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Summary: Super duper...
Review: Anyone who remotely found this movie thought provoking or just plain fun will love the DVD with its great video quality restoration and tons of additional info. The commentary alone is worth the price. Enjoy.
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Summary: The Greatest Sci-Fi FIlm?
Review: If you are into the sci-fi genre at all (and even if you are not) this is positively a "must see" film. Dispite the dated special effects, B&W 50's "look" and "staged" acting, this is a true classic. It is also prophetic, important, and has major spiritual undertones. Young people should see this film, as it has no gratuitous violence or nookie scenes, and has many memorable (and oft quoted) scenes. It also is a reflection of the time that many now-adults lived, when the threat of worldwide annihilation by nuclear war was actually very real. The plot is simple: a space ship lands in DC, and its captain tells "The Earth" to get its "stuff" together, "or else" (and then proceeds with a demonstration of "or else", i.e. the earth stood still). My favorite scene is when the spaceship commander visits the (empty) office of a famous scientist (leaving a "calling card" by solving a complex space travel equation that was left on a blackboard) and then later confronts the scientist and is asked if the solution is accurate (and responds that it "good enough to get from one planet to another" - or words to that effect). The DVD version is well worth owning, as it is "crisper" than VHS. Next to "2001", "Blade Runner", and "Star Wars", this is without-a-doubt one of the landmark sci-fi films (I leave out Alien(s), as it is actually a "cowboys and indians/horror film" that takes place in outer space......but is also spectacular). In the grand scheme of all mainstream film ever made, I would rank this film in the top several dozen. It's that good. This film lingers in your mind, and makes you wonder if (when?) "people" from outer space actually visit us, what would REALLY happen? BTW, this film has huge potential for an updated re-make, but probably would suffer from over zealous special effects, and thus is no doubt better left as is.
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Summary: Still sane after all these years
Review: There are a handful of 'classic' SF movies that really demonstrate why this genre has appealed to intelligent lay audiences for so long. It's not the cheesy special effects and it's not _just_ the coolness of making contact with extraterrestrial cultures. The best of these films -- like the low-budget and sometimes horrid original _Star Trek_ that they spawned -- succeed in using the genre and the medium to present the cinematic equivalent of a morality play. And if some of them, like this one, come across as a bit heavy-handed today, it's because they have fewer cliches to overcome now. _The Day the Earth Stood Still_ is still, even today, head and shoulders above its rivals. See, in 1951, yer typical SF-alien movie was something more along the lines of _Independence Day_: humans good, aliens bad, and the object of the 'plot' is just to defend the earth against the nasty invaders. This film turned that cliche on its head. The hero here is the humanoid alien Klaatu, played brilliantly by Michael Rennie with a fine-tuned combination of icy calm and easygoing reasonableness. Klaatu has a message for the people (and peoples) of earth, and he won't deliver it to any single nation or culture; he wants representatives of all nations to get together and listen to him, and rather than approach them through their governments, he decides to work through a physicist. His message is essentially one of peace but he isn't messing around either. This is not a sweetness-and-light movie. The special effects are cheesy as heck, of course. In general, the movie is just crying for a remake -- in part because its theme and message are just as timely now as they were in 1951. But if you can look past the flying saucer and the big funny robot, it's still a very, very good movie, and still miles ahead of far too many SF films even of recent vintage. (Even the original _Star Trek_ series had only a handful of episodes along the lines of 'The Devil in the Dark'.) In written SF, Heinlein's _Starship Troopers_ has received its indirect reply in Joe Haldeman's _The Forever War_ and Orson Scott Card's _Ender's Game_. But cinematic SF is still too often based on the equation 'nonhuman = evil'. And since so much of our naked-ape 'thought' is explicitly or implicitly based on the further equation 'out-group = nonhuman' -- well, you do the math. The digital transfer on the DVD version is lovely, and there are some cool features too. But the star is the movie itself. By the way, the famous 'Klaatu barada nikto' is never actually translated into English, so don't let anybody tell you what it 'means'.
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Summary: "Klaatu Barada Nikto! (tran: Live In Peace Or Die!)"
Review: Michael Rennie is Klaatu, a mysterious visitor from the stars. He and his giant robot Gort have come to deliver a message to our leaders. Of course, we shoot Klaatu as soon as he opens his mouth! This causes Gort to unleash it's terrible death ray! Our military gets blasted until Klaatu calls off his machine. It's one paranoid misunderstanding after another in this classic sci-fi fable. Escaping from the hospital, Klaatu takes a room in a boarding house. There, he befriends Patricia Neal's character and her son. It's fun to listen to the conversation around the dinner table, as the other boarders discuss the landing of Klaatu's ship. You get the distinct impression that the "commies" are not only behind every bush, but invading from outer space as well! Klaatu finds a local physicist (Sam Jaffe) and convinces him he's for real. He reveals that he's come to keep us from spreading our barbaric ways throughout the universe, or else. This guy means business! As a small demonstration for the rest of humanity, Klaatu stops the earth from spinning. Now are we convinced?? Nah, we just shoot him again. Will we ever come to our senses? Or must we be destroyed for our own stupidity? Don't expect any CGI driven pap here. This is 50s science fiction with a great story to boot. Enjoy...
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Summary: From Out of Space, a Warning...And an Ultimatum!
Review: Undoubtedly one of the greatest films in the sci-fi pantheon, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL is one of the few science-fiction flicks from the McCarthy era that is not an anti-communist allegory. A literate and thought-provoking film, it presents extraterrestrials as humanoid in appearance and intelligent and peaceful in demeanor, as opposed to the reptilian, googly-eyed creatures with a bent for world domination that are the norm in most other Hollywood space operas of the early 1950s. The story revolves around Klaatu (Michael Rennie), an extraterrestrial being who comes to Earth as the representative of an intergalactic peacekeeping organization. Now that the people of Earth have reached the nuclear age, they have become a potential threat to life on other planets, and the violent history of earthlings indicates that, if left unchecked, a threat is what they will indeed become. So Klaatu's league of interplanetary peacekeepers have sent him to offer an ultimatum: Either the Earth agrees to join the league and abide by its rules--basically, a no-nukes, no-aggression policy--or the Earth will be utterly annihilated. And to demonstrate that he and his fellows have the power to carry through, Klaatu arranges for all non-essential electrical devices to completely cease functioning for a full 24 hours. (The Earth stands still for an entire day--get it?) Although there is no real evidence to support it, many contemporary fans of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL have wondered if director Robert Wise and scriptwriter Edmund North were not waxing prophetic about the global role the U.S. was, circa 1950, poised to assume. Since WWII--and even more so after the fall of the USSR--the United States has grown to become the dominant world power both militarily and economically, and it has used this position to muscle the other nations of the world into conforming to its basic principals or, at the very least, into maintaining a non-combative relationship with its allies. In retrospect, then, Klaatu and the organization he represents can easily be viewed as an allegory of the U.S., with the Earthlings in the film representing the other nations of the world. And the dropping of THE BOMB on Japan can therefore be seen as the U.S.'s demonstration of power--its proof that it can, indeed, make the Earth stand still. Prophetic allegory or not, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL is a well-written and well-directed motion picture. Wise and North's powerful storytelling techniques create concepts and images that are hard to ignore and not easy to forget. Indeed, it's likely that Klaatu and his towering robo-cop sidekick, Gort, are cinematic icons that will remain in the sci-fi lexicon long after other 20th-century film characters are considered to be grossly passé. The DVD offers a beautiful restored version of the film; an excellent feature commentary with the film's director, Robert Wise, and renowned writer/director Nicolas Meyer (Meyer spurs Wise with pertinent questions and comments); theatrical trailers; an interesting documentary/featurette on the making of the film; a period newsreel; and more. At Amazon's price, adding this science-fiction classic to your DVD collection is well worth the investment!
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Summary: Herrmann's Music Alone Makes It Unforgettable
Review: This film, directed by Robert Wise, shows what truly competent direction can give to science fiction without all the Jim Cameron razzle dazzle. The hint of love and development of intrigue and compassion between handsome Michael Rennie and lovely Patricia Neal compels from their first glance, and Gort is just downright chic. I love this film. It never dates. But I'm always sad to see Michael Rennie wave bye to Patricia Neal, and I still am unclear how long he survives after the spaceship exits. Bernard Herrmann (Taxi Driver) score is classic and minimal, with early use of Theremin.
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Summary: Allegory & Intelligence Mark "The Day the Earth Stood Still"
Review: Nearly everyone who has seen THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL hails it as a classic of science fiction, even if they are not quite sure why. For a film that has withstood the test of time, it cannot be because of those elements that mark other and similar successful science fiction films. There are no corresponding battle sequences that stamp, say, INDEPENDENCE DAY, or special effects that characterize any of the ALIENS saga. What director Robert Wise did was to adapt the original short story, "Farewell to the Master," by Harry Bates to transform a tale warning Earth to forego its mutually assured nuclear destruction into a riveting story that forces viewers to ponder some serious issues of why they are here on this planet and how they can avoid massive self-genocide. Surprisingly enough, Wise does this without allowing the film's didacticism to dilute audience involvement. Michael Rennie is Klaatu, an emissary who lands on Earth with the stated intention of saving humanity from itself. He offers the olive branch of his race, a device that would have eliminated some of man's most persistent problems only to find that a collective fear of the unknown blasted that device to pieces and severely wounded him. Rennie plays Klaatu as an earnest Christ figure so subliminally that the film morphs into an allegory of man's turning on the One who would die for their collective sins. Klaatu escapes from a hospital to assume the name of Carpenter, Jesus's occupation. He performs miracles: where Jesus turned stone to water, Carpenter turns motion to non-motion by literally turning off Earth's electricity, thus the day of the title. Jesus here is Tom Stevens (slimingly played by Hugh Marlowe), who betrays Klaatu, not for thirty pieces of silver but for the love of a woman (Patricia Neal), who painfully learns that behind the smiling face of that Judas lies the smallness of the insecure mind. Then there is the resurrection of Klaatu, who ascends, if not to heaven, than at least to his spaceship, which is almost the same thing. Yet all these allusions to traditional Christianity do not intrude suffocatingly. Indeed, most viewers scarcely recognize them, and it is only after repeated viewings that such correspondances suggest why audiences continually flock to witness Klaatu's Good News. It is not only the religious coating that marks this film as a classic. It has a literate script that requires one to listen to well-reasoned ideas rather than to ooh and aah at FX. Rennie's interpretation of Klaatu is both fluid and soothing. In his exhortations to mankind to rise from the muck of squalor and viciousness, Klaatu is seen ultimately not so much as a representative of an alien power seeking to impose its will on a protesting humanity, but more as an inverted symbol of that humanity. If Jesus were crucified for being both mortal and semi-devine, then surely Klaatu is meant to be the scapegoat for man's failure to heed his wisdom. In nearly every scene that Klaatu is in, he is scorned, hunted, shot at, and mocked. In lashing out at him, the Sanhendrin-like government and mass media exhibit the same lack of acumen that stamps most of the citizens. The number of special effects are kept to a minimum. The robot Gort is huge and menacing, but his lethality rests more in what he can do than what he does do. Klaatu's spaceship does little but squat serenely on the White House lawn, with Klaatu spending only one brief scene aboard. Some of the film's best moments are of the quiet sort, usually with Rennie in contemplative dialogue with others. The words that pass back and forth suggest a subtext that if human beings are to avoid self-immolation, then it can occur only through the medium of verbalized reason that will negate the mushrooming clouds. If and when the nukes fall, it will be because no one had the sense to cry out,"Klaatu Barada Nikto," to stop the madness.
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Summary: Remember the 4:30 Movie.....?
Review: I grew up in the New York/New Jeresy area, and WABC TV once ran the 4:30 movie five days a week and I would often watch it because they often showed science fiction movies. The first one of these I ever saw was THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, and I remember watching and being very impressed by it. Today, I still like this movie and it's really amazing that they were able to make it as a story of good substance (at a time when most science fiction films were B-Pictures). It comes out mostly in the quality of the screenplay. The intelligent manner that Robert Wise Directed it. The very good performances of Michael Rennie and the other actors. Bernard Herrmann's music. And the fact that Leo Tover filmed it in black and white which really adds both to the mystery and wonder of the story. It was pretty daring for Fox CEO Darryl Zanneck to make this movie, because it said in only the way that the Cinema can, that "Look we have atomic weapons now and let's not fool around with such destructive power, let's really try to find some way to live in peace here." The DVD of this movie is quite excellent. The film was restored to good picture and sound quality and the "Making Of" Featurette really provides some good insight into how the movie was made.
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Summary: One of the best SciFi movies of the period
Review: Despite being 52 years old I think this movie holds up very well, decent plot and for the time great special effects(the saucer coming in for a landing looks good even by today's standards), the dialog gets a little preachy sometimes but not too bad.
DVD Features: I like these extras, it just adds to a great movie.
Commentary by director Robert Wise and Nicolas Meyer 70-Minute "Making the Earth Stand Still" Documentary Movietone Newsreel (1951) Restoration Comparison 5 Still Galleries Shooting Script Theatrical Trailer
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Summary: Less picture, please!
Review: Several reviewers have complained that the DVD is not in "widescreen". The only way to achieve this would be to mask the top and bottom of the original film, since it was shot in an aspect ratio of 1.37 : 1. Ironic, since the message of the film was to not be an ignorant retard.
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