Review of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) by Christian C — 20 Feb 2010

It has but one clear message to the viewers, war is destroying the whole world which is so true and we need to stop it instantly, we need world peace. As we watch we could visualize how Klaatu's planet differs from Earth.

And we could see how stupid people are on Earth, sorry to mention that but right from the start of the film the people were so paranoid about this new thing, even though Klaatu stated that he meant no harm, we were still so suspicious.

We don't listen, instead we act without thinking, that's why war is created. This message was shown to us not realistic enough but it was more understandable in science-fiction, I could not imagine any better explanation than this.

This film works in every aspects of humanity. The effects were limited back then so in 2008 the remake was born, there were so many changes in the new film and it didn't work as the original did. Keanu Reeves could not replace Michael Rennie's calm but perfect performance as Klaatu.

And to top it all, Bernard Herrmann's out of the world haunting score match the theme of the film. We don't need stunningly beautiful visuals to spread this kind of message. The simpler one would suffice.

Simply classic.