The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Directed by: Robert Wise
Written by: Edmund H North (screenplay), Harry Bates (story)
Starring Cast: Michael Rennie (Klaatu), Patricia Neal (Helen Benson)
Supporting Cast: Hugh Marlow (Tom Stevens), Sam Jaffe (Prof. Bernhardt), Billy Gray (Bobby Benson)
What's it Rated?: G (I'd call it more PG for thematic suspence and some mild mushiness)
Genre: Sci-Fi, Suspense
Synopsis: A robot and a man-like alien . . . hold the world spellbound with new and startling powers from another planet! From Out Of Space... A Warning And An Ultimatum. Strange Power From Another Planet Menaces The Earth! What is this invader from another planet... Can it destroy the Earth?
My Take: I suppose I could start off talking about what I like about The Day the Earth Stood Still, but I'd like to make a disclamer first. The basic premise is simple, a superior race has the right to police the universe and tell people what to do and not do. Sure it's all in the name of universal peace, since when is it fine for anyone to threaten death to anyone who has the potential to hurt another? I can understand punishing someone for doing something wrong, but I don't understand punishing someone for something they could do.
It's sorta like saying, the punishment for having a gun is death. Doesn't that defeat the purpose? Punishment for crime is to stop the crimes from happening in the first place, so is commiting a crime to stop a crime OK?
Here is a quote from the Movie: [speaking to earth's scientists about what happens if earth addopts the aliens universal police system] "this does not mean giving up any freedom, except the freedom to act irresponsibly."
I don't know about you, but I like the freedom the act irresponsibly! Unless I'm commiting some sort of crime, why should I be punished for this?
The film not only admires this, but also that a one-world order and the tendency of super-powers to use interventionism are good things.
Anyway, Aside from that, it's a cool movie and also an interesting look at cold-war hysteria and how humorous it is to see how a highly inteligent being might react to a comparitively "primitive" people such as humans. (despite the fact that aliens don't exist, and that humans aren't primitive)
The story and filming is good. The acting is fine, and for the time period it was made, the special effects are pretty good to :-)
Story: 7 out of 10
Humor: 6 out of 10
Action Suspense: 7 out of 10
Overall: 6 out of 10
P.S. After thinking it over, I've decided to raise my overall rating of "Expelled" from 6.5, to 7.5. I wasn't in a very good mood when I wrote the review, and I had almost fell asleep watching it because it was so late. You can read the review here.
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