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December 21, 2008
Grave film says people must change
“The Day the Earth Stood Still,” is a remake of the 1951 movie by the same title. The latest version has kept many — even seemingly outdated — elements of the 1951 film, most likely as a reverential nod to sci-fi film history, but the story-line is also very similar. What’s new is the new threat to planet Earth.
The 1951 film came out in fearful, post-WWII, Cold War times, as a kind of morality play and warning. It was centered on the absolute necessity of peace among peoples. The biggest threat at the time was all-out nuclear war. The nuclear age had begun. The plot: A spaceship lands in D.C., an alien informs earthlings that a super race of robots will destroy the earth if humans insist on escalating their violence. Klaatu, the alien, is an explicit Christ figure, coming in “peace and goodwill,” calling himself “Mr. Carpenter.” But he is also very much the figure of a judgesavior. In the film, the obliterating, incinerating force of nuclear power is evident in the quite-advanced special effects. Military tanks, the mainstay of WWII ground battles, simply evaporate.
The 2008 film is equally somber. It felt a bit hokey to me, but everyone in my crowded theater was wrapt in hushed silence. There was hardly any humor in the film. Even John Cleese (Monty Python) plays a grave role. Keanu Reeves is Klaatu (there will be unavoidable jokes about how well he plays an alien — he has always been noted for his stiff acting). Jennifer Connelly is Helen, scientist and stepmother to Jacob (Jaden Smith), who is called upon by the U.S. government to assist in the crisis.
Spoiler alert: The new threat to Earth (from the same source: humans) is not so much the destruction of each other through violence, but the destruction of Earth itself. The aliens want to save the earth by destroying the humans, because Earth is “one of the few planets that can sustain life.” The aliens begin saving animal species in spherical “arks.” They have studied humans and see that we do not have the will to change. Helen is the only one who can change Klaatu’s mind.
Klaatu witnesses human love and humans’ ability to change. He warns that if he saves Earth, there will be a price to pay. That price will be our present “way of life. “
The U.S. government and military is portrayed as stuck in impossibly futile and antiquated mindsets and strategies. They are reminded over and over: they are not really in charge, but their only response is more violence.
The solution at the end is radical, interesting, but untenable. Any other options out there (besides what we earthlings are already attempting)?
The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-2, adults and adolescents.
Burns, who ministers in Chicago, has a philosophy/theology degree from St. John’s University, N.Y., and studied screenwriting at the University of California- Los Angeles.
