The Day The Earth Stood Still

Produced by........Julian Blaustein Directed by..........Robert Wise

Staring..........Michael Rennie ..........Patricia Neal ..........Hugh Marlow

This film is a very interesting as it portrays the aliens as advanced saviours rather than menacing monsters. At times you don't know wether to trust the visitor or not ,it shows the human race seen trough the eyes of an alien. The Day the Earth Stood Still has become a classic within its own right, it is what was called an "Atomic Movie of the 50’s".





This movie poses a lot of interesting questions about the human race and delves into peoples everyday lives. The start of the film has a spectacular scene where you see a flying saucer land in the middle of Washington DC. Once the saucer lands the story of Klaatu (Michael Rennie) starts to evolve, and you meet his protector Gort the silver monolith who’s deadly ray disintegrates everything it touches. Klaatu is not welcomed in a very friendly manner and this upsets Gort who starts to use his ray on all the weapons that everybody is using. Lucky for the soldiers Klaatu stops Gort using his ray on them. After it is established that Klaatu is not a threat he is taken to a hospital and given a medical. The secretary for the president comes to see Klaatu and ask him why he has come to visit the earth, Klaatu will only answer this if he can talk to all the leaders of the world at once. The secretary tells Klaatu that this request is not possible and is doomed to fail, Klaatu answers by saying that the existence of the entire Human race depends on it being a success. The end result of course is that the world leaders will not meet under the same roof and so it leaves Klaatu no choice but to go out into the world and try to see what humans are like and study them. So he escapes from hospital and steals some earth clothes and starts to mingle with the populous. This is where the story is very original and you see Klaatu befriend a little boy and his mother, and start to learn about the earth people. After a while you wonder what he is doing on earth, is here for the good of man or is he here to destroy the earth.



The movie seems to plod along for a while until you see Klaatu’s incredible plan to get everybody’s attention, and a thrilling climatic ending which sees Gort run amok and starting to destroy everything in his path and can only be stopped by three alien words. Once you hear these words you will never forget then. I recommend you try to see this movie it is a classic and has some wonderful special effects , the cinematography is superb for the age of this movie and so is the detail. One of the best things is the music score, its the good old sci-fi music of the 50’s with that familiar wining of a wood sawing sound. This movie can be purchased on video and it is a must for collectors.

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