The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

20110206, 20110207:
Pretty good movie. By chance, a day or two before watching this movie I was discussing the outlook of the human species. For that discussion I merely considered our ability to extend beyond our solar system. Watching this movie reminded me of the human species's capability for destruction.

Klaatu (Michael Rennie)

I liked the character Klaatu.

I wasn't too fond of Gort. I couldn't incorporate the fact that the movie was made in the 1950s. He's certainly no match for Sonny from I, Robot (2004) or T-800 Model 101 from the Terminator series. Perhaps I'd have liked it better if he was more mechanical looking, like C3P0 from Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). He's certainly a destructive robot.*

*I didn't mind how he looked during a screenshot viewing on 20170617.

Tom Stevens (Hugh Marlowe) and Helen Benson (Patricia Neal)


20170617:
I saw bits and pieces of this movie today to take some screenshots.

Netflix determined the movie for me as a 96% match. I decided to give the movie neither a thumbs up nor a thumbs down.

Instant Comments:
2: Awesome, the door of the spaceship appears seemless. [Apparently this effect was done by filling the crack with putty and painted over.]
2: "It was a gift for your president. With this, he could have studied life on the other planets."

Gort (Lock Martin)

2: "I'm impatient with stupidity."
2: Are those actual equations? [Yes, apparently they are equations from Einstein's theory of gravity]
2: I'm a little surprise that she was going to erase what Klaatu had written.
2:
Klaatu: All you have to do now is to substitute this expression at this point.
Barnhardt: That will reproduce the first-order term. But what about the effect of the other terms?
Klaatu: Almost negligible. With variation of parameters, this is the answer.

Professor Jacob Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe) and Klaatu

2=20170617 (screenshot viewing)

Watched 1st fourth 20110206, 2nd-4th fourth 20110207 (Netflix, Instant)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Robert Wise. 92 min [bot short story Farewell to the Master (1940) by Harry Bates]

Relevant Links:
The Day the Earth Stood Still (IMDb.com)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951 film) (Wikipedia.org)
Farewell to the Master (Wikipedia.org)

Bobby Benson (Billy Gray) and Klaatu


Klaatu's final words to the people before departing:
I am leaving soon, and you will forgive me if I speak bluntly. The universe grows smaller every day, and the threat of aggression by any group, anywhere, can no longer be tolerated. There must be security for all, or no one is secure. Now, this does not mean giving up any freedom, except the freedom to act irresponsibly. Your ancestors knew this when they made laws to govern themselves and hired policemen to enforce them. We, of the other planets, have long accepted this principle. We have an organization for the mutual protection of all planets and for the complete elimination of aggression.


The test of any such higher authority is, of course, the police force that supports it. For our policemen, we created a race of robots.Their function is to patrol the planets in spaceships like this one and preserve the peace. In matters of aggression, we have given them absolute power over us. This power cannot be revoked. At the first sign of violence, they act automatically against the aggressor. The penalty for provoking their action is too terrible to risk. The result is, we live in peace, without arms or armies, secure in the knowledge that we are free from aggression and war. Free to pursue more... profitable enterprises. Now, we do not pretend to have achieved perfection, but we do have a system, and it works. I came here to give you these facts. It is no concern of ours how you run your own planet, but if you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder. Your choice is simple: join us and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer. The decision rests with you.

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