Science Fiction was not yet in vogue when director Robert Wise (who would later direct the films West Side Story and The Sound of Music) and producer Julian Blaustein set out to make a film that would deal with the fear and suspicions during the cold war. Blaustein searched for a suitable story to adapt among more than 200 science fiction stories and stumbled upon the short story`Farewell to the Master by Harry Bates. Blaustein hired Edmund North to write a screenplay called The Day The Earth Stood Still and Darryl Zanuçk greenlighted the production.
The film starts with the sighting of a UFO in Washington until a flying saucer lands in President’s Park in Washington DC. The arrival of Klaatu, an alien humanoid visitor, is not received well and a nervous soldier gets jumpy when Klaatu shows a gift. The soldier discharges his gun and Klaatu is hit. His robot accomplice, Gort, steps up and disintegrates all guns in sight without harming the soldiers around them until Klaatu tells him to stop. Klaatu is taken to hospital where he expresses the wish to leave a message for Earth’s Leaders. However the White House representative says this would be practically impossible since it would be impossible to get them all together even in one room.
Klaatu expresses a desire to learn of the humans around him and leaves the hospital by stealing a uniform of a Major Carpenter and he ends up in a boarding house in Washington DC. Helen Benson, widow and mother of one son, Bobby and her friend Tom Stephens are among the occupants of the boarding house and when Helen and Tom go on a day trip, Major Carpenter suggests he will remain with Bobby and together they go on a tour around the city. Bobby shows Carpenter the Lincoln Memorial, which impresses Carpenter greatly. However, when they visit the grave of Bobby’s father at Arlington Cemetery, Carpenter notes that those buried there were killed in wars.
When talking to Bobby about great minds, Carpenter asks the lad who would be the smartest man around now. Bobby suggests Professor Jacob Barnhardt, who lives close by, might be up to his standards. They go to Barnhardt’s house but the professor is not at home. Carpenter however leaves a note on the professor’s blackboard that will help him solve an advanced problem in mathematics. When Barnhardt later has Carpenter brought to his home, Carpenter identifies himself as Klaatu and explains his intentions. He talks of peoples of other planets becoming concerned now that the Earth humans have developed atomic power and declares that Earth must grow up and get with it. Or else. When Barnhardt asks aobut the ‘or else’, Klaatu resolutely says “Planet Earth will be eliminated”. Barnhardt agrees to set up a meeting with many scientific minds who can take his message to their respective leaders but does ask for a demonstration of his powers. Klaatu goes back to his spaceship and implements the demonstration but is not aware that he is being followed by Bobby.
The next day Klaatu finds Helen, takes her into an empty elevator and in the midst of their descent, the elevator stops. All of the Earth the world has come to a halt, with exception where this would harm the humans involved (like in operations in hospitals or planes in the air). After the world starts to move on again, Tom tells the authorities he suspects Carpenter is the alien Klaatu and the search for Klaatu intensifies. On the road to Professor Barnhardt, Klaatu tells Helen that if something is to happen to him, she is to say to Gort: Klaatu Barada Nikto. Not long after, Klaatu is shot by the military and Helen escapes to his spaceship. Gort awakens, kills two guards (off screen) but then Helen gives him the message and Gort carries her gently into the ship, leaves and returns with the body of Klaatu. Putting Klaatu in some machine, Klaatu revives and at the designated time he exits the spaceship and addresses the scientists that Professor Barnhardt has alerted. Saying that Earth must learn to grow up and forget about its violent ways, Klaatu points out that if Earth does not comply, robots like Gort will destroy Earth. “The decision rests with you”, Klaatu dramatically ends. He then nods to Helen, enters his spaceship and leaves the planet Earth.
Robert Wise directs the film very matter of factly, as if it were a news bulletin brought to the audience without embellishment, but this greatly benefits the seriousness of the threat implied by Klaatu. Of course, the message is metaphorical and can be interpreted in many ways but the main message “Grow Up” remains at its core. With minimal yet effective special effects (for its time, certainly) the film brings the message across with maximum efficiency.
The wonderful music by composer Bernard Herrmann also greatly assists in this. Herrmann immediately created a characteristic sound for flying saucers by using two Theremins, but his taut rhythms and exciting themes make for a impressive score.
Sure, if you look at the film with the perspective of 2010, it is hopelessly dated but if seen with the glasses of someone from 1951, it is not hard to see why this film was a great movie of its day, maybe one of the best Sci Fi films of the decade. The remake that was released with Keanu Reeves in the role of Klaatu fails to live up to its predecessor’s fame so never mind that one. The Robert Wise film is the one to see!
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