The Day the Earth Stood Still remake

[trancejeremy]

I can't believe no one has made a 'Keanu Reeves should have been cast as the robot' joke.

(Though then again, robots don't say "woah!")

 

[sniffles]

I can see Keanu Reeves as an alien.

I love the original movie. Such a great, great movie that I could watch over and over and over. Its a movie, though, that worries me when it comes to updating. Its not really about action or explosions or any of that and I worry that its what a studio would demand from any 'alien' movie.

My thoughts, too. They'll want to give it more of a romantic relationship. And the kid, if there is one, will be played by some horrible overacting Hollywood "prodigy". And Gort will be a giant Transformer-style robot with chainsaws and circular saws on its arms. And the scenes of Klaatu trying to escape the military/police will involve a car chase.

Bleah.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I can't believe no one has made a 'Keanu Reeves should have been cast as the robot' joke.

(Though then again, robots don't say "woah!")

Then I guess Joey Lawrence won't be cast as the robot either.

 

[Bullgrit]

The Day the Earth Stood Still - movie review

Viewed: DVD

This is the 1951 classic that nearly every sci-fi fan knows of but few have actually seen. I've known of the movie's title, Gort the robot, and the words "Klaatu barada nikto" for as long as I've known anything about science fiction. As a kid, I occasionally read sci-fi magazines, and I marveled at the images from famous sci-fi movies. I knew what Gort the robot looked like, and what movie he was from, but I knew nothing about the actual movie story. Now I do.

A flying saucer comes to Earth and lands in a Washington DC park. The military moves in and surrounds the space ship, and excitement fills the city. It doesn’t bode well for a serious movie---and this is apparently supposed to be a serious movie---when the first things I note about the situation make me laugh.

The military has surrounded the ship with armed soldiers, tanks, and artillery pieces. The fact that the military has tanks and artillery pieces in point-blank range of a target is funny enough, but “surrounded” is the notable word in this set up. Ever heard of a Polish Firing Squad?

And then we have all the civilians standing behind the police line, just a couple yards behind the guns. If the space ship backfires and startles a soldier, the death toll would be staggering.

But anyway, in all seriousness, the space ship opens and a spaceman with a fishbowl helmet and silver unisuit comes out with an unknown object in hand. A scared soldier shoots the spaceman in the shoulder. Then Gort the robot comes out.

Gort is ominously quiet as he stiffly steps, one foot after the other, down the ramp from the ship. His visor raises and he shoots a ray at all the weapons around the ship. Guns disintegrate in soldiers’ hands, artillery pieces disappear, and tanks glow long enough for the soldiers to escape, then they too disappear. Gort is badass.

The spaceman is taken to Walter Reed Hospital for medical attention, and he turns out to look completely human. His name is Klaatu, and he has a message for all mankind. A serious message.

Klaatu quietly escapes from the hospital without event, and surreptitiously gets a room at a local boarding house. He then just goes about observing humanity while trying to find a way to get all the governments of the world together to hear his important message at the same time. Most of the movie is non-sci-fi---it’s a mild thriller with a global-political message: stop with the nuclear weapon cold war.

It’s all kind of a disappointment, really. I was fully prepared to accept goofy special effects, but the “serious message” really caught me off guard. It’s almost comical considering how mild the nuclear war threat was in 1951 compared to how things got by the end of the Cold War. In 1951, the threat was what, a few major cities might get destroyed? By the 1980s, the threat was global total annihilation.

Meh. I’m glad I watched it so I can finally say I know exactly what the movie was about and what it was like. But sadly, the knowledge is nothing to brag about.

And for those who don't know and are wondering, "Klaatu barada nikto" are the words that must be spoken to Gort to prevent him from going on a rampage.

Bullgrit
Total Bullgrit

 

[Fast Learner]

It’s almost comical considering how mild the nuclear war threat was in 1951 compared to how things got by the end of the Cold War. In 1951, the threat was what, a few major cities might get destroyed? By the 1980s, the threat was global total annihilation.

It wasn't comical to the people of 1951, though, many of whom had lost someone in a conventional war just a few years earlier, and all of whom read in the newspaper and saw in newsreels how millions had died with conventional weapons. All they had to do was imagine Hitler with a few dozen bombs that could wipe out entire cities. Hundreds of millions of deaths may not be global annihilation, but it's incredibly awful.

Just look at the reaction when 3,000 Americans were murdered here in an attack, and then imagine nearly everyone in New York, DC, and Los Angeles dead. Plenty grim, if you ask me.

The power of TDTESS is its seriousness, precisely what makes it so great. It isn't considered to be a classic for effects or some kind of campy humor.

 

[ssampier]

I love this movie. This is important considering I usually dislike most older movies.

I wonder if they'll go with more "effect" on the message? I mean electricity going out world-wide* for half-hour is somewhat anti-climatic anymore.


*cars didn't work either, right?

 

[Ed_Laprade]

The Day the Earth Stood Still - movie review

Viewed: DVD

This is the 1951 classic that nearly every sci-fi fan knows of but few have actually seen. I've known of the movie's title, Gort the robot, and the words "Klaatu barada nikto" for as long as I've known anything about science fiction. As a kid, I occasionally read sci-fi magazines, and I marveled at the images from famous sci-fi movies. I knew what Gort the robot looked like, and what movie he was from, but I knew nothing about the actual movie story. Now I do.

A flying saucer comes to Earth and lands in a Washington DC park. The military moves in and surrounds the space ship, and excitement fills the city. It doesn’t bode well for a serious movie---and this is apparently supposed to be a serious movie---when the first things I note about the situation make me laugh.

The military has surrounded the ship with armed soldiers, tanks, and artillery pieces. The fact that the military has tanks and artillery pieces in point-blank range of a target is funny enough, but “surrounded” is the notable word in this set up. Ever heard of a Polish Firing Squad?

And then we have all the civilians standing behind the police line, just a couple yards behind the guns. If the space ship backfires and startles a soldier, the death toll would be staggering.

But anyway, in all seriousness, the space ship opens and a spaceman with a fishbowl helmet and silver unisuit comes out with an unknown object in hand. A scared soldier shoots the spaceman in the shoulder. Then Gort the robot comes out.

Gort is ominously quiet as he stiffly steps, one foot after the other, down the ramp from the ship. His visor raises and he shoots a ray at all the weapons around the ship. Guns disintegrate in soldiers’ hands, artillery pieces disappear, and tanks glow long enough for the soldiers to escape, then they too disappear. Gort is badass.

The spaceman is taken to Walter Reed Hospital for medical attention, and he turns out to look completely human. His name is Klaatu, and he has a message for all mankind. A serious message.

Klaatu quietly escapes from the hospital without event, and surreptitiously gets a room at a local boarding house. He then just goes about observing humanity while trying to find a way to get all the governments of the world together to hear his important message at the same time. Most of the movie is non-sci-fi---it’s a mild thriller with a global-political message: stop with the nuclear weapon cold war.

It’s all kind of a disappointment, really. I was fully prepared to accept goofy special effects, but the “serious message” really caught me off guard. It’s almost comical considering how mild the nuclear war threat was in 1951 compared to how things got by the end of the Cold War. In 1951, the threat was what, a few major cities might get destroyed? By the 1980s, the threat was global total annihilation.

Meh. I’m glad I watched it so I can finally say I know exactly what the movie was about and what it was like. But sadly, the knowledge is nothing to brag about.

And for those who don't know and are wondering, "Klaatu barada nikto" are the words that must be spoken to Gort to prevent him from going on a rampage.

Bullgrit
Total Bullgrit

I'd say that you didn't live throught the period, but I was like 2-3 years old when it came out. But I still think its great. Hookey, but great. (Of course, I too think the initial set up is silly. And I keep wondering, every time I see it, how come the military doesn't open up with everything its got when Gort cuts loose. Oh wait, then there would be a bloodbath!) But hey, you've got Clark Kent as a radio newsman, what more do you want?

 

[Mallus]

It was also interesting the way it married the nuclear paranoia of the time to a clever, well, actually kinda blatant Christian allegory, where the space Jesus (Mr. Carpenter?!) comes to earth, sermonizes a little, mixes with the common folks and ultimately dies for our sins, then gets reborn, thus preventing the robot angle/god from punishing humanity for their atomic sins.

This is why I love SF. Also why I believe that subtly is its enemy.

 

[Bullgrit]

It wasn't comical to the people of 1951

I should have said, "It’s almost comical, in retrospect, . . ."

Sorry, I just wasn't impressed with this great classic.

Bullgrit

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

First reaction: BLASPHEMERS! WHORES OF BABYLON! GODLESS BARBARIANS! Next thing you know they'll be colorizing "It's a Wonderful Life."

Second reaction: The original work is, in SOME sense at least, timeless and should never be tampered with. HOWEVER, the very basic story nugget of a benevolent alien ambassador visting Earth is more than worthy of revisitation. Calling it, or even THINKING of it as a "remake", however, would be delusional.

The original is steeped irrevocably in the era in which it was made. To "remake" that would result in a movie that is irrelevant to our time. Writing a wholly NEW movie starting with the initial concept and steeping it in issues of OUR times might produce a film worth watching, especially if the writer avoided feeling obligated to follow a similar plot and use the same ending. It can be good even if it has Keanu Reeves in it mistakenly trying to outdo Micheal Rennie as an identical Klaatu. Rennie was no Great Actor, but he was an actor. Reeves is a movie star - and there is a difference.