'THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL'.....RISE, KLAATU....LIKE YOU-KNOW-WHO....

The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)   We always found it hard to believe that nobody, including Robert Wise, the film's director, picked up the film's Christian parable until several years after it was released.....

             The BQ always thought this immortal classic was perfect Easter weekend viewing.....a benevolent fatherly figure arrives from the heavens above, preaching universal peace and understanding. Walking among us, he goes by the  name of....."Carpenter".

              Fearing him and distrusting his message, we shoot him down like a dog. But later he is resurrected to full life, still counselling us to embrace peace. Otherwise...(and here's where the film shifts more into Old Testament).....otherwise his benevolent alliance of peace-loving planets will go all Death Star on our ass and reduce the earth to....as Klaatu aptly puts it, 'a burning cinder'.

                Definitely a film to ponder again as we're engaging in a global pissing contest with the malignant little troll who runs North Korea......

                Looking back on the movie's religious underpinnings, casting the tall, gaunt Brit  Michael Rennie as the alien emissary Klaatu was inspired. The sharp planes of his face at times seem to cast shadows across his cheekbones.....he's forceful, gentle, stern and rational all at once. And distinctly unknowable......the perfect intergalactic Savior.

               Supposedly Spencer Tracy and Claude Rains were considered for the role. Spence would have certainly laid down the law to us earthlings good and proper, like his final summation in "Inherit The Wind"  Rains? Don't think so......he would have sounded like a cranky college professor lecturing us like a group of 'C' students.....

               We won't attempt to figure out where Gort, Klaatu's massive, impassive enforcer robot fits in this interpretation. But more than ever, we doubt the wisdom of Klaatu's planetary NATO turning over complete peacekeeping authority to Gort and his robot buddies.  In essence, they've put themselves at the mercy of laser-armed machines with the unforgiving power of the Ferguson Police Department.

               So it's always comforting to spend Easter weekend wtih Klaatu (aka "Carpenter") and watch him rise up again after Patricia Neal delivers the magic 'Gort, Klaatu Barada Nikto' password to the robot. (Which we think means, "Forgive them for acting like dicks and perforating me like swiss cheese, Gort, for they know not what they do...")  Whether you buy into the faith-based aspect, the movie forever earns the BQ's 5 stars (*****), a FIND OF FINDS. Peace be with you....and step away from Klaatu's flying saucer while it's heating up to take off......