, dressed in a shiny, silver suit and accompanied by a massive impenetrable robot named Gort, steps out into the view of the stunned crowd. His first words are friendly and reassuring: "we have come to visit you in peace and with goodwill." Nevertheless, at the first sudden movement, a soldier's pistol is fired and the spaceman is struck. Already, Man is demonstrating his uncanny ability for destruction.
As this mysterious spaceman, named Klaatu (Michael Rennie), reveals his intentions of saving the planet from potential obliteration, he is saddened to hear of the insurmountable gulfs between countries that hamper his plans. Embroiled in all their petty human politics, the countries of the world are simply unable to come to a mutual understanding, thus practically sealing their own demise. Klaatu quite easily flees from the detention of the hospital, assumes a new identity (as a Mr. Carpenter) and hires a room in a household full of with conspiracy theorists. It is here that he comes to know Helen Benson (Patricia Neal) and her son Bobby (Billy Gray).
It is the latter who – not knowing Klaatu's true identity – suggests that he visit Prof. Jacob Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe), purportedly one of the most intelligent men in the world. There is a familiar way in which Klaatu smiles at Barnhardt's complex mathematical calculations on the blackboard, as one would smile at a child learning addition and subtraction. It reminds us that, even with all our technological advancement, we are still but children in the eyes of the Universe. Nevertheless, Klaatu decides that, if anything is to be done to save the fate of the planet, it must take place through men whose judgment is not clouded by government policies and petty prejudices. He must approach the scientists of the world, the scholars of art, philosophy and culture; those whose only concern is the search for knowledge and happiness. It is not the bickering governments who will play any large part in this tale – the President of the United States doesn't even earn himself an appearance – but the uncorrupted hearts and minds of the rational thinkers.
Despite its low budget and stark design, it’s through the direction of Robert Wise (“Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” “West Side Story”
the themes and undertones of the story and the approach brought by the cast that makes “The Day the Earth Stood Still” shine as much as it does.
The movie deals with a theme that was at the forefront of so many peoples' minds in the early 1950s, in America and the rest of the world, and that is the conflicts between many different nations, and more generally the tendency for humans to fight each other. It was released at the time of the Red Scare and so soon after World War II that international tensions were still high. Also odd is that if you switch the last two words in the title, why, it's not very frightening at all!
Okay, that made no sense, but I couldn't resist.
My respect for the movie dimmed sharply when I saw that the alien was not only a man, but a good looking man who spoke perfect English, but then won back my respect completely when it took the time to explain that his culture had learned about humans through intercepting radio transmissions over many years. Unlikely, but it's an explanation, which is more than most science fiction films provide. Granted, not much time should be wasted on the science of science fiction, but in this case something had to be said. The alien didn't give may details as to his physical condition, but scientists hypothesized that since he so closely resembles a human, he must have a similar environment to our own on his planet.
Speaking of which, there is one thing about the science that I'm also curious about.
At what stage were astronomical studies in the early 1950s?
I'm wondering how far into space scientists were looking, because Carpenter, the alien, states with some grandeur that he has traveled 250 million miles to get to earth, which in astronomical terms is a tiny, tiny distance. Considering that the sun is 93 million miles from earth, this would mean that his planet is within our own solar system. And here's another little factoid – Earth makes a complete revolution around the sun every year, as you know. Pluto, on the other hand, takes something like 248 years to revolve around the sun. That has nothing to do with the movie, but is an interesting digression, I should think.
I found the political backdrop to be one of the most interesting aspects about “Day the Earth Stood Still,” and not only because of what the political landscape was like at the time. It was interesting to watch a movie about aliens that so quickly and completely dissolved into a close examination of volatile human relations, and without ever becoming preachy or devolving into peace propaganda (oxymoron intended). I actually think that a large part of what made up for the lack of aliens in this alien movie was the validity that its argument has.
When Carpenter (who they stopped just short of simply naming Jesus) was greeted with the response that a meeting with all of the worlds leaders was impossible because of tensions between nations, he was genuinely surprised and saddened. He gives as his reason for visiting earth the fact that his civilization has noticed satellites being launched around the Earth's atmosphere and, since humans clearly are unable to get along, he was sent here to tell us to join them and live in peace or face our present course and face obliteration. Most importantly, if we chose the latter, they would be there to ensure that we would not export our violence to peaceful civilizations in space. The descending nature with which he speaks is truly revealing, it makes humans look childish because of our constant battling with one another.
This is also where the movie coincides with some of the themes that Jonathan Swift presented in “Utopia,” his novel upon which several failed civilizations have been attempted. They have created robots, which we see in the Iron Man, to prevent the rise of violence in their society. The robots have tremendous power, which cannot be revoked, and at the first sign of violence they react swiftly against the aggressor, which results in a peaceful society.
I'm also reminded by the film of “Gulliver's Travels,” also by Jonathan Swift, particularly the section where Gulliver lives among the Houynymns which, interestingly enough, are talking horses with a remarkable ability to live at peace. When at one point Gulliver describes lying, which does not exist to the Houynymns, one of them responds incredulously with something like, "Why on Earth would one say something that isn't so?" Carpenter displays exactly the same shocked surprise when he learns of some of the awful characteristics of human beings, which seems to suggest that before we look for other civilized worlds in the galaxy, maybe we should work a little more on civilizing our own world.
But for all the inspiration that “The Day the Earth Stood Still” may have taken or, at least was in sync with, it’s nice to know that the film gave something back to.
“Klaatu Baradda Nikto”
I’m sure “Evil Dead” fans will be thrilled to see the origins of those strange words that Ash had such a hard time speaking in “Army of Darkness.”
A Cinamatic Gem that seems to be timeless, and is as fresh when viewed today as it was at the time of original showing in the Movie Houses of 1951. It truly boasts of having hit the high marks in just about every category that we can think of. Starting with Director, one Mr. Robert Wise, who over his long career managed to make some of the best films in just about every category. War, Biopic, Musical, Western and Sci-Fi.
The B & W film looks really good through its Leo Tover cinematography and puts one's mind on newspaper and other archival collections of photographs. This subtly, even subconsciously adds to the realism. Executing the shooting on locations right in the District of Columbia made for a look that could not be achieved on a Studio sound-stage.
The genre of science fiction has a much larger than average ratio of bad films to good ones, and I think the best ones are the ones that have a concrete connection to either the real world…or at least real character and emotion, as “The Day the Earth Stood Still” obviously does.
Given the political atmosphere of the past decade, it's obvious that humans have not taken much advice from this movie, but then again, as Arnold stated in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,”
"It's in your nature to destroy yourselves."
The film takes a theme which could have been overwhelmed by high-minded dialog, and distills it to its most profound and simplest elements through editing, and the screen adaptation (by Edmund North, who would later write Patton, and many lesser films). Fred Sersen's special effects are great - never hokey or overbearing. It is also one of Wise's earliest major successes, and it is as much a tribute to his talent that this film remains a landmark in modern sci fi as it is a testament to the story's excellent ethical points.
“The Day the Earth Stood Still” has aged a bit since its debut in 1951 but this does, in no way, take away from its influence. It has deservedly earned its place in the long list of classics from an age where science fiction was at its most prominent.
The 2008 remake? Go ahead and skip that one…
But this is a film not to be missed.
----------------------------------------------
Bleak & dark is greats although can get a bit flavour of the month sometimes you need a good old upbeat positive sci-fi film.
