My, how times have changed.  Back in 1951, a UFO could land in the middle of a baseball diamond in Washington D.C., a cool-as-a-cucumber alien could strut out and say “I come in peace”, and a single (fearful) member of the United States Army would shoot at him.  Well, OK, the guy wet ‘em and panicked.  The worst that could happen in that instance would be a giant 9-foot tall robot would come out and destroy every single weapon in the baseball diamond. 

Unfortunately, the fear that is inherent within our species has grown to enslave us (thank you, Fox News).  If a UFO were to land in D.C. nowadays, though, the ship would be obliterated from existence within seconds of entering our atmosphere. 

Yep, the world is going to hell in a hand basket.  We’re doomed.  Oh, well... at least I can still find an hour-and-a-half of peace by watching cinema’s greatest anti-war science fiction classic, The Day The Earth Stood Still. 

Loosely based on Harry Bates story, “Farewell To The Master”, The Day The Earth Stood Still tells the story of an alien being named Klaatu (played by a then-little known actor by the name of Michael Rennie) who comes to our humble planet to deliver a stern warning about our juvenile warlike antics and how our newfound love of atomic energy has the potential to destroy the peace and tranquility that the rest of the universe currently enjoys.  But, instead of filling humankind with awe and wonder once he establishes the fact that there is indeed life on other planets, his “Hey, don’t be stupid!” message only makes the stupid little human beings say “Wow, you mean we can declare war on aliens, too?” 

Injured by a stray bullet fired by a soldier (who was a proud, card-carrying member of NRA, no doubt), Klaatu is taken to a local hospital to treat his wound… his cool demeanor never disrupted.  Klaatu politely informs his “captors” that he has come to converse with the leaders of every nation of the world in an effort to save our planet from being exterminated.  Now, you would think that, this guy being an alien from another planet and all, that the world leaders would say “Wow?  Seriously?  An alien wants to chat with us?  Let’s do it!” and agree.  Alas, no, not by a long shot.  No, instead, poor Klaatu is told “No, sorry, we don’t get along… and we’re completely unwilling to get along in the hopes of someday getting along on an even larger level.  I mean, it’s cool that you can travel for months at a time throughout the vast reaches of space and you have a 9-foot tall robot name Gort that can disintegrate our entire planet if he thought it was necessary… and we really appreciate you visiting our planet and all… but, no.  No, no, and no.  Can we interest you in an Earth snowglobe before you leave?  It’s only 100 of your diamonds!” 

Discovering that the Earth is mostly inhabited by truly stupid people, Klaatu escapes from the poorly guarded hospital (“He’s only an alien that has accomplished interstellar travel… I’m sure his physical limitations exceed that of our own.”), and takes refuge in a boarding house, posing as a human named Carpenter (there’s a bit of a Jesus of Nazareth parallel here, folks).  Klaatu befriends a young Bobby Benson (Billy Gray) and his mother Helen (Patricia Neal), who introduce him to the only big brain on the whole planet, Professor Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe), the Einstein-character of the film who looks like he could be a Larry Fine impersonator.  With the entire city looking for him, further trouble mounts when Helen’s boyfriend Tom (Hugh Marlowe) susses out what’s going on and tells on him.  Wounded once again, Klaatu returns to his ship and, shortly before returning to the stars, informs the world’s scientific community “You’re on you own from here, you morons.”, still managing to keep his cool. 

What a guy. 

That’s it in a nutshell, kids.  It might not sound like much to those of you with little or no imagination, but take my word for it, The Day The Earth Stood Still is the quintessential 50s “Warning from Space” film… and its intelligent, well-written story was so enormously popular with other low-budget moviemakers, that the entire film industry continued to use the formula throughout the rest of the decade in movies such as The Cosmic Man, The Man From Planet X, Stranger From Venus (which also starred Patricia Neal, playing a similar role to her The Day The Earth Stood Still character), and even Plan 9 From Outer Space!  The movie also helped to slightly typecast its stars (the aforementioned Stranger From Venus, Hugh Marlowe later starred in Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers, while Rennie’s final film was as an alien in an even sillier than usual Paul Naschy film Los Monstruos Del Terror aka Assignment: Terror)… which could be perceived as a bad thing… but it’s still a magnificent movie with a true, honest-to-goodness message. 

Highly recommended. 
 

Presentation 
Fox Home Entertainment brings us the absolute best-looking transfer of The Day The Earth Stood Still ever!  The Blu-ray boasts an exceptionally outstanding picture with only the most minimal of grain and/or debris (mainly noticeable in stock footage), which really brings out the Robert Wise’s occasional use of film noir photography.  Hands down, this is one of the best BD transfers of a 57-year-old black and white film ever.  The movie is presented in its original 1.33:1 transfer which, for the sake of HDTV owners (why would you have Blu-ray and not an HDTV, right?) is windowboxed into a 1.85:1 ratio (which is really nice, incidentally). 

Accompanying the motion picture is a newly-mixed 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track, which brings out the most of Bernard Herrmann’s iconic Theremin score.  While the new track occasionally tries to drown out the original soundtrack, it is nevertheless a keeper.  Also on hand is the original English Mono soundtrack, and two 5.1 Dolby Digital scores in Spanish and French. 

An Isolated Score Track in glorious 5.1 DTS is also available.  Kewl! 

Extras 
When the big studios revisit vintage movies, it is sometimes hard or not worthwhile for them to assemble enough Special Features to make the grade.  Such is not the case with Fox’s Blu-ray of The Day The Earth Stood Still: this disc has sufficient Bonus Material to keep just about anyone interested, including two Audio Commentaries.  The first Audio Commentary, which is recycled from the previous DVD release, is with director Robert Wise and Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan director Nicholas Meyer.  The participants on the second (newer) Commentary are film/music historians John Morgan, Steven Smith, William Stromberg, and Nick Redman. 

Next up is The World Of The Theremin: a selection of Theremin-related Special Features, including The Mysterious, Melodious Theremin (5:40) with musician Peter Pringle, and a Main Title Live Performance With Peter Pringle (2:17).  These are followed by an Interactive Feature wherein you can create your own Theremin score for the scene where Gort first appears (this Feature did not work properly on my player, so I cannot say very much about it).  Speaking of Gort, there’s also The Gort Interactive Game, a somewhat simplistic game giving you the opportunity to shoot soldiers and police officers (the whole thing is done via Gort’s point of view). 

Now we move onto the all-new Featurettes and Documentaries, beginning with The Making Of The Day The Earth Stood Still (23:53): a discussion of the film, its director, and cast.  This mini-docu features onscreen reminisces by (to name a few) Film Historian Steven Jay Rubin (who sounds a lot like Joel Hodgson), Author Richard Keenan, Pamela Conrad Rosenberg and Millicent Wise (the daughter and widow of director Wise), and actors Billy Gray and Patricia Neal, as well as excerpts from archival Interviews with Robert Wise and producer Julian Blaustein. 

Next up are the Featurettes Decoding “Klaatu Barada Nikto”: Science Fiction As Metaphor (16:14); A Brief History Of Flying Saucers (34:02); The Astounding Harry Bates (11:03); and Edmund North: The Man Who Made The Earth Stand Still (14:43).  These shorts are a fun assortment of odds and ends, especially when we get into the Flying Saucers bit, wherein you get to hear some truly wild stories. 

Also included on this Blu-ray disc is the fascinating Documentary short Race To Oblivion (26:52), a Public Service Announcement made in the 80s and starring Burt Lancaster.  The austere short was written and produced by Edmund North and features an Interview with Shigeko Sasamori, a survivor from Hiroshima. 

The final Extras include a reading of “Farewell To The Master” by Jamieson K. Price (1:36:56) for those of you who want to hear what Harry Bates original story was like; a vintage Fox Movietonews reel (6:21); a Teaser Trailer (1:04); Theatrical Trailer (2:09); a Trailer for The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008) remake (1:47); and several Galleries (an Interactive Pressbook; Advertising Gallery; Behind-The-Scenes; Portrait; Production; Spaceship Construction Blueprints; Shooting Script). 

Upon loading the Blu-ray disc, a Sneak Peek at The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008) plays.  The teaser film lasts a little over seven minutes long and is one of the most embarrassingly funny things I’ve seen in a long time (a pity they decided to use the same title, otherwise, I could simply have passed it off as another bad rip-off… now, I have to pass it off as a bad rip-off remake). 

The Bottom Line
An excellent mixture of fact, fiction, and fun that still stands true today.  My only problem with the Blu-ray is the deliberately generic artwork which is designed to fool younger (or stupid) people into thinking it’s the newer version.