[Marxism] My review of "The Day the Earth Stood Still"

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

(Posted to Marxmail on Mar. 1, 2000)

"The Day the Earth Stood Still"

Last night I watched "The Day the Earth Stood Still" on video. It was 
the first time I had seen it since the original theater appearance 
in  1952. It is one of the first films of the period to question the 
cold war, just as another science fiction flick "Invasion of the Body 
Snatchers" was designed to increase anti-Communist hysteria.

A flying saucer lands in Washington, DC and discharges its two 
passengers, the humanoid Klaatu, played to a tee by Yorkshireman 
Michael Dennie who bears a striking resemblance to David Bowie, and 
his assistant Gort, an 8 foot robot with super-powers.

Klaatu has come to the planet Earth to deliver a message to the 
assembled leaders of all governments. He belongs to an interplanetary 
confederation that has outlawed warfare and that has become aware of 
the earthlings' recent experiments with guided missiles armed with 
nuclear warheads. They fear that eventually these types of weapons 
might be introduced into outer space. So an ultimatum is to be 
delivered. Unless these experiments are called to a halt, the 
confederation will send a fleet of robots to destroy the planet Earth.

Klaatu can not even get to first base with the truculent and 
irrational earthlings. The Russian government will only attend a 
conference if it is based in Moscow, while the British are opposed to 
setting foot in Communist territory. Meanwhile, many Washingtonians 
believe that Klaatu is a Communist spy, while others simply want to 
eliminate him as a threat to the status quo.

In order to find out more about the mores of the planet, Klaatu 
disappears into the streets of Washington and finds a furnished room 
in a house where Patricia Neal and her young son live. Klaatu takes 
the two into his confidence and they find themselves in solidarity 
with his mission. In the climax of the film, Neal rescues the planet 
from immanent destruction by giving "Don't shoot" instructions to the 
robot: "Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!"

Klaatu also makes an effort to set up a meeting with the world's 
greatest scientist, Dr. Berhardt, who is played by Sam Jaffe, and 
other leading scientists. Bernhardt is an obvious stand-in for Albert 
Einstein, who had come out repeatedly against atomic testing and for 
socialism during those insane years.

Although director Robert Wise is better known for his "West Side 
Story" and other mainstream Hollywood flicks, there is some strong 
circumstantial evidence of leftist sympathies. He was chosen by Harry 
Belafonte to direct "Odds Against Tomorrow", a noir masterpiece that 
was written by blacklistee Abraham Polonsky and which challenged some 
of the major racial stereotypes of the 1950s.

In the climactic scene of Robert Wise's 1951 science fiction film 
classic, Klaatu is killed by a fear-mongering government agency, then 
resurrected by his robot charge Gort. Astonished by the power of this 
foreign technology, Patricia Neal asks him whether control over life 
and death is possible. Klaatu assures her that such powers belong 
only to the "Almighty Spirit" and that his life extension is good 
only "for a limited period," the duration of which "no one can tell." 
In Edmund North's original script, Gort resurrects Klaatu without 
limitation. But the movie industry's censors told the producers: 
"Only God can do that."

North's other best-known writing credit was the screenplay for 
Francis Ford Coppola's "Patton," about which he stated, ''I hope 
those who've seen the picture will agree with me that it is not only 
a war picture, but a peace picture as well.''

The film's producer Julian Blaustein also produced "Broken Arrow," 
based on the Elliott Arnold novel "Blood Brother," Blaustein 
demonstrated great enlightenment for that time in Hollywood by 
working hard to portray Native Americans fairly. He employed 375 
Apaches to perform in the film, build authentic wickiups and other 
props, play native instruments, and teach the movie-makers traditional dances.

"We have treated them as people, not savages," Blaustein told The 
Times in 1950. "We have tried to show that the only real 'heavies' 
are ignorance, misunderstanding and intolerance."

It is very likely that Robert Wise, Edmund North and Julian Blaustein 
were all touched to one degree or another by the great outpouring of 
radical politics and culture of the 1930s and 40s. Their story is 
being told by Paul Buhle and others. It is worth emulating as we move 
toward a new radicalization provoked by the capitalist contradictions 
of the new millennium.


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