The Day the Earth Stood Still

It's not everyday that a flying saucer lands on the White House lawn. That's exactly what happened in "The Day the Earth Stood Still," then emerged a humanoid figure going by the name of Klaatu (Michael Rennie). Following him, after he was shot by a U.S. soldier, was a large robot made of an unearthly impregnable metal that shot disintegrating rays from a visor where eyes would normally be. It was an impressive display of strength and power, but what could these aliens want.

We learn that Klaatu has been sent to Earth as a warning. Earthlings can fight amongst themselves all they want, but the universe is growing smaller and their aggression may seep out beyond Earth's borders onto other planets. That will not be tolerated.

TDTESS is a cool sci-fi flick. I saw the '08 remake with Keanu Reeves, yet I didn't have the same takeaways from that movie. Being that the original was shortly after WWII, its message was extremely pertinent. TDTESS is not going to scare anybody, but it is thought provoking and somewhat suspenseful. I say, take off your 2021 hat for a spell and enjoy a film from 1951.

A UFO lands on the Washington Mall which is quickly surrounded by the military. Klaatu (Michael Rennie) emerges and tries to make contact. A nervous soldier accidentally shoots him. His robot Gort comes out to defend him. He's brought to Walter Reed hospital and he asks to meet all of the world's representatives. International squabbling makes a meeting impossible. Klaatu escapes the hospital and goes to a boarding room where widow Helen Benson (Patricia Neal) and her son Bobby are staying. While Helen has the day with Tom Stephens, Klaatu babysits Bobby and learns about the world. Bobby leads Klaatu to Helen's boss Professor Jacob Barnhardt. It is an iconic 50s sci-fi. The story is timeless although it doesn't have many exciting thrills. The 50s style directions are a little stiff. The staging is somewhat static but it is still quite compelling. This is more of a message movie and Gort is one of the great robots of all time.

A spacecraft makes its way towards the earth, it's like a saucer with a rounded, curving girth, when it lands, a man descends, he comes in peace, wants to make friends, and then he's shot, because of difference, we're averse. A robot then appears and shows its power, disintegrating weapons, with its glower, but the alien assailed, gets the giant to curtail, though the sentiment is clear for all to see. It's not too long before the foreigner has gone, assimilating to a world gone wrong, finding out about mankind, finding out how we're so blind, to trajectories that lead to our extinction.

I don't think the message is any different all these years later, just more pertinent.

This science fiction classic is more relevant than ever, and I don't mean its silly message about peace. Yes, yes, we're all violent, silly, war-like humans, and we should all throw away our guns and atomic bombs posthaste if we know what's good for us. Thanks, Klaatu. We'll get right on that. Meanwhile, we'll enjoy the chance to watch your story on DVD because we live in an age – yes, of war and cruelty and weapons of mass destruction – but also of Jar Jar Binks and "Alien vs. Predator."

Klaatu (Michael Rennie) is a gentlemanly outer-space alien who comes to earth in his flying saucer to send us Earthlings a very important message. Sadly, we shoot him on arrival and try to imprison him in a hospital room. He escapes, however, and goes out among us to find the basis for our "strange, unreasoning attitudes." He takes a room in a boarding house, where he meets the widowed Mrs. Benson (Patricia Neal) and her young son (Billy Gray). The widow is being romanced by an insurance salesman (Hugh Marlowe), who later displays a lust for glory that endangers Klaatu – and thus the rest of the world. Klaatu is in better hands when he reveals himself to Professor Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe), a brilliant scientist and the best hope for the survival of Earth.

It's funny, but I never think about this movie in terms of that plot outline. To me, this film is composed of small moments about people – especially Mrs. Benson. Mention "The Day the Earth Stood Still" to me, and the first thing I think about is that moment where the strange new boarder tells her that he'd like to spend the day with her son. She hesitates a moment and says in a lowered voice, "Well, that's awfully nice of you to suggest it." It's a tiny moment about her concern for her son, her good manners and her intelligent ability to reply quickly and diplomatically. Patricia Neal, not Gort the robot, makes this movie come alive for me.

The real reason this story is so fresh is because – it's a good story. It's not an excuse to slap us senseless with fast-paced cutting or drown us in great globs of special effects. It has an engaging plot with warm, interesting characters. If we stupidly (and as you know, Klaatu, we humans can be so very stupid) limit ourselves to the New Releases section of the video store, we forget that some sci-fi thrillers put story before special effects.

The trick work in this movie is excellent, though. I think the robot looks silly, but when Gort opens its visor and we hear that unnerving theremin music, we don't care that this supposedly metallic creature bends like Styrofoam at the knees. We know those laser beams eyes are about to scorch everything in their sight.

Michael Rennie makes up for Gort's deficiencies. He gives what easily could have been a humorless, sanctimonious character a quiet, graceful authority. His slightly otherworldly looks add to the illusion; and Neal as Mrs. Benson completes it by reacting to him with obvious respect – even when she fears him.

Under Robert Wise's direction, every shot is strikingly composed and brings out the maximum dramatic potential of the story. The sense of rhythm and pacing is beautifully suspenseful. Bernard Herrmann, with the theremin as one of his instruments, gives the movie both a nervous tension and a sense of wonder. And the story is so perfectly constructed that it even gets away with a big speech for a climax.

What's the heart of this movie? There's a bravura sequence where Billy Gray secretly follows Rennie from the boarding house to his spaceship. It's a simple, wordless scene where the entire team of filmmakers – and that goes double for Herrmann – meld the ordinary and the fantastic. You want a special effect? That's it.

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. 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 story itself sometimes moves rather slowly, and the focus is really more on the reactions to Klaatu's arrival than on the action itself. As Klaatu, Michael Rennie stays pretty low-key, as does the rest of the cast much of the time. Although there are times when the movie might lack some energy as a result, in general it probably works better that way than it would have if there were too much forced emphasis on the urgency of Klaatu's mission, which is more than able to speak for itself. The ideas behind the story are fairly simple, but they are, of course, just as significant now (or in practically any other era) as they were in the 1950's.