After WWII and the invention of the atomic bomb, people in the 50's were looking for strong leaders who could command moral authority. Enter General Eisenhower, who would become a two-term U.S. President; "Father Knows Best", with its stern but loving father figure; and the iron-fisted biblical epic: "The Ten Commandments".
Enter, too, "The Day The Earth Stood Still", a 1951 sci-fi classic soaked in images of authority ... the police, the military, and the tall, stern, Moses-like figure from another world, Klaatu, who lectures us on the folly of nuclear war. It is, I believe, this pacifist message emanating from strength that explains the film's enduring popularity.
Noble as the message is, what about its cinematic vehicle? Visually and musically, the film is appropriately frigid and forbidding. Leo Tover's noirish B&W lighting and unobtrusive camera work, combined with Bernard Herrmann's score and the eerie theramin sounds all work in concert to convey a mood of Orwellian severity and other worldly coldness.
But the script is disappointing. This is a very talky film, which dilutes its effectiveness as sci-fi. The dialogue seems stodgy, canned, uninspired. Example: "attention zone 5, attention zone 5, yellow cab moving north ... man and woman in backseat; get license number and report ... deploy all units according to Plan B immediately" (well, at least it was not Plan 9...).
This pedestrian script could have been borrowed from most any cops and robbers flick of the 40's. On the other hand, I guess I can forgive the script's moratorium on humor, given the seriousness of the message.
The film's science is very dated, thus requiring further tolerance. Klaatu to scientists: "The universe grows smaller every day"; no, actually the physical universe is expanding. "Venus and Mars ... are the only two planets capable of sustaining life as we know it"; no, not with their temperature extremes and chemical composition.
And the special effects are curiously minimal in the same era that produced the beautifully weird gliding machines from Mars in "War Of The Worlds" (1953), and the lurking terror in "Forbidden Planet" (1956).
One solid accomplishment of this film is its accurate portrayal of society in the early 1950's: the old cars, men's formal attire (especially those hats), interior decor, antiquated TV sets, and of course the confidence in institutional authority.
In summary then, the movie, for me, functions less as a credible sci-fi vehicle than as a fascinating socio-political commentary on American life in the early 1950's.
Enter, too, "The Day The Earth Stood Still", a 1951 sci-fi classic soaked in images of authority ... the police, the military, and the tall, stern, Moses-like figure from another world, Klaatu, who lectures us on the folly of nuclear war. It is, I believe, this pacifist message emanating from strength that explains the film's enduring popularity.
Noble as the message is, what about its cinematic vehicle? Visually and musically, the film is appropriately frigid and forbidding. Leo Tover's noirish B&W lighting and unobtrusive camera work, combined with Bernard Herrmann's score and the eerie theramin sounds all work in concert to convey a mood of Orwellian severity and other worldly coldness.
But the script is disappointing. This is a very talky film, which dilutes its effectiveness as sci-fi. The dialogue seems stodgy, canned, uninspired. Example: "attention zone 5, attention zone 5, yellow cab moving north ... man and woman in backseat; get license number and report ... deploy all units according to Plan B immediately" (well, at least it was not Plan 9...).
This pedestrian script could have been borrowed from most any cops and robbers flick of the 40's. On the other hand, I guess I can forgive the script's moratorium on humor, given the seriousness of the message.
The film's science is very dated, thus requiring further tolerance. Klaatu to scientists: "The universe grows smaller every day"; no, actually the physical universe is expanding. "Venus and Mars ... are the only two planets capable of sustaining life as we know it"; no, not with their temperature extremes and chemical composition.
And the special effects are curiously minimal in the same era that produced the beautifully weird gliding machines from Mars in "War Of The Worlds" (1953), and the lurking terror in "Forbidden Planet" (1956).
One solid accomplishment of this film is its accurate portrayal of society in the early 1950's: the old cars, men's formal attire (especially those hats), interior decor, antiquated TV sets, and of course the confidence in institutional authority.
In summary then, the movie, for me, functions less as a credible sci-fi vehicle than as a fascinating socio-political commentary on American life in the early 1950's.