Call me Klaatu.
“The Day the Earth Stood Still” may be 57 years old, but much of this sci-fi tale is as relevant now as when it first hit theaters.
This Friday (Dec. 12) marks the release of an “Earth” remake starring Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, making this the perfect time to re-release the original on DVD.
Just swallow hard as you watch the most primitive special effects imaginable. It’s worth the effort.
“Earth” begins with a massive spaceship landing on the D.C. Mall. Rumors of an alien invasion immediately begin, and the first creature to emerge from the spacecraft is shot by an overeager soldier.
It’s the kind of reception that confirms the alien’s worst suspicions about the human race.
The alien goes by Klaatu (Michael Rennie), and he’s come to Earth because humans have created weaponry that could threaten the lives of other creatures across the universe. And that just won’t stand.
Yes, it’s about living in the new atomic age – although the remake tackles a different global problem.
Before Klaatu can take action, he befriends a D.C. woman and her son (Patricia Neal, Billy Gray) who show him humanity isn’t as violent, or as misguided, as it appears to be.
Director Robert Wise (“The Sound of Music”) works around the crude special effects (Gort the robot who looks like a second-rate Halloween costume) to create a yarn that sails beyond its genre trappings. Rennie is perfect as Klaatu – he’s cooly handsome with an accent that hints at his otherworldly origins.
The script delivers on several fronts, scattering sharp chuckles throughout but keeping the enormity of Klaatu’s mission forever in mind. We’re also left with some thorny moral issues to wrestle over long after the film’s rewarding finale.
“The Day the Earth Stood Still” comes as a two-disc set packed with extras, including archive interviews with Wise, a making-of featurette and teaser footage of the remake co-starring Jennifer Connelly.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Have you seen the new one yet? If anyone can play an alient, it’s Reeves … I actually think he is one.
i’m ashamed to admit it but i have never seen the original. I think i will ask for the blu-ray version for x-mas so i can watch the amazing special effects in hi def.
Go to thenostalgialeague.com and look up “Farewell to the Master” by Harry Bates. It’s the story “The Day the Earth Stood Still” is based on. But although it’s a fairly faithful adaptation, they changed the ending. The last sentence is an absolute stunner that changes your take on what happened completely.
I’ve always disliked TDTESS for it’s generic heavy handedness and pseudo Christian themes. As propaganda, it doesn’t even work as a coherent argument. The story’s structure can be used for any message you want. (E.G. you can define the aliens as ultra individualists who demand that collectivist laws and control structures do not extend into outer space – or else.) And the notion that scientists are wiser than everyone else is only plausible if you haven’t attended too many seminars and conferences, which often resemble nothing so much as a kindergarten playpen.
Check out WWTW Friday for my review of the new “Earth.”
I dug the oldie more than you, K, but you’re dead on about how the aliens sought out ‘professors’ and ’scientists’ as the end all, be all of human wisdom. By that logic, today’s version should contact Howard Zinn, right??
Special effects do not matter at all to me as long as it is a good story well told. That’s why the half-dozen or so genuine sci-fi masterpieces made in the fifties still stand up today, and another dozen excellent films made in that era do as well.
I take it K must be a scientist himself. You could argue that Klaatu was simply seeking out those with enough expert knowledge to be able to begin to understand his message.