The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)

 

While this 1951 classic has a melodramatic title, poster and indeed opens in similar fashion it’s actually a thoughtful movie which, after the initial sequence of an alien spaceship landing in Washington, takes on more of the feel of a smaller film despite its large subject. Its biggest asset is in making the events however unusual almost documentary like at times as if this is something that could easily happen. For much of the time the film never steps over the top into melodrama, helped by a perfectly pitched performance by Michael Rennie and an aesthetic that still seems extremely cool seventy five years later.

 

 

The opening stands up even after  all this time with its seamless integration of spaceship and backgrounds. The sequences of people watching in varying degrees of fascination and fear are also extremely well staged.  Even when the camera pulls away from the ship once its landed you can still see crowds looking at it. Sharp editing allows us worldwide coverage of people’s reactions and I think it’s a neat comment on news events that after a few days nobody is still lingering by the ship as if people have moved on! One moment when a large number of people turn to look upwards has all the choreographic sense you might expect from a director- Robert Wise- who would go on to helm West Side Story and The Sound of Music. He seems to perfectly judge how to create realistic crowd scenes. Later in the film as soldiers are tracking the movement of the taxi the results are achieved with similar efficiency. Benard Herrmann’s score adds another layer of unsettling oddness often using cello, theremin or Wurlitzer organ as part of the incidental music.

The spaceship’s occupants could not be more different. One is a towering (more than seven feet tall) metal robot called Gort which is also impressively realised and provides the film’s signature image (later appropriated by none other than Ringo Starr for an album cover) and its muscle. It’s a targeted force though who can extinguish weapons yet leave their owner unharmed if a little bewildered. Then there’s Klaatu, the smooth talking, mysterious alien who brings a warning that if humanity continues down the path of increasingly sophisticated weaponry -in particular of a nuclear variety- then they will have to answer to unspecified forces beyond Earth. It takes a while for him to get this message out as almost as soon as he steps out of the ship and raises an object a trigger happy soldier shoots him. Welcome to America!

At first it looks as if Klaatu has no special powers of his own really except perhaps the power to charm and some nifty escapology. Sneaking his way out of the confines of the military hospital once his wound has healed he quickly blends n with regular folk to try as his attempts to get the army to organise a world conference run up against contemporary difficult global relations. Sci -fi likes to be enigmatic and what might work in a written story sometimes makes Klaatu seem deliberately obtuse. Its no surprise at all that his manner has been appropriated by many subsequent films or tv shows that feature an alien on Earth, not least Doctor Who. Yet his attitude makes his task more difficult. In a world run by politicians and miliary men, it is interesting that Klaatu’s strongest connections are made with an elderly scientist, a boy and his  mother.

The title itself refers to a half hour when Klaatu shuts down all the power across the world as a demonstration of his power. It seems a self-sabotaging idea especially as he hasn’t really warned anyone he would do this yet it does inspire another interesting montage of vehicles, machines and phones not working. It does feel as if the moniker was chosen for dramatic effect than anything when a more unusual one would have better suited Klaatu’s way of operating.

The script, by Edmund North based on a short story by Harry Bates, carries some suggestion that this scenario is like God expressing displeasure at human activity. It is more definitely an anti nuclear script though at each turn is careful not to get too bogged down in the events happening at the time it was made. This allows it to resonate more these days; when you think about each generation faces similar nuclear threats, its just the dangerous nation that sometimes alters. As a pacifist film it doesn’t really work not least because Klaatu’s solution if he can’t get all the nations to agree disarmament is to destroy the planet! He probably needs to learn more about negotiation.

The film ran into trouble with some over the fact that after he is mortally wounded Klaatu is brought back to life. Some have perceived this an allegory of Christ though as the alien is revived by a machine I’m not sure that is a valid argument against it. Mind you he does take on the human alias of John Carpenter (JC!) and after his resurrection he does rise up into the sky (albeit in a spaceship) so perhaps it is in there somewhere. Sometimes it feels more a product of the Sixties than the Fifties.

While the mistrust between nations is well covered, what I would take more issue with is the narrative’s lack of an alternative. Klaatu’s ultimatum is not given with any way that nations might resolved their disputes it they did abandon their arsenals. Considering he mentions how his planet no longer needs wars; you’d think he might be able to mention how it reached that state. Instead, he plays into the very threat of force that he is supposedly trying to stop. Perhaps we’ve all been reading a little too much into the story; maybe it’s nothing more than a way of pleading for a more peaceful future. It was made only six years after the Second World War ended so those horrors would still be fresh in people’s minds. Whether it was quite the right message (stop fighting or we’ll destroy you) I’m not sure but it has its heart in the right place.

As a visual treat though the movie works superbly. The monochrome look, helped by later restoration, is perfect for the events we see. When we venture inside the ship it has a look that hasn’t really dated, using subtle design rather than something more garish which would probably look ridiculous now. Wise uses a lot of shadows too, notably when Gort is approaching Helen near the perimeter of the metal barriers and inside various rooms. He has a real sense of what is best for this film and every frame looks fantastic.

Michael Rennie is a good choice to play Klaatu who can be a little distant and enigmatic yet also friendly and curious while Patricia Neal, as the only significant female character Helen, deftly moves though the different things she has to face. Young Billy Gray as her son manages to embody the open-minded child with whom Klaatu bonds. Elsewhere there are a plethora of soldiers and officials which certainly emphasises the seriousness of the scenario.

As to what that famous phrase “Klaatu Barada Nikto" which the alien tells Helen to relate to Gort if he is killed actually translates as there have been many theories over the decades. The truth seems to be that it just sounded sufficiently alien and I imagine its an instruction to Gort to resurrect him.

The Day The Earth Stood Still bears little relation to other melodramatically monikered  sci fi or fantasy films of the Fifties, instead being a thoughtful, intriguing narrative which is impeccably staged.