The Day the Earth Stood Still

Movie Review: The Day the Earth Stood Still (***1/2 out of 4 stars)

Year of Release: 1951

Country of Origin: USA

Director: Robert Wise

Cast: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Billy Gray

Plot outline: An alien lands and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets (IMDb).

“Klaatu Barada Nikto”

The story (**** The movie was a brilliantly simple allegory for a world that just started the Cold War, and came out of the ravages of World War II scarred and scared. But it was more than that--it was a landmark in American cinema, the first truly significant offering in science fiction they gave the world, with a score by Bernard Herrmann that created the sound of science fiction for years to come with its use of the Theramin, whose otherworldly tone fit right in with a genre that could only exist with the existence of such an other world.)

How the story unfolds (****)

The characters (***)

The dialogue (****)

The acting (***)

Overall rating ***1/2 out of 4 stars