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The Day The Earth Stood Still [1951]


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The Use of Violence As A Solution To All Problems
Review date: 2007-02-19 Rating: 10 out of 10


Klaatu: This comes from our own planet, but if you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder. Your choice is simple: join us and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer. The decision rests with you."IMDB

'The Day the Earth Stood Still' was one of the first movies in the 1950's to explore space travel and to provide a warning that "the use of violence as a solution to all problems" is an issue we need to face. All these years later we are still on this path and these words have not been taken seriously. This movie is known as the best Science Fiction movie ever written. 56 years later it still stands up. Patricia Neal had no idea this would be the case and had trouble keeping a straight face while reciting her lines.

Michael Rennie as Klaatu/Carpenter, as the spaceman who came to Earth to give us a warning. He takes up the persona of Mr. Carpenter and unfortunately is not taken seriously until it is too late. One of the reasons that Michael Rennie was cast as Klaatu was because he was generally unknown to American audiences, and would be more readily accepted as an "alien" than a more recognizable actor. Patricia Neal as Helen Benson is one of the few who does take him seriously, and with her son, Bobby,( a young Billy Gray) comes to love Mr. Carpenter. The world becomes afraid of this unknown spaceman, and of course we do him wrong. This black and white film won the Golden Globe in 1952 for "Promoting International Understanding"- why oh why do we not have such an award today?

One piece of trivia is that "Although he was already signed to play the Einstein-like Professor Barnhardt, the studio wanted to remove Sam Jaffe as a result of the political witch hunts that were then underway. Producer Julian BlaKlaatu:" Now, we do not pretend to have achieved perfection, but we do have a system, and it works. I came here to give you these facts. It is no concern of ours how you run yustein appealed to studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck. Zanuck allowed Jaffe to play the role, but it would be Jaffe's last Hollywood film until the late 1950s."

"In other words, it's not that these advanced worlds are a bunch of peace-loving little green men; in fact, they are governments that have voluntarily subjugated their sovereignty to a fascist organization that threatens them with annihilation unless they remain on the up-and-up. Klaatu's greatest hope for the people of Earth is that we can become enlightened enough to join his little group. No thanks. That's not peace as a choice, that's the kind of peace that's kept by threats and intimidation -- the kind of peace of people who would name a missile a Peacekeeper or a Patriot." Matt Bailey

The film is good at explaining how misunderstandings can develop between ordinary people and between nations and how easily fear can overwhelm reason and understanding. We also realize that optimism about the nature of human beings and our ease of resorting to violence and fear of the unknown is not our greatest virtue. Highly Recommended. prisrob 2-16-07




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Reviews


Delightful Gem
Review date: 2006-01-03 Rating: 8 out of 10

When the spaceship landed on the lawns of the White House, everyone was excited at what this portended for Earth and its relations with the rest of the Universe. However, when the alien finally came out of his ship and made his way down the ramp to meet those who had come to see him, a member of the military, who had surrounded the vessel, mistakes his peacefully reaching for a document as an attempt to reach for a weapon and shoots the alien Klaatu. Not to kill him, but he is badly wounded, which elicits a response from the starship in the form of Klaatu's robotic companion, Gort. Gort destroys those watching in everyone's expectations of the evil robot.
Meanwhile in hospital, Klaatu thinks he's talked the doctor in charge of his case into assembling the world's leading scientists so he could describe what had brought him to Earth. But it doesn't take him long to realise that he is just being strung along and the doctor had no intention of fulfilling his requests so Klaatu escaped into the Washington suburbs where he takes a place in a local boarding house along with a young widow and her inquisitive son. As the government desperately hunts for him, Klaatu makes contact with a local scientist whom he uses to pass on his request for the world's scientists to assemble at his ship. And this time, there's a definite threat involved, for just before the meeting was called, all devices dependant on electricity stopped working.
Klaatu's message: Don't fight. Put the planet's resources into improving the lot of the masses. If Earth persisted in its militaristic ways, then the Federation would have to act and Earth would find itself destroyed. And there was a surprise revelation; Gort was not Klaatu's servant, but his master, one of the guardians of the Federation.
Few of the humans in the film come out looking good - the government forces, at best, looking foolish and at worst, decidedly duplicitous and the inhabitants of Klaatu's boarding house mirrored their attitudes, with Helen Benson, the widow woman, as the only decent person amongst them. Her fiancé proved to suspicious of the new member of the household, particularly when it appeared his woman was taking an inordinate interest in the stranger!
What makes this film so special is that it was written and made in the early fifties at the height of the Cold War paranoia, when Reds under the bed were everyone's favourite enemy, and yet this shows the Government as the enemy, over reacting to Klaatu and his message in precisely the wrong way. Having Michael Rennie in the part of Klaatu certainly did not do any harm to the film as he managed the role in an extremely dignified manner.

�There are signs of normalcy�
Review date: 2005-07-06 Rating: 10 out of 10

We are visited by a flying saucer that lands near the U.S. capital. As a precaution the saucer is surrounded by the military with tanks, carbines, and side arms. The ship opens up and a being, Klaatu (Michael Rennie), steps out. He makes a menacing move with a foreign object. A quick thinking well trained military man shoots first.

Why are we being visited? A mysterious man named Mr. Carpenter may hold the answer. However the only people that will listen to the message are the world's scientists. To bring his point home Klaatu holds a demonstration. The result of the demonstration gives the movie its title "The Day the Earth Stood Still"

Besides being a classic this movie also captures a time. It is intriguing looking at the technology of the time and even the locations before they changed (some have not changed).

It is still fun to watch as Klaatu is encountered, detained, and the state of the governments (does not look like things have changed much). We all want to say to Gort "Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!"

This movie was better built than most for its time and rivals some movies of today. The message is still relevant and we sometimes try to apply the same solution here.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Michael Rennie
Billy Gray
Patricia Neal
Sam Jaffe
Hugh Marlowe

Creators:
Michael Rennie (Primary Contributor)
Patricia Neal (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
EAN: 5039036020428
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Black & White, PAL,
Release date: 2005-04-18
Audience rating: Universal, suitable for all
Region code: 2
Running time: 88 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1951
Language: English (Original Language)

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