The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Yesterday I watched the fifties' The War of the Worlds, and today was the turn of that decade's The Day the Earth Stood Still, another portentiously titled piece of sci-fi about aliens visiting Earth. While the Martians in War were alien-looking and bent on destroying all they came into contact with, the singular human-looking alien lifeform in Day, Klaatu, and his robotic assistant Gort, are here to save the Earth from itself. Or rather, to save his planet and others from the violent inclinations of the third rock from the Sun.

Where War explored themes of weapons/science vs god, here the Cold War serves as a backdrop to a cautionary morality tale about the nature of war itself. Klaatu lands his saucer in Washington D.C. and is shot in the shoulder when attempting to present a gift, from here on his visit to our planet is not a particularly happy one. Hysteria leads to his being hunted down like a monster, while he tries to blend in and learn about the people he is trying to save. To do this he rents a room in boarding house and gets to know little Bobby (one of those perfect fifties kids who says 'gee' and is generally agreeable, have they ever existed outside of movies?) and his mother Helen. He also tries to get in touch with every leader on the planet to impart his wisdom about how to save their future, but due to Cold War tensions, the world's leaders won't play ball, so he tries his luck with leading scientists.

There's more going on here than in the War of the Worlds, at least in the script, if not in terms of action, and for this I believe it's the superior film. Again starring a load of unknowns, the actings better than in War, and Michael Rennie gives the character of Klaatu a quiet dignity as he faces the sheer stupidity of mankind and it's resistance to be saved. It's a subtly that I assume will be missing in Keanu Reeves' 2008 portrayal in the remake. The 1951 movie can quiet rightly be called a classic of the science fiction genre.