The re-imaginaton of The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) is playing in theatres around the country right now, so it seems an opportune time to remember (at least in brief) the landmark original Robert Wise production.Here's saucer movie scholar and reference book author Paul Meehan with a good brief on the 1951 version:
"The Day The Earth Stood Still is a modern day passion play, with Klaatu playing Christ and Gort (read: God) playing angry Jehovah of the Old Testament. Klaatu dies and is reborn to save the world from the wrath of God with his compassion, after which he ascends into the heavens...
...A feeling of genuine religious awe pervades the film, a sense of apocalyptic miracles in the age of science...
...Politically the film reflects director Wise's liberal concerns about nuclear disarmament, but many critics have pointed out the notion of a society policed and controlled by inhuman robots seems alarmingly fascist."
- Saucer Movies: A UFOlogical History of the Cinema (Scarecrow Press, 1998), pages 46-47.
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