The Day the Earth Stood Still - 1951 B&W
In 1995, The Day the Earth Stood Still was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film also received recognition from the American Film Institute. In 2001, it was ranked number 82 on 100 Years. . .100 Thrills, a list of America's most heart-pounding films.
Story & Screenshots
An extraterrestrial flying saucer is tracked, streaking about the Earth until it gently lands on the President's Park Ellipse in Washington, D.C.
Klaatu (Michael Rennie) emerges, announcing that he has come from outer space on a goodwill mission.
Upon opening a small, suspicious-looking device, he is wounded by a nervous soldier and the device is destroyed.
In response, Gort, a large humanoid robot, emerges from the ship and, without harming the soldiers, melts all weapons present with a disintegration ray emanating from its head. Klaatu orders it to stop and explains that the ruined object was an intergalactic viewing device - a gift for the President.
Klaatu is taken to an army hospital where he is found to be physically human-like, but he stuns the doctors with the quickness of his healing. Meanwhile, the military attempts to enter Klaatu's ship but finds it impregnable. Gort stands by, mute, stationary and impregnable as well.
Klaatu reveals to the President's secretary, Harley (Frank Conroy), that he bears a message so momentous and urgent that it can and must be revealed to all the world's leaders simultaneously. Harley, however, tells him that it would be impossible to get the squabbling world leaders to agree to meet. Pondering this, Klaatu wants to get to know the ordinary people. Harley forbids it and leaves Klaatu locked up under guard.
Klaatu escapes and lodges at a boarding house, assuming the alias "Mr. Carpenter." Among the residents are World War II widow Helen Benson (Patricia Neal) and her son Bobby (Billy Gray). At breakfast the next morning, during alarming radio reports, Klaatu takes in the unknowing fellow boarders' suspicions and speculations about the purpose of the alien's visit.
While Helen and her boyfriend Tom Stephens (Hugh Marlowe) go on a day trip, Klaatu babysits Bobby. The boy takes Klaatu on a tour of the city, including a visit to his father's grave in Arlington National Cemetery, where Klaatu is dismayed to learn that most of those buried there were killed in wars.
The two visit the heavily guarded spaceship and the Lincoln Memorial. Klaatu, impressed by the Gettysburg Address inscription, queries Bobby for the greatest person living in the world. Bobby suggests a leading American scientist, Professor Jacob Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe), who lives in Washington, D.C. Bobby takes Klaatu to Prof. Barnhardt's home, but the professor is absent.
Klaatu enters and adds a key mathematical equation to an advanced problem on the professor's blackboard, then leaves his contact information with the suspicious housekeeper.
Later, government agents escort Klaatu to see Barnhardt. Klaatu introduces himself and privately warns the professor that the people of other planets have become concerned for their own safety after human beings developed atomic power. Klaatu declares that if his message goes unheeded, "Planet Earth will be eliminated."
Barnhardt agrees to arrange a meeting of scientists at Klaatu's ship and suggests that Klaatu give a demonstration of his power. Klaatu returns to his spaceship the next evening to implement the idea, unaware that Bobby has followed him.
Bobby tells the unbelieving Helen and Tom what has transpired, but not until Tom finds a diamond on the floor of Klaatu's room do they begin to accept his story. When Tom takes the diamond for appraisal, the jeweler informs him it is unlike any other gem on Earth.
Hearing of Bobby's story, Klaatu finds Helen at her workplace. She nervously leads him to an unoccupied elevator which mysteriously stops at noon, trapping them together. Klaatu admits he is responsible, tells Helen his true identity, and asks for her help.
A montage sequence shows that Klaatu has neutralized all electric power everywhere around the planet except in situations that would compromise human safety, such as hospitals and airplanes in flight. The only one not distressed is Professor Barnhardt, who sits in his office, admiring Klaatu's manner of demonstrated power.
After the thirty-minute blackout ends, the manhunt for Klaatu intensifies and Tom informs authorities of his suspicions. Helen is very upset by Tom's betrayal of Klaatu and breaks off their relationship. Helen and Klaatu take a taxi to Barnhardt's home; en route, Klaatu instructs Helen that, should anything happen to him, she must tell Gort "Klaatu barada nikto". When they are spotted, Klaatu is gunned down by military personnel.
Helen (ignored by the military as an unimportant woman) heads to the spaceship. Somehow aware of Klaatu's death, Gort awakens and kills two guards before Helen can relay Klaatu's message. Finally hearing it before he kills her too, Gort gently deposits her in the spaceship, then goes to fetch Klaatu's corpse.
Gort then revives Klaatu while the amazed Helen looks on. Klaatu explains that his revival is only temporary: even with their advanced technology, they cannot truly overcome death.
Klaatu steps out of the spaceship and addresses the assembled scientists, explaining that humanity's penchant for violence while taking its first steps into space after discovering atomic power have sparked concern among other inhabitants of the universe who have created and empowered a race of robot enforcers (including Gort) to deter such aggression.
He warns that if the people of Earth threaten to extend their violence into space, the robots will destroy Earth, adding, "The decision rests with you." He enters the spaceship and departs.
The Day the Earth Stood Still - FILM INFO
Producer Julian Blaustein set out to make a film that illustrated the fear and suspicion that characterized the early Cold War and Atomic Age. He reviewed over 200 science fiction short stories and novels in search of a storyline that could be used, since this film genre was well suited for a metaphorical discussion of such grave issues.
Studio head Darryl F. Zanuck gave the go-ahead for this project, and Blaustein hired Edmund North to write the screenplay based on elements from Harry Bates's short story Farewell to the Master. The revised final screenplay was completed on February 21, 1951. Raymond F. Jones worked as an uncredited adviser. The set was designed by Thomas Little and Claude Carpenter.
They collaborated with the noted architect Frank Lloyd Wright for the design of the spacecraft. Paul Laffoley has suggested that the futuristic interior was inspired by Wright's Johnson Wax Headquarters, completed in 1936. Laffoley quotes Wright and his attempt in designing the exterior: "... to imitate an experimental substance that I have heard about which acts like living tissue.
If cut, the rift would appear to heal like a wound, leaving a continuous surface with no scar." Principal outdoor photography for The Day the Earth Stood Still was shot on the 20th Century Fox sound stages and on its studio back lot (now located in Century City, California), with a second unit shooting background plates and other scenes in Washington.
The primary actors never traveled to Washington for the making of the film. The robot Gort, who serves Klaatu, was played by the naturally tall Lock Martin, who worked as an usher at Graumann's Chinese Theater and stood seven feet tall.
He worked carefully with the metallic suit, for he was not used to being in such a costume. The costume also had wires for the robot's other parts. Wise decided that Martin's segments would be filmed at half hour intervals, so Martin would not face discomfort. The segments, in turn, went into the film's final print.
In a commentary track on DVD, interviewed by fellow director Nicholas Meyer, the director Robert Wise stated that he wanted the film to appear as realistic and believable as possible, in order to drive home the motion picture's core message against armed conflict in the real world.
Also mentioned in the DVD's documentary interview was the original title for the movie, "The Day the World Stops." Blaustein said his aim with the film was to promote a "strong United Nations."
Naturally, the unusual ensemble, featuring acoustic and electric sounds, and the unearthly, vibrating voice of the Theremin (Herrmann scored the piece for two Theremins, and they often play at cross-purposes, using the instrument's already unconventional sound to create disorienting swirls) adds to the unsettling, futuristic theme of the film. Bernard Herrmann's score received a nomination at the Golden Globes.
The Day the Earth Stood Still was well received by critics and is widely regarded as one of the best films of 1951. It holds a 94% "Certified Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. The film was moderately successful when released, accruing US$1,850,000 in distributors' domestic (U.S. and Canada) rentals, making it the year's 52nd biggest earner.
Variety praised the film's documentary style and the Los Angeles Times praised its seriousness, though it also found "certain subversive elements." Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called it "tepid entertainment." The film earned more plaudits overseas: the Hollywood Foreign Press Association gave the filmmakers a special Golden Globe Award for "promoting international understanding."
The French magazine Cahiers du cin ma was also impressed, with Pierre Kast calling it "almost literally stunning" and praising its "moral relativism". The movie is ranked seventh in Arthur C. Clarke's list of the best Science-Fiction films of all time, just above Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, which Clarke himself co-wrote.
It placed number 67 on a similar list 100 Years - 100 Cheers, a list of America's most inspiring films. In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten" - the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. The Day the Earth Stood Still was acknowledged as the fifth best film in the science fiction genre.
The film was also on the ballot for AFI's other lists including 100 Years. . .100 Movies, the tenth anniversary list, 100 Years - 100 Heroes and Villains for Klaatu in the heroes category, 100 Years - 100 Movie Quotes for the famous line "Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!", and AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores.
In 2004, the film was selected by The New York Times as one of The Best 1000 Movies Ever Made. Lou Cannon and Colin Powell believed the film inspired Ronald Reagan to discuss uniting against an alien invasion when meeting Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985. Two years later, Reagan told the United Nations, "I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world".
KLAATU BARADA NIKTO
Since the release of the movie, the phrase "Klaatu barada nikto" has appeared repeatedly in fiction and in popular culture. The Robot Hall of Fame described it as "one of the most famous commands in science fiction", while Frederick S. Clarke of Cinefantastique called it "the most famous phrase ever spoken by an extraterrestrial." Edmund H. North, who wrote The Day the Earth Stood Still, also created the alien language used in the film, including the phrase "Klaatu barada nikto".
The official spelling for the phrase comes directly from the script (as shown in the above image) and provides insight as to its proper pronunciation. No translation was given in the film. Philosophy professor Aeon J. Skoble speculates the famous phrase is a "safe-word" that is part of a fail-safe feature used during the diplomatic missions such as the one Klaatu and Gort make to Earth.
With the use of the safe-word, Gort's deadly force can be deactivated in the event the robot is mistakenly triggered into a defensive posture. Skoble observes that the theme has evolved into a "staple of science fiction that the machines charged with protecting us from ourselves will misuse or abuse their power." In this interpretation, the phrase apparently tells Gort that Klaatu considers escalation unnecessary.
Fantastic Films magazine explored the meaning of "Klaatu barada nikto" in a 1978 article titled The Language of Klaatu. The article, written by Tauna Le Marbe, who is listed as their "Alien Linguistics Editor," attempts to translate all the alien words Klaatu used throughout the film. In the article the literal translation for Klaatu barada nikto was "Stop Barbarism (I have) death, bind" and the free translation was "I die, repair me, do not retaliate."
Florence Blaustein, widow of the producer Julian Blaustein, said North had to pass a street called Baroda every day going to work and said, "I think that's how that was born." Film historian Steven Jay Rubin, recalled an interview he had with North when he asked the question, "What is the direct translation of Klaatu barada nikto, and Edmund North said to me 'There's hope for earth, if the scientists can be reached.'"
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