It may come as a surprise to some, but not all the science fiction films of the 1950′s were cheesy affairs with giant mutant insects and pie-plate spaceships dangling on fishing line. Certainly those were great fun, but every so often Hollywood produced a more challenging and thoughtful sci-fi film that truly captured the spirit of the times. One of the first and best was 1951′s The Day the Earth Stood Still, the tale of the noble alien Klaatu (Michael Rennie) who comes to deliver his good cop/bad cop warning to Cold War Earth: “now that you have nukes, be nicer to each other or my robot friend here will zap you before you use them on us.” I admit my paraphrasing doesn’t do justice to the philosophical argument the film presents in lieu of a heroic stand-off between the U.S. Army and bug-eyed monsters, but it’s a great film–and the opening musical score still gives me goosebumps whenever I hear it.
Remakes of the best 50′s sci-fi flicks seem to be in vogue these days, from Spielberg‘s underrated War of the Worlds to the sterile Nicole Kidman vehicle The Invasion [of the Body Snatchers]. Even a re-imagining of the great Forbidden Planet is in the works. So it was inevitable that we’d see the Earth stand still again. This time, Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) doesn’t really seem too intent on warning humanity at all (he mentions going to the U.N., but then decides a trip to McDonald’s is more important). Judgment, it seems, has already been passed against us, not for our warlike ways but rather our reluctance to recycle. Earth is apparently too rare and precious too be wasted on dumb monkeys like us, so the aliens will just wipe us out tidily and let the planet have another go at intelligent life. It’s up to the hybrid-driving Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) to convince them that we deserve a second chance.
It would be easy for me to attack the film for its dubious scientific presuppositions, whether it be the aliens’ implicit subscription to a progressionist evolutionary model (but then who isn’t guilty of that?) or even the basic premise that the human race is even capable of rendering our planet truly inhospitable to all forms of life. But TDTESS is really meant to be more of an allegory for our greatest anxieties as a species. After all, while we’d have a hard time really killing the Earth, we’ve set up several ways we can kill ourselves within the next century. Klaatu and his robot pal Gort just want to help us get it over with. Unless of course John Cleese (in a nice cameo) can convince him that the noble community of spacefaring civilizations around us are just trigger-happy hypocrites.
But I’m having too much fun at this movie’s expense. Keanu Reeves really is fine in this role, which basically requires him to reprise the emotional range he showed in the Matrix films, minus the occasional look of confusion. The alien technology on display far surpasses any pedestrian flying saucer concept, yet seems somehow plausible. As [Arthur C.] Clarke‘s Third Law states, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Even the most hawkish element in the story, the Secretary of Defense (Kathy Bates) is sober and intelligent and well-versed in the historical precedents to her predicament. When we finally see the instrument of humanity’s destruction, it’s simple, creative and impressive to behold. The only significant flaw is the ending, which is abrupt and unsatisfactory. It seems that this film posed questions that it was incapable of answering. I guess there are worse crimes in science fiction. – [DVD]
Drama/Sci-Fi/Thriller
Rated PG-13
DVD Release Date: 4/7/09