By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Great sci-fi is both a representation of its time and a window into the world of the future. 73 years after it debuted, The Day the Earth Stood Still remains sadly relevant. Released during the opening years of the Cold War, the sci-fi classic explores what happens when an alien arrives in peace and is mystified by our fractured world and the man-made divisions between us. The classic story has been told over and over, but the original 1951 movie remains the best and serves as a reminder that humanity hasn’t advanced as much as we’d like to think.
A Landmark Sci-Fi Film
Even if you’ve never seen The Day the Earth Stood Still, you’ll recognize the opening with a flying saucer touching down in Washington, D.C., as the military immediately surrounds it. Klaatu, a stern-looking humanoid alien played by Michael Rennie, may look human, but it’s clear he’s alien from the way he moves and speaks, while his bodyguard, Gort, is a tall, imposing robot that silently protects his master. Announcing he has a message for all of humanity’s leaders, Klaatu is almost immediately shot, prompting Gort to attack the soldiers in a moment that doesn’t need modern special effects to get the message across.
Klaatu winds up encountering Helen Benson and her son, Bobby, during his mission to better understand humanity. The young boy takes the alien around the city, answering his questions about Earth and humanity along the way, which brings up the topic of war. That’s the linchpin of the message found in The Day the Earth Stood Still, as Klaatu explains just a few scenes later to a gifted scientist, that the aggressive nature of Earthlings combined with the recent advent of nuclear power, has put a target on Earth to contain the humans.
A Timeless Allegory
The Day the Earth Stood Still predictably ends with Klaatu, disappointed in humanity, warning the assembled throng to cast aside their warlike nature, abandon the current path of nuclear annihilation, or be destroyed. It’s significantly different from the original story, Farewell to the Master, a short story written by Harry Bates that was published in 1940, before Oppenheimer helped invent the atomic bomb, but by leaning into the Cold War allegory, the 1951 film became a timeless allegory. There’s little action and rudimentary special effects, but Michael Rennie’s performance as Klaatu is haunting and established a template for aliens Hollywood still uses today.
When I was a kid and first showed interest in sci-fi, The Day the Earth Stood Still was one of the tapes that my mom rented from the local library so that I could see the type of sci-fi she grew up with. Even then, I had been exposed to countless parodies and homages to the film, from the concept of an alien coming in peace to speak to leaders and of Gort from Saturday Morning Cartoons. Yet the somber nature of the film, aided by being in black and white, had me mesmerized, and today it remains one of my favorites.
The Soulless Remake
The Day the Earth Stood Still was remade in 2008 with Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, and the Cold War theme of nuclear annihilation was tossed aside to be replaced with an environmental message. Regrettably, despite the all-star cast that includes Jennifer Connolly, John Cleese, Jon Hamm, and Kathy Bates, the remake went too far into becoming a sci-fi spectacle. It looks amazing, and it was a small hit in theaters, but there’s a reason it’s at 21 percent rotten on Rotten Tomatoes while the original is at 95 percent fresh: it lacks the heart of the original screenplay.
In fact, the 2008 film is a great argument against remaking classic movies. The Day the Earth Stood Still is steeped in Cold War paranoia, but even decades removed from the particular moment in time that birthed it, the theme of man’s capability for violence is still relevant. So why do it all over again for a new generation if the real purpose of the movie, as an allegory about war, gets tossed aside for CGI?
A Must Watch Classic
There are a few films that I think are required viewing as part of the indispensable film canon, but The Day the Earth Stood Still is one of them, in 1995, it was added to the National Film Registry for being culturally significant, which means I’m not alone in this opinion. Especially for sci-fi fans, the original film can be viewed as a nearly perfect film that encompasses the best of the genre. Science fiction, at its very best, inspires us to do better. Klaatu baradu nikto.
The Day the Earth Stood Still is only available to stream as part of Video on Demand via Amazon Prime, Google Play, AppleTV, and Fandango at Home. And check out the GenreVision podcast episode on both versions!
