THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL

'''The Day the Earth Stood Still''' is a 1951 black-and-white science fiction film that tells the story of a humanoid alien who comes to Earth to warn its leaders not to take their conflicts into space, or they will face devastating consequences.
Produced in the aftermath of World War II, the start of the Cold War, and the development of the first atomic bombs, the film strongly and iconically reflected the cultural fears of the time related to violence, politics, and the fear of global annihilation. Blended into the nuclear war scare are strong allusions to a Second Coming motif.
The film stars Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, and Sam Jaffe. The supporting cast includes noted journalist Drew Pearson. Edmund H. North adapted Harry Bates's short story "Farewell to the Master" for the film, with Robert Wise directing. The score was composed by Bernard Herrmann and is notable for its use of two theremins.

Contents

Plot

Cast

Critical reaction

Differences from the short story

Production

Soundtrack

Track listing

Remake

References

Further reading

External links

Plot

Klaatu (Michael Rennie) arrives in a flying saucer-like spaceship and lands on the Ellipse in President's Park, Washington, DC. He declares he has come in peace on a mission of goodwill; he holds up and activates a small device that opens with a snap. Before he can explain what it is, Klaatu is shot and wounded by a nervous soldier, who assumes the device is a weapon. In response, a large robot called Gort steps out of the spaceship and melts all weapons present without harming the soldiers, until the wounded Klaatu orders him to cease. A wounded Klaatu explains the "weapon" was a gift to the President and could have been used to study the other planets.
He is taken to Walter Reed Hospital and quickly recovers. While there, Klaatu meets the President's secretary, Mr. Harley, but is unable to convince him to organize a meeting of world leaders. Klaatu suggests the United Nations, but is told not all the world's countries are represented there, and later, that world leaders cannot even agree on a meeting place for such a momentous occasion. When Klaatu makes known his wish to live amongst ordinary people, to understand them better, Mr. Harley rebuffs him and implies that the alien patient is a prisoner. Later, Klaatu easily escapes into the night.
He goes to a boarding house and tells those living there his name is "Carpenter", taking the name from a laundry label on a suit he has taken. Among the residents are Helen Benson (Patricia Neal), an employee of the United States Department of Commerce, and her son Bobby (Billy Gray). Helen is a widow; her husband was killed at Anzio during World War II. The next morning, Klaatu listens to the radio commentator and breakfast table banter of the boarders. They wonder whether the spaceship is from outer space or perhaps the work of the Soviets. When Helen's boyfriend, Tom Stephens (Hugh Marlowe), plans a day-trip getaway for the two of them, Klaatu offers to take care of Bobby.
Bobby gives Klaatu a tour of Washington, D.C., including a visit to the grave of his father in Arlington National Cemetery, where Klaatu learns with dismay that most of those buried there were killed in wars. The two next visit the Lincoln Memorial and the heavily guarded spaceship where a motionless Gort stands. Klaatu, impressed by the inscription of Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address, is hopeful that there may be minds on Earth wise enough to understand his message. When he asks Bobby to name the greatest person in the world today, Bobby mentions a leading American scientist, Professor Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe), who lives nearby.
Bobby takes Klaatu to Barnhardt's home. The professor is absent, but Klaatu goes into his study and helps solve an advanced mathematical n-body problem written on a blackboard, before leaving his address with the housekeeper. Later, government agents escort Klaatu to see Barnhardt. Klaatu warns the professor that the people of the other planets know that human beings have developed atomic power and will not allow this to endanger them. Barnhardt offers Klaatu the opportunity to speak at an upcoming meeting of world scientists he is organizing; Klaatu accepts. Barnhardt is stunned when Klaatu declares that if his message is rejected by the leaders of the nations, "Planet Earth will be eliminated." The professor soberly pleads that Klaatu first provide a minor demonstration of his power as a warning.

Klaatu returns to his spaceship that night to implement the professor's suggestion. Bobby trails him and is amazed to see his new friend enter the ship. When Tom Stephens and Helen Benson return from their evening out, Bobby tells them that Mr. Carpenter is the spaceman. They do not believe him at first, but when Bobby goes upstairs to bed, they notice that his shoes are soaking wet. Their suspicions grow when Tom finds an expensive diamond in Mr. Carpenter's room.
The following day, Tom takes the diamond to a jeweler, who claims that it could not have come from Earth. Meeting Helen at work, Klaatu insists on speaking to her. While riding in an elevator, it stops. A series of montage scenes show that Klaatu has suppressed electric power all over the world (with exceptions for critical systems, such as hospitals, planes in flight etc.). This has literally brought the entire world to a standstill. During the blackout, Klaatu enlists Helen's aid. Tom intends to turn Klaatu in to the authorities, which will make him rich and famous. Helen rejects her boyfriend, but despite her efforts to get him to a safe place, Klaatu is fatally shot. Before he dies, Klaatu tells Helen that she must go to Gort and say to him, "Klaatu barada nikto."
Conquering her fear, Helen does as asked. The robot carries her into the spaceship, then retrieves Klaatu's corpse and brings him back to the spaceship where, using equipment on board, Klaatu is miraculously brought back to life. Klaatu steps out of the spaceship and speaks to the assembled scientists. He tells them Earth's penchant for violence and first steps into space have drawn the attention of other spacefaring worlds. These worlds have created a race of robot enforcers like Gort, and given them absolute power to deal with any outbreak of violence. He warns that the people of Earth can either abandon warfare and peacefully join other spacefaring nations – or be destroyed. "The decision rests with you." He then enters the spaceship and departs.

Cast

★ Michael Rennie as Klaatu

★ Patricia Neal as Helen Benson

★ Hugh Marlowe as Tom Stevens

★ Sam Jaffe as Professor Jacob Barnhardt

★ Billy Gray as Bobby Benson

★ Frances Bavier as Mrs. Barley

★ Lock Martin as Gort

★ H. V. Kaltenborn
★ , Elmer Davis
★ , Drew Pearson
★ , Gabriel Heatter
★ as themselves (well-known broadcast journalists)

★ Not credited on-screen.

Critical reaction

The film was attacked from some quarters, due to Sam Jaffe's participation in the film and his politics.^[1] In spite of the images that have passed into popular culture and become clichés — a race of killer robots, a spaceman in a silver suit, a flying saucer etc. — the film's explicit message of peace, in combination with its dark outlook regarding human society, has earned the film lasting critical acclaim. The movie is ranked seventh in ''Arthur C Clarke's List of the best Science-Fiction films of all time'', just above Clarke's own ''. In 1995, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

Differences from the short story

In the short story, Klaatu is killed immediately after greeting those present when he first emerges from his ship, so there is no Professor Barnhardt or Helen Benson and no "Klaatu barada nikto". Instead, a picture reporter named Sutherland deals with the robot (named Gnut, not Gort). Also, in Bates' "Farewell to the Master", the ship appears instantaneously on the ground rather than landing from space, leaving unanswered where it came from. Finally, the relationship between Klaatu and Gnut is revealed in a surprise ending which differs from that of the film, where Klaatu merely states that Gort's race was created and given absolute power to enforce the peace.

Production

Producer Julian Blaustein set out to make a film that illustrated the fear and suspicion that characterized the early Cold War and Atomic Age. He reviewed over 200 science fiction short stories and novels in search of a storyline that could be used, as the genre was well suited for a metaphorical discussion of such grave issues. Studio head Darryl F. Zanuck green-lighted the project, and Blaustein contracted Edmund North to draft a screenplay based on elements from the Bates story.¹
Christian eschatology colors ''The Day the Earth Stood Still,'' especially given Klaatu's death and subsequent resurrection. Klaatu adopts the Earthly name "Carpenter" (in the New Testament, Jesus Christ is sometimes called the "carpenter's [Joseph's] son."); in the boarding house he's given a room in the third floor. These allusions are attributed to North by the film's producer in a 1995 interview. Blaustein claimed that the studio "Breen office" balked at the portrayal of Klaatu's resurrection. At their behest, a line was added when Helen asks if Gort has power over life and death, and Klaatu explicitly reserves that power to "the Almighty Spirit."¹
Principal outdoor photography for ''The Day the Earth Stood Still'' was shot on 20th Century Fox sound stages and its studio backlot (now Century City), with a second unit shooting background plates and other scenes in Washington, D.C. The film's stars never traveled to Washington for the making of the film.¹
In a DVD commentary track, interviewed by fellow director Nicholas Meyer, director Robert Wise stated that he wanted the film to appear as realistic and believable as possible, in order to drive home the work's core message against armed conflict in the real world.
Wise's background in directing horror (his solo directorial debut had come with producer Val Lewton some five years before) lent itself to a "haunted house" feel to the movie's spookier scenes, with a stark use of deep shadow, often patterned to resemble the bars of a cage (his hospital room, the wallpaper and balustrade of the boarding house, the elevator). Both high and low angles are used to create the film's pervasive sense of Klaatu's literal and figurative alienation from the warlike people of Earth, or to highlight the unlimited power he represents.
Although the film contains its share of dramatic and obvious special effects scenes, such as the destruction of military hardware by robot Gort, special effects were also used more subtly. For example, the aerial shots of crowd scenes surrounding Klaatu's spaceship were achieved with a combination of optical printing or matte work (to include the Washington D.C. skyline) and a "held take" approach, where the same film is run through the camera for multiple exposures of the same crowd standing in different locations on the studio backlot in order to give the appearance of a much larger crowd.
Other examples of special effects work include rear projection or "traveling matte" work in the scenes depicting Bobby and Klaatu's tour of the Arlington National Cemetery and Lincoln Memorial, and the taxi chase sequence at the film's climax when Helen and Klaatu are chased by the military. According to the DVD commentary, Wise carefully prepared his shooting list from storyboards so that his second unit would return with "background plate" footage with appropriate action (an MP calling on a radio, an increasing number of military vehicles) for each rapid cut in the complex finished sequence.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed in August of 1951 and was Bernard Herrmann's first soundtrack after he moved to Hollywood. Herrmann chose unusual instrumentation the film including electric violin, electric bass, two theremins, test oscillators, vibraphone, four pianos, four harps and approximately 30 brass instruments. Unusual overdubbing and tape-reversal techniques were used, as well.

Track listing

# "Twentieth Century Fox Fanfare" – 0:12
# "Prelude/Outer Space/Radar" – 3:45
# "Danger" – 0:24
# "Klaatu" – 2:15
# "Gort/The Visor/The Telescope" – 2:23
# "Escape" – 0:55
# "Solar Diamonds" – 1:04
# "Arlington" – 1:08
# "Lincoln Memorial" – 1:27
# "Nocturne/The Flashlight/The Robot/Space Control" – 5:58
# "Elevator/Magnietic Pull/The Study/The Conference/The Jewelry Store" – 43:61
# "Panic" – :42
# "Glowing/Alone/Gort's Rage/Nikto/The Captive/Terror" – 5:11
# "The Prison" – 1:42
# "Rebirth" – 1:38
# "Departure" – 0:52
# "Farewell" – 0:32
# "Finale" – 0:30

Remake

Twentieth Century Fox has signed Keanu Reeves to play Klaatu in the remake, which will begin production in late 2008.^[2]

References

1.
2. Keanu Reeves lands on 'Earth'

Further reading

★ ''The Day the Earth Stood Still''

★ Fantastic Voyages: Learning Science Through Science Fiction Films, Leroy W. Dubeck, Suzanne E. Moshier, and Judith E. Boss, , , Springer, ,

External links

★

★ Farewell to the Master (full text)

★ , 88.4 minutes, 300 x 240 pixel.

★