Day the Earth Stood Still

The Day the Earth Stood Still. (1951) Directed by Robert Wise

"Gort! Klaatu barada nicto!"  Helen Benson.

When this movie was made, Patricia Neal, who played Helen Benson, thought it would be another schlocky flying saucer B movie.  However, the test of time has pronounced another sentence.  It was voted the #5 most important Sci-Fi movie of all time by the American Film Institute, and is the 201 top movie on IMDB.com.

The plot is simple.  A flying saucer makes it's presence known, landing on the Lawn in Washington D.C.  The occupant, Klaatu, is shot by an over nervous soldier.  In the hospital, he says he is here to deliver a message to all the Earth.  He must speak to all nations and peoples at the same time.  The politicians assure him this is impossible.

Klaatu slips quietly out of the hospital, and into our midst.  (Red scare, anyone?  They look just like us!)  While the military searches desperately for him, he quietly settles into a boarding house, where he meets Helen Benson, and her son, Bobby (Billy Grey).  Here, he learns about us from a cross section of humanity, or at least the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant section of it.  Frances Bavier (yes, Aunt Bea) plays Mrs. Barley, who demonstrates our ability to be suspicious and still miss the point and Hugh Marlowe portrays Tom Stevens, Helen's suitor.  And unsuitable he proves to be.  He demonstrates our propensity for self advancement at the cost of more important concerns.

While everyone around him searches desperately for him, Klaatu, in the guise of Mr. Carpenter, learns all about us from the naïve and possibly brain damaged Bobby Benson.

Meanwhile, the military wears themselves out trying to break into the saucer or to scratch the surface of the robot Gort.

Finally, Klaatu hits upon the idea of talking to a world conference of scientists, headed by the brilliant Dr. Barnhardt (Sam Jeffe).  Solving a complicated equation on his office black board and leaving his number insures that the noted scientist sees him.

What does he want?  What is this message that is so important?  Will he elude the military long enough to deliver it?  And what will the robot Gort do if he is hurt?

The feeling of overwhelming power is made very clear to us, the benign tolerance born of superiority of Klaatu, and his own fear of Gort make for a complex character.  Michael Rennie was chosen over other American actors such as Spencer Tracy, because as a foreign actor, he was less immediately recognizable.

Though the pacing lags a little in the second act, this movie is a wonderful example of how less is more.  Seamless simplicity seems to be the alien hallmark.  This was achieved by simply puttying over the cracks and painting them.  To close the cracks seamlessly, they just ran the sequence backwards.  Gort was just two suits, one with the zipper in the front, one with the zipper in the back, and the doorman from Grauman's Chinese Theater, Lock Martin.  At 7' 7" he was tall enough, but not strong enough.  Both Helen and Klaatu had to be lifted by wires to support their weight when he carried them.  They also used very lightweight dummies for shots from the back.

These simple tricks were all the movie magic that they used outside the laser destruction scenes.  Klaatu caught our attention with a very simple trick; at noon, everything turned off for thirty minutes, hence, the title.  And of course, this performance scared us, and made us take him seriously.

What ultimately was the message of this movie?  We are not alone.  There is a community among the stars, and they have rules.  And the first rule you had better learn is this; be non-violent, or we will kill you.

With nuclear war a threat hanging over our heads, it was a lesson the world of 1951 had to learn.  And we did, more or less, for we are still here.

For now.

Like Gort, this review is Lean-N-Mean.  It weighs in at 666 words exactly.

The Modern Remake The Day The Earth Stood Still