Live Life Team
Genre: Science Fiction
Director: Robert Wise
Starring Cast: Michael Rennie, Lock Martin
A flying saucer lands in Washington, sparking the world into a state of panic. Its two passengers are Klaatu and Gort, his robotic companion. Their warnings to humans of the dangers of atomic power prove difficult to acknowledge and are ignored.
This immaculately made classic differs greatly from standard 1950’s sci-fi productions. The movie mostly avoids the exploitation of the USA’s cold war fear obsession, choosing instead to meter out a forewarning of mankind’s inherent potential for nuclear self-destruction.
The alien visitor tasked with sending this message of peace fails to receive a friendly welcome. Attempting to justify his fears for humans, Klaatu is met with aggression and mistrust upon his appearance. After he’s shot and captured by the nervous military forces, our civilization wins some salvation at the hands of an inspired young child, Bobby and his open-minded mother Helen. It’s the liberals who are shown as our likely rescuers, whilst the trifling ignorance and delayed reactions in the approach of the media and authorities prove to be mankind’s greatest weakness.
The movie’s triumph in depicting its despair of our unfounded paranoia about the unknown is one of its great strengths. The Day the Earth Stood Still is possibly the best and most satisfying of the 1950’s political sci-fi films. With an excellent soundtrack, impressive special effects and fine performances, the film is just as pleasing and significant now as it was in 1951.
