#'Michael Rennie was ill the day the Earth stood still...' (The Day The Earth Stood Still [1951] (DVD))

Member Name: razielle

Product:	The Day The Earth Stood Still [1951] (DVD)
Date:	18/03/09 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good acting, characters, plot, story, style, message

Disadvantages: none I can think of

#'Michael Rennie was ill the day the Earth stood still...'

Sound familiar? It's actually a line from a Richard O'Brien song called 'Science Fiction Double Feature' from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. And it was as a result of hearing this song that I went out and bought The Day The Earth Stood Still (the original 1951 version mind you!) on DVD.

I tend to prefer originals, and have been less than impressed by the Keanu Reeves remake of this which I saw recently.

However, the 1951 movie stars:

Michael Rennie as Klaatu
Patricia Neal as Helen Benson
Sam Jaffe as Professor Jacob Barnhardt
Billy Gray as Bobby Benson
Lock Martin as Gort (the robot)

For ages I thought Klaatu was the name of the robot, until finally I got to see the film, and discovered that the robot is called Gort, the classy other-worldly alien/man is Klaatu.

Anyway, so the film is based on the Harry Bates short story 'Farewell To The Master', and is a black and white sci-fi B-movie classic. It starts with a white light zooming around the Earth at an alarming speed, countries all over the world are reporting sightings, and people are worried (as you might expect).

Finally it lands in a park/sports field in the United States (also as you might expect, being a US film!), and we see that it is a large silver saucer-shaped vessel, seemingly with no doors.

The military circle it, armed and ready (as you might...) and when an opening begins to appear on the saucer, and Klaatu comes out in a highly sophisticated space suit, the likes of which to make any Blue Peter presenter proud, offering a pointy hand-held device (perhaps an advanced palm pilot?) the Army open fire at him because they're twits, and destroy the prezzie in the process. He collapses and says something like 'it was a gift for your leader, with this information you could have cured everything' or something, making the military appear pretty stupid, which no doubt was the intention of director, Robert Wise.

Then comes Gort, the giant robot made of impenetrable alien material (yet surpringly bendy) with his visor eyes and his laser beam with which he can zap any weapon into such tiny bits you can't even see them....

I won't spoil the plot or story because in actual fact it is considerably more gripping than the remake, which likes it bells and whistles too much for my liking. It has romance, tension, thrills, spills, this is lower budget but nicely character-driven, it is a story of human life, of morals, of trust, and as you might have guessed, it is quite anti-military.

You can actually pick it up on DVD for not much money now too, last seen in Amazon for about a fiver!

Summary: Character-driven, it is a story of human life, of morals, of trust, and is quite anti-military