Day The Earth Stood Still

Year: 1951

Grade: B+

Country: USA

Director: Wise

Review

this movie is so ripe for being made fun of, at the same time it’s quite a good picture. some (particularly the story and themes) of it holds up even today and some of it (bits of the dialogue and sfx) doesn’t. overall it’s a fun picture because it’s a timeless story with a theme that is (unfortunately) also timeless. i don’t think people will ever tire of stories that explore the possibility of visitors from other worlds – it’s just such a fertile topic. thematically the story is, predictably, about our increasingly bellicose nature during the cold war. the reason for the visit from outer space is our recent development of nuclear weapons and our experimentation with rockets (the film was made in 1951). at this rate we would likely extend our war into outer space which would be quite hazardous to neighboring planets. their visit was simply to warn us that we had either stop fighting or make sure we fight only amongst ourselves, otherwise they would be forced to retaliate. the story is a bit more complicated, but that’s the gist. certainly a good film for all ages and all times.