Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
There are signs of normalcy, 6 Jul 2005
We are visited by a flying saucer that lands near the U.S. capital. As a precaution the saucer is surrounded by the military with tanks, carbines, and side arms. The ship opens up and a being, Klaatu (Michael Rennie), steps out. He makes a menacing move with a foreign object. A quick thinking well trained military man shoots first. Why are we being visited? A mysterious man named Mr. Carpenter may hold the answer. However the only people that will listen to the message are the world's scientists. To bring his point home Klaatu holds a demonstration. The result of the demonstration gives the movie its title "The Day the Earth Stood Still" Besides being a classic this movie also captures a time. It is intriguing looking at the technology of the time and even the locations before they changed (some have not changed). It is still fun to watch as Klaatu is encountered, detained, and the state of the governments (does not look like things have changed much). We all want to say to Gort "Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!" This movie was better built than most for its time and rivals some movies of today. The message is still relevant and we sometimes try to apply the same solution here.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic, 25 April 2009
Having just reviewed the unfortunate remake, I am moved to return to the 1951 original, which I saw again a few months ago. It was one of the seminal films I viewed when it first came out, when the world was struggling to appreciate just what the 'nuclear deterrent' signified. It is a film that I have lived with ever since, one of my top 100, hence my disquiet when I discovered that the clear message of the original movie had been lost in translation in the very confused remake. I just hope that as many people as possible will see the 1951 movie, and discover both its quality and its philosophical depth.
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19 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Use of Violence As A Solution To All Problems, 19 Feb 2007
Klaatu: This comes from our own planet, but if you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder. Your choice is simple: join us and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer. The decision rests with you."IMDB
'The Day the Earth Stood Still' was one of the first movies in the 1950's to explore space travel and to provide a warning that "the use of violence as a solution to all problems" is an issue we need to face. All these years later we are still on this path and these words have not been taken seriously. This movie is known as the best Science Fiction movie ever written. 56 years later it still stands up. Patricia Neal had no idea this would be the case and had trouble keeping a straight face while reciting her lines.
Michael Rennie as Klaatu/Carpenter, as the spaceman who came to Earth to give us a warning. He takes up the persona of Mr. Carpenter and unfortunately is not taken seriously until it is too late. One of the reasons that Michael Rennie was cast as Klaatu was because he was generally unknown to American audiences, and would be more readily accepted as an "alien" than a more recognizable actor. Patricia Neal as Helen Benson is one of the few who does take him seriously, and with her son, Bobby,( a young Billy Gray) comes to love Mr. Carpenter. The world becomes afraid of this unknown spaceman, and of course we do him wrong. This black and white film won the Golden Globe in 1952 for "Promoting International Understanding"- why oh why do we not have such an award today?
One piece of trivia is that "Although he was already signed to play the Einstein-like Professor Barnhardt, the studio wanted to remove Sam Jaffe as a result of the political witch hunts that were then underway. Producer Julian BlaKlaatu:" Now, we do not pretend to have achieved perfection, but we do have a system, and it works. I came here to give you these facts. It is no concern of ours how you run yustein appealed to studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck. Zanuck allowed Jaffe to play the role, but it would be Jaffe's last Hollywood film until the late 1950s."
"In other words, it's not that these advanced worlds are a bunch of peace-loving little green men; in fact, they are governments that have voluntarily subjugated their sovereignty to a fascist organization that threatens them with annihilation unless they remain on the up-and-up. Klaatu's greatest hope for the people of Earth is that we can become enlightened enough to join his little group. No thanks. That's not peace as a choice, that's the kind of peace that's kept by threats and intimidation -- the kind of peace of people who would name a missile a Peacekeeper or a Patriot." Matt Bailey
The film is good at explaining how misunderstandings can develop between ordinary people and between nations and how easily fear can overwhelm reason and understanding. We also realize that optimism about the nature of human beings and our ease of resorting to violence and fear of the unknown is not our greatest virtue. Highly Recommended. prisrob 2-16-07
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