Review of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) by Glen O — 13 Jan 2009

This was the film that really started the 50s saucer flick craze but is superior to what came later in so many ways. The subject is treated with seriousness and the direction from Robert Wise (Sound of Music, West Side Story etc) is excellent.

Everything is shot very matter of factly, almost as though it were a newsreel. There is an almost complete absence of camera tricks - hardly even a pan or a scan of any kind lending the film a kind of stillness that underscores the gravity of its subject - an ultimatum given to the word to avert nuclear catastrophe or face annihilation.

The saucer appearing over Washington landmarks and settling in a ball park, the opening of the saucer, the appearance of Klaatu and of the robot Gort (that laser beam emitting from the eyes beat Marvel's Cyclops character by more than a decade), the damsel in distress being carried off by the robot and so many other iconic images would be recycled over and over again but here you have the original and perhaps best of the genre.