The Day the Earth Stood Still

Year:  1951

Filming:  Black & White

Length:  92 minutes

Genre:  Drama/Sci-Fi

Maturity:  G (Suitable for All Ages)

Cast:  Michael Rennie (Klaatu), Patricia Neal (Helen Benson), Sam Jaffe (Professor Jacob Barnhardt), Hugh Marlowe (Tom Stevens), Lock Martin (Gort), Frances Bavier (Mrs. Barley), Billy Gray (Bobby Benson), Gabriel Hatter (Himself)

Director:  Robert Wise

Personal Rating:  3 Stars  

***

     

As you all know by now, I am not an expert on Sci-Fi and Fantasy, although I have gotten my feet wet at the behest of fan-flick friends and shared my thoughts on flights of fancy, old and new, and their applicability to real life. The Day the Earth Stood Still is a prototypical sci-fi flick, and covers a variety of issues including nuclear war, pacifism, human nature, and the mystery of the unknown. While I may not agree with every conclusion, I will agree that it is, in every sense of the word, a classic.

 

    Our story begins with the landing of a spacecraft in Washington D.C., bearing a messenger of warning: a spaceman named Klaatu, starring Michael Rennie. He gets a rude awakening to the less than welcoming spirit of humanity when he is shot in the shoulder by an army machine gun upon emergence. However, his menacing robot companion named Gort effectively melts all the weaponry before more damage can be done. Rushed to the hospital, Klaatu declares that he must speak with the people of the world about the dangers their nuclear experimentation presents to the other planets.

 

    Realizing that no one will heed his plea for a global summit, he escapes his hospitalization and goes on the run under the alias “Mr. Carpenter”. Now, for the first time, he gets the chance to mix and mingle with average humans going about their daily lives. Moving into a boarding house, he meets Helen Benson, a widowed single mother played by Patricia Neale, and her precocious son, Bobby who takes an instant liking to the new boarder. The feeling is reciprocated, and Klaatu even takes him out on the town, visits his father’s grave, and treats him to a movie by exchanging diamonds for money! He and Bobby also try to visit the renowned Professor Jacob Barnhardt, and Klaatu solves a complex equation on his chalk board.

 

     Later, Klaatu is summoned to visit with Professor Barnhardt and the two devise a solution to get the world’s attention on the very serious breach in interplanetary relations without the loss of life. Klaatu will neutralize the world’s electricity using Gort and his spaceship, affecting everything from elevators to roller-coasters to radios, and only sparing specified items like planes in flight and ventilators in hospitals. The plan goes over perfectly, but when Helen’s boyfriend Tom begins to suspect “Mr. Carpenter” of being the space man, an all-out man-hunt in launched by the US government to capture this “dangerous creature”.

 

     Helen begins to realize just how serious the situation is for the human race, and just how much of an incorrigible mercenary Tom is, and decides to help Klaatu escape from the boarding house in a taxi. But after an epic chase across the city, army tanks cut off every escape route and prepare to descend on their prey. Klaatu quickly instructs Helen that she must go to Gort and talk the robot out of liquefying the earth by saying a special space phrase, then bolts out of the taxi and is promptly gunned down. Now Helen is the only one who stands between Gort and an interplanetary Armageddon.

 

    The Day the Earth Stood, like all other Sci-Fi movies of its kind, hinges on poignant what-ifs, especially the potential existence of intelligent life on other planets. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen once said that the modern fascination with UFO’s is something of a replacement for the spiritual realm in the minds of many. This I would largely agree with, especially among the atheist community. The quirky thing about this attitude is that if there were other beings possessing an intellect and will, they would say it proved humans weren’t special at all, and if none were found, they would probably say we must certainly be accidents of chance!

 

     But one thing is certain: human beings love the mysterious and other-worldly, and if naturalism is the name of the game, well, we will likely embrace belief some naturalistic mysticism…if that makes paradoxical sense! There is a definite aura in this film that indicates near-supernatural forces at work in the grand scientific achievements of a hypothetical planet. However, one scene in the film makes clear that spiritual and physical manifestations should be put in separate departments. When Klaatu is shot and then revived by the robot, a startled Helen inquires if it has the power over life and death. No, says Klaatu, only the Almighty Spirit holds that power. This is merely an advanced scientific method for restoring the breath of life that sometimes works, just like reviving a drowning person with C.P.R.

 

    It was said that this little clip of dialogue was added in for the specific reason that Christians complained about the murky implications in favor of 2-dimensional materialism, as well as the various allegorical connections that can be made between Klaatu and Christ. After all, he does come to earth from another realm; walk among humans without arousing suspicion; uses the alias “Carpenter”; and is killed and brought back from the dead. Of course, the comparison is imperfect, but I think some people wanted to make sure Klaatu wasn’t trying to be a “new and improved” materialist Christ. Then and now, people roll their eyes at such complaints, but I can understand them. The fact is materialism just doesn’t cut the mustard when it comes to acknowledging the spiritual essence of humanity, and trying to sell it an alternative religion is just crooked salesmanship.

 

    One of my biggest qualms in the film was the lack of recognition on the part of Klaatu that there are many aspects of humanity that are good and beautiful, not just fractious and paranoid. There are so many opportunities that are missed to show this interplanetary visitor our good side. For example, when he’s shot, wouldn’t Helen at least try to stop the bleeding or comfort him in some way? She doesn’t seem particularly disturbed by the prospect of his death! I know the movie was supposed to be a critique on human beings and their behavior, but I can’t help but think we sort of got a raw deal overall!

 

     We don’t really get to know Klaatu as a person, mostly because he is not being treated as a regular person. We are also told little to nothing about Klaatu’s home planet, except that it is highly technologically advanced and law and order is maintained by a race of programmed robots. But I want to get clued in on other things: what are the people emotionally like? What is their way of life like? What is there general religious belief? How do they measure time and the calendar year? What is their main source of sustenance? Do they have holidays, and what do people do for fun? Are there multiple political entities up there, or one “world” order?

 

    And in reality, is the concept of forcing people to behave through a regime of terror, executed by machines, such an enlightened plan? Furthermore, I don’t see how ethical it is to wipe out a whole planet unless they accept this forced police state with killer robots! What shines through most clearly in this is the avid anti-war and anti-nuclear agenda championed by the producer, which is really rather unworkable in the long run. The desire for global (or galactic) peace may be full of good intent, but as creatures with free wills, we are bound to find ourselves battling through life in one way or another, and once the atom was split and a weapon of mass destruction was unleashed, in became necessary that everyone should see to their own defense to secure the balance of power.

 

     It’s interesting to note that Frances Bavier, who played Aunt B. from Andy in Mayberry, and Billy Gray, who played Bud from Father Knows Best, both make appearances in the boarding house where Clatu is staying, leaving me jumping up and down on the sofa shrieking, “It’s…it’s…it’s…what’s-her-name and what’s-his-name!!” This just lends to the creepy feel of the picture, since we are seeing characters that are “normal” in every sense of the word confronting the totally abnormal! The wonderfully spooky music and haunting black-and-white filming enhances the effect.

 

    There are a few questions I still have. Why were the cars and motorcycles stymied when the electricity is neutralized? I mean, don’t most of them run on gas? How does Helen remember the magic space-words “Klaatu Barada Nikto” to turn off the zap-happy-robot after Klaatu just blurted them out to her in the taxi? Why didn’t Klaatu say a proper farewell to Bud, his only real human friend? I gives a cutesy smile and farewell wave to Helen (hey, after Tom, Mr. Space man is a knight in galactic tin foil armor!),

 

    One humorous foible in the film has to be mentioned: notice the film speed as everyone flees from the landing spaceship in the beginning! Apparently, the extras appeared to be moving too slowly and lackadaisically in the original take, so it was decided to speed up the clip to add to the element of fright! Also, have you ever wondered why Gort disappears behind a wall when he goes to pick up Helen? Well, evidently, Lock Martin, the very tall actor portraying the robot, could not bend over in his stiff space suit to lift her, so they rigged her up with wires and used the wall to avoid shooting the pick-up sequence!

 

    The Day the Earth Stood Still is an all-time classic, and definitely worth a viewing (or two!). It does leave one with quite a few profound thoughts about the importance of being responsible stewards of our man-made nuclear resources, the importance of understanding in the face of unreasoning premise, and the realization that whether or not there are any other intelligent beings floating around in the galaxy, we must always be respectful of all living creatures, especially if they possess consciousness, free will, emotions, and all the attributes that apply to spiritual beings such as ourselves.    

 

 

Helen (Patricia Neale) and Bobby Benson (Billy Gray) meet Klaatu (Michael Rennie)