Post by ronnierocketago on Jan 14, 2006 21:32:53 GMT
RRA's Video Bin Review: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951)
(NOTE: This was written in the aftermath of Robert Wise's death in September 2005)
I had planned to either review Tim Burton's ED WOOD or Philip Kaufman's masterpiece from the 1980s in THE RIGHT STUFF when news came when Robert Wise died. He could have simply quit the moviemaking business after editing Orson Welles' CITIZEN KANE, the most-praised American movie, and still be quite important in the legacy of cinema. Instead, he decided to throw his hat into the ring as a director himself.
So today, I'll review a Robert Wise movie for RRA'S VIDEO BIN REVIEW, but what to review? As I posted before, I didn't exactly care for A SOUND OF MUSIC and WEST SIDE STORY(which Sully went when I said that), for which Wise won both of his Best Director Oscars. I initially wanted to review Wise's underrated STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE(for which Wise had recently restored his original CGI-enhanced edit), but then I remembered many here that gagged when I started talking about STAR TREK once, so I decided to leave it at that. Really guys and girls, you all know there is Sci-Fi outside STAR WARS, right?
In fact, I just about reviewed Wise's horror gem THE HAUNTING from 1963 but I figured that many BB.Net residents haven't seen it, so what will I review instead to honor the now-deceased Mr. Wise?
A masterpiece of science-fiction cinema, but easily top of the heap of the 1950s in the same genre with Don Siegel's INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. Both are remarkable for tackling such a category of entertainment that save for hardcore fans that knew their Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, and Dick-penned works of serious science fiction, was mostly noted by the populace as a juvenile field of gimmicky bulls*it radiation-involved plots, rubber fake-looking monsters, hot talent-less female leads that could scream very well, and either impressive or pathetic special effects....in other words, the Jerry Bruckheimer movies of the 1950s.
Before Kubrick's 2001 or Ridley Scott's BLADE RUNNER, the best that a true sci-fi fan had to work with that was cerebral yet techno-pornographic was both INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and Robert Wise's THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL.
While Wise's movie is presented as yet another monster movie that seemingly plans to destroy all humans(Off-Topic, but who's played the PS2 game?), its really in fact a social-commentary tale presented in the idea of an humanoid alien being coming to Earth to observe and record his data about the Homo Sapien species that dominate the planet...and of course this being the nuke trigger-happy Cold War, about a decade before both America and the Soviet Union calmed down and realized that dropping and launching nuclear weapons maybe isn't exactly the best idea.
A flying saucer orbits the "present-day" Earth(1950s). It lands in Washington, D.C. on the monument-laden Mall. Thousands gather around the vehicle, with the perhaps-technological-inferior U.S. Army surrounding it, guns armed and ready. The lone occupant of this saucer steps out and is shot by a jumpy soldier. Gort, a large and very powerful robot appears to save him. He is able to melt tanks with the slightest bit of his power.
The wounded alien (Michael Rennie) orders Gort to stop and is taken to a hospital. He recovers and sets upon to present an important message to the leaders of the world from beyond the stars. Of course, the American government is willing to host this "meeting" in D.C., while the Russians then demand that the meeting take place in Moscow. The visiting Alien doesn't understand why such a planet would get so heated and wrapped around on such non-important details. Of course, he came from a traditionally peaceful planetary society on his planet, so it would be obvious how he wouldn't understand why the global superpowers are willing to throw bombs over little squabbles and take the world down with them.
Believing that his message from his planet won't be received by those that need to hear it on this world, not to mention he desires to learn more about the human race outside the government, the alien escapes custody at the hospital and disguises himself as a boarder who lives at a local middle-class Earth family. Observing the emotions of the unique "humanity" that these humans display even in the worst of times, even having a philosophical talk with a young boy on a park bench about spirituality, for which is quite touching and really showed how science fiction could be more than shallow-garbage B movies.
When revealed of his true identity by the family, he begins his quest to gather all the top scientific/intellectual minds of the planet, which unlike seemingly the governments, actually have the desire to hear his message from the stars and actually act on it. Things tighten in suspense when the alien's robotic bodyguard in Gort starts his fail-safe protocol: If the visitor doesn't recite the deactivating-command of "Klaatu barada nikto" in time, the robot will blow up the world!
If anything, the film's climatic speech is reminiscent message-wise as Arthur C. Clarke's CHILDHOOD'S END(published two years after this motion picture) in how that the human species of that time of paranoia and realistic possibilities of nuclear armaggedon, and even relevant basically in today's time, should put away such childish fights and finally grow up....
Eventually, sci-fi movies were given courage and inspiration by early "smart" sci-fi pictures like THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and which we were later given 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, PLANET OF THE APES, THX 1138, BLADE RUNNER, DARK CITY, GATTACA, etc.
So yes, because of the importance and the high quality of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and his many other gems made throughout Robert Wise's remarkable career as a filmmaker, I can only say one thing to Mr. Wise, if only spirituality is a fact and he could receive these words from our reality....Thank You!
Final Film Rating - Masterpiece - *****
(NOTE: This was written in the aftermath of Robert Wise's death in September 2005)
I had planned to either review Tim Burton's ED WOOD or Philip Kaufman's masterpiece from the 1980s in THE RIGHT STUFF when news came when Robert Wise died. He could have simply quit the moviemaking business after editing Orson Welles' CITIZEN KANE, the most-praised American movie, and still be quite important in the legacy of cinema. Instead, he decided to throw his hat into the ring as a director himself.
So today, I'll review a Robert Wise movie for RRA'S VIDEO BIN REVIEW, but what to review? As I posted before, I didn't exactly care for A SOUND OF MUSIC and WEST SIDE STORY(which Sully went when I said that), for which Wise won both of his Best Director Oscars. I initially wanted to review Wise's underrated STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE(for which Wise had recently restored his original CGI-enhanced edit), but then I remembered many here that gagged when I started talking about STAR TREK once, so I decided to leave it at that. Really guys and girls, you all know there is Sci-Fi outside STAR WARS, right?
In fact, I just about reviewed Wise's horror gem THE HAUNTING from 1963 but I figured that many BB.Net residents haven't seen it, so what will I review instead to honor the now-deceased Mr. Wise?
A masterpiece of science-fiction cinema, but easily top of the heap of the 1950s in the same genre with Don Siegel's INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. Both are remarkable for tackling such a category of entertainment that save for hardcore fans that knew their Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, and Dick-penned works of serious science fiction, was mostly noted by the populace as a juvenile field of gimmicky bulls*it radiation-involved plots, rubber fake-looking monsters, hot talent-less female leads that could scream very well, and either impressive or pathetic special effects....in other words, the Jerry Bruckheimer movies of the 1950s.
Before Kubrick's 2001 or Ridley Scott's BLADE RUNNER, the best that a true sci-fi fan had to work with that was cerebral yet techno-pornographic was both INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and Robert Wise's THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL.
While Wise's movie is presented as yet another monster movie that seemingly plans to destroy all humans(Off-Topic, but who's played the PS2 game?), its really in fact a social-commentary tale presented in the idea of an humanoid alien being coming to Earth to observe and record his data about the Homo Sapien species that dominate the planet...and of course this being the nuke trigger-happy Cold War, about a decade before both America and the Soviet Union calmed down and realized that dropping and launching nuclear weapons maybe isn't exactly the best idea.
A flying saucer orbits the "present-day" Earth(1950s). It lands in Washington, D.C. on the monument-laden Mall. Thousands gather around the vehicle, with the perhaps-technological-inferior U.S. Army surrounding it, guns armed and ready. The lone occupant of this saucer steps out and is shot by a jumpy soldier. Gort, a large and very powerful robot appears to save him. He is able to melt tanks with the slightest bit of his power.
The wounded alien (Michael Rennie) orders Gort to stop and is taken to a hospital. He recovers and sets upon to present an important message to the leaders of the world from beyond the stars. Of course, the American government is willing to host this "meeting" in D.C., while the Russians then demand that the meeting take place in Moscow. The visiting Alien doesn't understand why such a planet would get so heated and wrapped around on such non-important details. Of course, he came from a traditionally peaceful planetary society on his planet, so it would be obvious how he wouldn't understand why the global superpowers are willing to throw bombs over little squabbles and take the world down with them.
Believing that his message from his planet won't be received by those that need to hear it on this world, not to mention he desires to learn more about the human race outside the government, the alien escapes custody at the hospital and disguises himself as a boarder who lives at a local middle-class Earth family. Observing the emotions of the unique "humanity" that these humans display even in the worst of times, even having a philosophical talk with a young boy on a park bench about spirituality, for which is quite touching and really showed how science fiction could be more than shallow-garbage B movies.
When revealed of his true identity by the family, he begins his quest to gather all the top scientific/intellectual minds of the planet, which unlike seemingly the governments, actually have the desire to hear his message from the stars and actually act on it. Things tighten in suspense when the alien's robotic bodyguard in Gort starts his fail-safe protocol: If the visitor doesn't recite the deactivating-command of "Klaatu barada nikto" in time, the robot will blow up the world!
If anything, the film's climatic speech is reminiscent message-wise as Arthur C. Clarke's CHILDHOOD'S END(published two years after this motion picture) in how that the human species of that time of paranoia and realistic possibilities of nuclear armaggedon, and even relevant basically in today's time, should put away such childish fights and finally grow up....
Eventually, sci-fi movies were given courage and inspiration by early "smart" sci-fi pictures like THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and which we were later given 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, PLANET OF THE APES, THX 1138, BLADE RUNNER, DARK CITY, GATTACA, etc.
So yes, because of the importance and the high quality of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and his many other gems made throughout Robert Wise's remarkable career as a filmmaker, I can only say one thing to Mr. Wise, if only spirituality is a fact and he could receive these words from our reality....Thank You!
Final Film Rating - Masterpiece - *****