The Day the Earth Stood Still [Special Edition] [Blu-ray]

Director: Robert Wise

Overview

All of Washington, D.C., is thrown into a panic when an extraterrestrial spacecraft lands near the White House. Out steps Klaatu (Michael Rennie, in a role intended for Claude Rains), a handsome and soft-spoken interplanetary traveler, whose "bodyguard" is Gort (Lock Martin), a huge robot who spews forth laser-like death rays when danger threatens. After being wounded by an overzealous soldier, Klaatu announces that he has a message of the gravest importance for all humankind, which he will deliver only when all the leaders of all nations will agree to meet with him. World politics being what they are in 1951, Klaatu's demands are turned down and he is ordered to remain in the hospital, where his wounds are being tended. Klaatu escapes, taking refuge in a boarding house, where he poses as one "Mr. Carpenter" (one of the film's many parallels between Klaatu and Christ). There the benign alien gains the confidence of a lovely widow (Patricia Neal) and her son, Bobby (Billy Gray), neither of whom tumble to his other-worldly origins, and seeks out the gentleman whom Bobby regards as "the smartest man in the world" -- an Einstein-like scientist, Dr. Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe). The next day, at precisely 12 o'clock, Klaatu arranges for the world to "stand still" -- he shuts down all electrical power in the world, with the exception of essentials like hospitals and planes in flight. Directed by Robert Wise, who edited Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) for director Orson Welles before going on to direct such major 1960s musicals as West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965), The Day the Earth Stood Still was based on the story Farewell to the Master by Harry Bates.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/02/2008
UPC:	0024543554660
Original Release:	1951
Rating:	G
Source:	20th Century Fox
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono, DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:32:00
Sales rank:	74,514

Special Features

Closed Caption; Blu-ray exclusives: Interactive Theremin - Create your own score and Gort Command! interactive game; Commentary by director Robert Wise and Nicholas Meyer (director, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan); All-new commentary by film and music historians John Morgan, Steven Smith, William Stromberg and Nick Redman; Isolated score track; All-new featurettes: The Mysterious, Melodious Theremin; Main Title Live Performance by Peter Pringle; The Making of the Day the Earth Stood Still; Decond "Klaatu Barada Nikto"; Science Fiction as Metaphor; A Brief History of Flying Saucers; The Astounding Harry Bates; Edmund North: The Man Who Made the Earth Stand Still; Race to Oblivion documentary short; Farwell to the Master: A reading by Jamieson K. Price of the original Harry Bates short story; Fox Movietonews (1951); Trailers, interactive pressbook and still galleries

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Michael Rennie	Klaatu
Patricia Neal	Helen Benson
Hugh Marlowe	Tom Stevens
Sam Jaffe	Prof. Barnhardt
Billy Gray	Bobby Benson
Frances Bavier	Mrs. Barley
Lock Martin	Gort
Drew Pearson	Himself
Frank Conroy	Harley
Carleton Young	Colonel
Fay Roope	Major General
Edith Evanson	Mrs. Crockett
Robert Osterloh	Maj. White
Tyler McVey	Brady
James Seay	Government Man
John Brown	Mr. Barley
Marjorie Crossland	Hilda
Glenn Hardy	Interviewer
House Peters Jr.	MP Captain
Rush Williams	MP Sergeant
Olan Soule	Mr. Krull
Gil Herman	Government Agent
James Craven	Businessman
Harry Lauter	Platoon Leader
Charles Evans	Major General
Harlan Warde	Mr. Carlson
Wheaton Chambers	Jeweler
Elizabeth Flournoy	Customer
Dorothy Neumann	Barnhardt's Secretary
George Lynn	Col. Ryder
Freeman Lusk	Gen. Cutler
John Burton	British Radio MC
George Reeves	Newscaster
Harry Harvey Sr.	Taxi Driver
Gabriel Heater	Commentator
Elmer Davis	Commentator
H.V. Kaltenborn	Commentator
Bobby Gray	Actor
Harry Harvey	Taxi Driver
Marshall Bradford	Newscaster
Stuart Whitman	Actor
Bernard Herrmann	Composer

Technical Credits

Edmund H. North

Edmund H. North	Screenwriter
Julian Blaustein	Producer
Fred Sersen	Special Effects
Darryl Zanuck	Executive Producer
Harry M. Leonard	Sound/Sound Designer
Arthur L. Kirbach	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

At a time when science fiction on film had yet to work itself out of its bug-eyed monsters period, The Day the Earth Stood Still was a dramatic step forward for the genre. Intelligently written and directed, well-crafted, and boasting a top-notch cast in good form, it was a class act all the way, as well as one of the first Hollywood films to take the idea of extraterrestrial visitors seriously (if not as a practical reality, at least as an interesting metaphor). Klaatu, as played by Michael Rennie, was that rare alien invader who wanted to save us from ourselves, and Rennie gives the character an intelligence, compassion, and strength that make him seem a lot more human than many of the earthlings he encounters, while Sam Jaffe, Patricia Neal, and Billy Gray manage to prove that not all the Earth people are violent, brain-dead slobs. Director Robert Wise and his crew create an admirable sense of tension and awestruck wonder in the wake of Klaatu's arrival (many later films with higher budgets failed to capture the magic of the spaceship landing in Washington, D.C., or the towering mystery of Klaatu's robot assistant Gort), and, at a time when Cold War paranoia was at its height, The Day the Earth Stood Still carried a strong pro-disarmament message that was quite brave for its day. The film's message remains pertinent today, and, as entertainment, its intelligence, warmth, and solid filmcraft make it an enduring classic of its kind.