WARNING: REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
He also looks uncannily like us, too. For Klaatu the alien seems to derive his appearance, manner, and science from the perspective of 50's Middle America. This distinctly unalien quality is offset by having atu expressing differences between our cultures. So that when he tells us he's been travelling for five months, he quickly adds "your months". And when he talks of traversing millions of miles, it's "your miles". Now, call me a stickler for detail, but an alien race that just happened to evolve exactly the same words for time and distance as ours? What are the chances of that happening? And note that it's not a more respectable "light years" he's travelled.
This may all sound like quibbling, but now I've set this sacred cow up for the slaughter, it's time to justify my argument. For The Day The Earth Stood Still is widely regarded as one of the all-time greats of movie SF. And, for it's era, that's a valid view. But ironically its contemporary failure is highlighted by its title. The Earth hasn't stood still. And the staid direction, acting and dialogue Holy Christmas! of the film makes it now hopelessly dated. Some may say the camerawork is understated, but the rigid blocking palls, and the fluctuating incidental music ranging from silence to deafening, often in the same scene distracts. The silly comic-book sound effects, the narrative driven by radio reports, the sped-up reels as people flee in terror ... it's all so leaden and clunky. There's also a discussion and summary of the film so far around a dinnertable. Have the moral standpoints of a film ever been so contrivedly introduced?
Before we know it, Klaatu is undercover, and babysitting young, wholesome, American-as-apple-pie Bobby. Here Bobby and Klaatu bond and subtly get the issues across. Like the alien explaining how where he comes from there are no wars. "Gee, that's a good idea!" says Bobby. Is this a pacifistic message? I couldn't quite tell. Around this time Klaatu develops a trend for pious moralising and platitudes. So much so that a reporter, getting vox pops from a crowd, legs it after being bored silly by the stiffest alien this side of Mr.Spock on his mating ritual. And as for Bobby would such a young boy really have a mathematician as an idol-worshipped role model? Mind you, this was 1951 men still wore hats, and rock and roll had yet to be invented.
However, it soon turns out that Klaatu has a system you've gotta have a system, haven't you? and doesn't really care about our planet's wars, but is merely worried about the threat to his own. If Earth develops atomic weapons in space then it will, he explains, be "eliminated". Eventually Klaatu hits on an ingenious idea to get back his spaceship go at night when there'll only be two people guarding it, of course! Bobby, the world's most neglected child, is again abandoned by mum and potential step-dad, causing him to follow Klaatu and so further the plot.
This eventually leads to the alien's big speech, which is all peace, being nice to one another, etc. It's all very well meant, though the lack of allegory does cause you to question how stupid the filmmakers thought their audience was. Klaatu's death is clearly signposted (and given away in the first sentence of The Rocky Horror Picture Show) where he speaks of what Gort would do in such an eventuality. Apparently Gort an extra in a cheap rubber suit is an indestructible robot that could destroy the Earth.
Best bit? The shadows cast over Klaatu's face in the elevator, oddly reminiscent of The Seventh Seal. Worst bit? The accent in the paralysed London scene. Who did the dubbing, Dick Van Dyke? Or maybe the worst bit is the obvious wire on Gort when he picks up Patricia Neal. That said, 90% of the effects are superb, even today.
Another contradiction is that the vaguely pretentious undercurrent is what makes it less accessible nowadays. If the film was as silly as 50s SF movies usually are then it would make the screen backdrops and ropy bitpart actors more acceptable. As it is, perhaps the greatest legacy the film can offer is Neal's proactive role and unusual function as single parent. The sliding ramps on the UFO are great, and the movie must be praised for flying in the face of anti-Communist convention. Where it's peers were content to be "Killer Russkies From Mars!", this one tried something that was then radically different. Daringly so, for the time. The Day The Earth Stood Still is commendable, honourable and worthy of a "6", but is also undeniably dated. Sorry.
He also looks uncannily like us, too. For Klaatu the alien seems to derive his appearance, manner, and science from the perspective of 50's Middle America. This distinctly unalien quality is offset by having atu expressing differences between our cultures. So that when he tells us he's been travelling for five months, he quickly adds "your months". And when he talks of traversing millions of miles, it's "your miles". Now, call me a stickler for detail, but an alien race that just happened to evolve exactly the same words for time and distance as ours? What are the chances of that happening? And note that it's not a more respectable "light years" he's travelled.
This may all sound like quibbling, but now I've set this sacred cow up for the slaughter, it's time to justify my argument. For The Day The Earth Stood Still is widely regarded as one of the all-time greats of movie SF. And, for it's era, that's a valid view. But ironically its contemporary failure is highlighted by its title. The Earth hasn't stood still. And the staid direction, acting and dialogue Holy Christmas! of the film makes it now hopelessly dated. Some may say the camerawork is understated, but the rigid blocking palls, and the fluctuating incidental music ranging from silence to deafening, often in the same scene distracts. The silly comic-book sound effects, the narrative driven by radio reports, the sped-up reels as people flee in terror ... it's all so leaden and clunky. There's also a discussion and summary of the film so far around a dinnertable. Have the moral standpoints of a film ever been so contrivedly introduced?
Before we know it, Klaatu is undercover, and babysitting young, wholesome, American-as-apple-pie Bobby. Here Bobby and Klaatu bond and subtly get the issues across. Like the alien explaining how where he comes from there are no wars. "Gee, that's a good idea!" says Bobby. Is this a pacifistic message? I couldn't quite tell. Around this time Klaatu develops a trend for pious moralising and platitudes. So much so that a reporter, getting vox pops from a crowd, legs it after being bored silly by the stiffest alien this side of Mr.Spock on his mating ritual. And as for Bobby would such a young boy really have a mathematician as an idol-worshipped role model? Mind you, this was 1951 men still wore hats, and rock and roll had yet to be invented.
However, it soon turns out that Klaatu has a system you've gotta have a system, haven't you? and doesn't really care about our planet's wars, but is merely worried about the threat to his own. If Earth develops atomic weapons in space then it will, he explains, be "eliminated". Eventually Klaatu hits on an ingenious idea to get back his spaceship go at night when there'll only be two people guarding it, of course! Bobby, the world's most neglected child, is again abandoned by mum and potential step-dad, causing him to follow Klaatu and so further the plot.
This eventually leads to the alien's big speech, which is all peace, being nice to one another, etc. It's all very well meant, though the lack of allegory does cause you to question how stupid the filmmakers thought their audience was. Klaatu's death is clearly signposted (and given away in the first sentence of The Rocky Horror Picture Show) where he speaks of what Gort would do in such an eventuality. Apparently Gort an extra in a cheap rubber suit is an indestructible robot that could destroy the Earth.
Best bit? The shadows cast over Klaatu's face in the elevator, oddly reminiscent of The Seventh Seal. Worst bit? The accent in the paralysed London scene. Who did the dubbing, Dick Van Dyke? Or maybe the worst bit is the obvious wire on Gort when he picks up Patricia Neal. That said, 90% of the effects are superb, even today.
Another contradiction is that the vaguely pretentious undercurrent is what makes it less accessible nowadays. If the film was as silly as 50s SF movies usually are then it would make the screen backdrops and ropy bitpart actors more acceptable. As it is, perhaps the greatest legacy the film can offer is Neal's proactive role and unusual function as single parent. The sliding ramps on the UFO are great, and the movie must be praised for flying in the face of anti-Communist convention. Where it's peers were content to be "Killer Russkies From Mars!", this one tried something that was then radically different. Daringly so, for the time. The Day The Earth Stood Still is commendable, honourable and worthy of a "6", but is also undeniably dated. Sorry.