Day the Earth Stood Still, The (1951)

With tomorrow's release of the 2008 version, I felt it was important to remember the film from which it sprung. This is my review of the original 1951 Robert Wise classic.

A little over a half century ago, the genre of science fiction seemed as promising and fascinating as the concurrent innovations in technology that were altering our world. Unfortunately, middle-aged virgins and acne-peppered adolescents hijacked it and absconded to their parent’s rec rooms and basements to collect it, obsess over it, and masturbate to it. The genre rots there- amidst the dark and dank of Junior’s makeshift “apartment” - as these insufferably unemployable pack rats sit around their computers smelling the tips of their fingers all day.

But it was not always thus.

Path forging authors like H.G. Wells and Jules Verne lent respectability to the genre. Further credibility came with the works of Arthur C. Clarke, Frank Herbert, Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick and occasionally Kurt Vonnegut. The movement was making inroads into the otherwise elitist world of literature. It wasn’t exactly Proust, or even Maugham for that matter, but it was literature to some degree, and often posed some exciting and clever scenarios.

In film, the work of George Melies (A Trip to the Moon), William Cameron Menzies’ Things to Come, and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis had undeniable artistic impact on the early cinema. After World War II, Red Scare paranoia gave the genre allegorical legitimacy with films such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), War of the Worlds (1953), The Thing from Another World (1951), The Atomic City (1952) and the best of the bunch, Robert Wise’s The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951).

Sensationalism and exploitation became the mainstay for most sci-fi fare of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s and fed the bourgeoning Drive-In craze. Then, in 1968, the genre realized its crowning film achievement with Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, paving the way for Lucas, Speilberg and the blockbuster mentality that continues to this day.

Unlike whiskey and whores however, science fiction has not become more respectable with age. Thematically, the D&D crowd, the Trekkies, the Ringers, and the last four Star Wars movies have caused irreparable damage to the genre. Strained through the sieve of “fantasy”, it has simply become a childish embarrassment. Most of the social or political relevance it once possessed has been lost to effects driven nonsense. Now, the genre has become the intellectual equivalent of having George Lucas come out for two hours and jangle his car keys in front of an increasingly infantilized audience.

The Day the Earth Stood Still is a reminder of how far the genre has since fallen. It also happens to be a great movie.

In 1951, six short years after World War II, as the seeds of the Cold War took root, Daryl F. Zanuck purchased Harry Bates’ source story Farewell to the Master for $500. The Day the Earth Stood Still arose from it, with Producer Julian Blaustein and writer Edmund H. North sculpting the script into a clarion call opposing the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Klaatu, an emissary from a far away planet, has come to Earth with his indestructible robot Gort to warn humanity of its bellicose folly. Klaatu is delivering an ultimatum; either the Earth ceases its use of nuclear arms and war-like behavior or Gort and his fellow galactic peacekeepers will destroy the world.

Being the first “A” budgeted sci-fi film from a major studio, the casting was a key element. Claude Rains was first approached for the role of Klaatu but was busy with a play in New York. Zanuck suggested Spencer Tracy but producer Blaustein (correctly so) insisted it should be a relative unknown. His argument being that if you see an alien visitor emerge from a spaceship and take off his helmet, you don’t want the audience to say, “Look, its Katherine Hepburn’s boyfriend!” It tends to ruin the underlying menace.

Zanuck happened to be in London before pre-production, saw English actor Michael Rennie in a play, signed him to a contract and introduced him to Blaustein. It was a perfect fit. Rennie was physically lean, near gaunt, and always acted with an underlying sense of intellectualism and assurance, ideal for the reserved, heady alien. The role became the most famous of his career and made his name stateside.

Patricia Neal was hired to play Helen, a widowed mother, who keeps her head amidst the hysteria, assisting Klaatu in bringing his message to humankind. Humorously, she believed the film to be another “B” picture with Martians and admitted afterward that she could barely keep a straight face when delivering some of the dialogue. She had no idea it would become a classic. Her performance belies this cavalier attitude however, as she created a remarkably strong and sympathetic character.

The ever-consistent direction of Robert Wise (The Haunting, The Sound of Music, The Andromeda Strain) serves the story well and relies on little gimmickry or outlandish special effects. The seminal, electronic score by Bernard Hermann was one of the first to use Theremins, later a cliché of the genre.

The film’s status as a cult classic is born of its timelessness. Its message of peace and cooperation is universal. Its still contemporary themes include weapons of mass destruction, an empowered female protagonist (who just might save the Earth), the belligerent and violent nature of man, xenophobia, mob rule, political mistrust and gridlock, international squabbling, and disastrous foreign policy decisions.

A fun example of the film’s enduring nature has the tenants of Helen’s boarding house sitting around discussing the alien visitation. One curmudgeonly man asks why the government refuses to act.

A Gentleman responds, “What can they do? They’re only people like us.”

To which the curmudgeon responds incredulously, “People my foot! They’re Democrats!”

As Klaatu (posing as a regular Joe) stands among the crowds gawking at the spaceship, he is asked by a radio reporter for a comment. He begins thoughtfully, “I am fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason”. The reporter quickly moves on, cutting Klaatu off, the sound bite being a bit too real for the interviewer and his dimwitted audience.

So, either The Day the Earth Stood Still is a very forward thinking and prescient film or we are in a state of political and intellectual retardation- probably a little of both.

The film does have some plot conveniences that prove unlikely. A spaceship has landed in the center of a park in Washington, D.C. yet there is no twenty-four hour media watch. Spectators go home at night, leaving only two (TWO!) soldiers to guard Gort and the spaceship. Gort has already dissolved a tank, a howitzer, and several rifles with his death ray at this point. A jerry-rigged wall of plywood and aluminum cordons them off.

The injured Klaatu (he is shot, of course, while offering peace) is taken to Walter Reed Hospital where extensive tests are run but no one thinks to take a photo of him. This proves handy after his escape, allowing him to go unrecognized by the earthlings for most of the picture.

In addition, Gort, who stands ten feet tall and is made of impenetrable metal, waltzes across downtown Washington unnoticed as he goes to save Klaatu and return him to the spaceship.

That is petulant nitpicking however. The film’s remarkably liberal message is combined seamlessly with a deliberate biblical parable; Klaatu, after all, does descend from the heavens, delivers a message of peace, is killed for his trouble, resurrects, and warns humanity about improper behavior and the hell storm to come if they do not mend their ways. He even adopts the name of “Carpenter” from the laundry ticket he finds in a confiscated suit.

Leaving us with the poser, whom would Jesus vaporize with his death ray?

Ultimately, The Day the Earth Stood Still acts as an allegory against mindless militarism, nuclear weaponry, and man’s inability to play nice, all dressed up as an intergalactic doomsday warning.

It portrays humanity as a fearful, violent, ignorant race of boobs, which, of course, we are. It won’t get an argument there.

Perhaps that’s the translation of Klaatu’s famous message to Gort.

Maybe “Gort, Klaatu berada nikto” simply means, “Let’s get the hell out of here. These people are idiots.”