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"Klaatu, Barada, Nikto." This phrase rings bells for all fans of American science fiction, as it is so crucial to salvation in the 1951 classic The Day the Earth Stood Still. A landmark in 20th-century sci-fi, the film follows an alien named Klaatu (Michael Rennie) who travels millions of miles to earth to deliver a message of universal peace. Paranoia breeds irony, however, and the ignorant humans are so frightened by the alien that they aim to capture him, that is until Klaatu arranges for a worldwide shutdown of electricity, or a "stand still." Costarring Sam Jaffe (Ben-Hur) and Patricia Neal (Hud) as Klaatu's benevolent human conspirators, the film benefits from intelligent direction by Oscar-winner Robert Wise (The Sound of Music), who helped to establish the social mores of '50s sci-fi -- atomic consciousness, cold war anxiety, and theremin music. The Day is still a thoroughly influential film 50 years later, and prime evidence is Sam Rami's Army of Darkness, which features Bruce Campbell's hilarious send-up, "Klaatu, Barada, Nikkhuharshenhar." Greg Kalleres

All Movie Guide

All of Washington, D.C., is thrown into a panic when an extraterrestrial spacecraft lands near the White House. Out steps Klaatu (Michael Rennie, in a role intended for Claude Rains), a handsome and soft-spoken interplanetary traveler, whose "bodyguard" is Gort (Lock Martin), a huge robot who spews forth laser-like death rays when danger threatens. After being wounded by an overzealous soldier, Klaatu announces that he has a message of the gravest importance for all humankind, which he will deliver only when all the leaders of all nations will agree to meet with him. World politics being what they are in 1951, Klaatu's demands are turned down and he is ordered to remain in the hospital, where his wounds are being tended. Klaatu escapes, taking refuge in a boarding house, where he poses as one "Mr. Carpenter" (one of the film's many parallels between Klaatu and Christ). There the benign alien gains the confidence of a lovely widow (Patricia Neal) and her son, Bobby (Billy Gray), neither of whom tumble to his other-worldly origins, and seeks out the gentleman whom Bobby regards as "the smartest man in the world" -- an Einstein-like scientist, Dr. Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe). The next day, at precisely 12 o'clock, Klaatu arranges for the world to "stand still" -- he shuts down all electrical power in the world, with the exception of essentials like hospitals and planes in flight. Directed by Robert Wise, who edited Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) for director Orson Welles before going on to direct such major 1960s musicals as West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965), The Day the Earth Stood Still was based on the story Farewell to the Master by Harry Bates. Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 024543050056
• Source: 20TH CENTURY FOX
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
• Presentation: B&W
• Sound: stereo, monaural, THX-Supervised Mastering
• Language: English, Français, Español
• Subtitles: English, Español
• Time: 1:32:00
• Sales Rank: 5,648

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
• Ultimate Sci-Fi Collection (20pc) / (Box)

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