Review of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) by Peter I — 24 Jul 2015

Right at the start of the film the motif of a mass hysteria among American citizens is introduced, and the militia and police confront Klaatu, who makes it clear that he has come in peace. The robot who is with Klaatu even eliminates the Americans' weapons without the use of violence, and here we have the onset of a great Cold War reaction film.

A very interesting and intriguing factor is that Klaatu takes the image of a human though he is alien, depicting the idea that if there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe it could be similar to, if not the same, as us. Since he is not distinguishable among humans this gives him the advantage to hide in plain sight, which is a defensive strategy since his intentions are not to harm us earthlings.

The best scenes of the film are when Klaatu talks with the young son of the female lead. He visits the grave of the boy's father and asks about how he served his country. There is a great moment when Klaatu describes atomic power as a way to potentially help civilization, and this is when Bobby says "I thought that was only for bombs." See what information we feed to the innocent of the world?

Towards the conclusion of the film there are many references to Klaatu as a Christ figure, and though I don't see him as literally representing Jesus Christ he is definitely a savior. Though his closing monologue basically preaches the message the movie is trying to make, I think it is a powerful one.

This film tries to look at atomic/nuclear war from a third party's point of view and does an excellent job of it.