Tag Archives: Gort

The Day The Earth Stood Still – The Original

So I watched the 1951 version of The Day The Earth Stood Still last night and as I said last week it is still an amazing science fiction movie. I made Kelly sit through it so I was hoping it was as good as I remembered, it was (and she seemed to think so too).

The line this movie is the most famous for is

“Klaatu barada nikto”

It’s certainly not as mainstream as “these aren’t the droids you’re looking for”, but…

This was one of the first movie DVDs I ever purchased (maybe the first), it hit a good price on-line so I picked it up (I never bought movies for VHS but that’s about the time when I started for DVDs). I never watched it until now. THe sound was THX remastered and was very clear but the voices just weren’t as loud as the sound effects so if you turned it up to hear the next time the sound effects came on it was blaring. The good part was there wasn’t a lot where people were talking and there were effects.

One of my favorite quotes from the movie was

“I am fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason.”

It was definitely a thinking sci-fi movie…

Instant gratification: You can rent it from Amazon for your TiVo or from iTunes (but it’s only $7.50 to buy it from Amazon).

The Day The Earth Stood Still – The Remake

So the original The Day The Earth Stood Still is one of the quintessential science fiction movies ever made. I can barely remember any old SciFi Black & White movies that I’ve seen (that didn’t have Godzilla in them) but this one has always stuck in my head. Very little action but an excellent story. I never knew it was such a classic, I just thought it was a great movie that I liked, but I’ve seen so many references to “Klaatu barada nikto” throughout my life I realized* I wasn’t the only one who thought so (but as a by-product I also realized I was a nerd).

They’ve decided to remake remake The Day The Earth Stood Still with Keanu Reeves. The trailer looks interesting but I’m not sure if it’ll live up to the original. While I’m a fan of Keanu Reeves, I won’t say he’s the most excellent actor out there but his movies are either great or lame (generally not in the middle). And even though there was only a quick glimpse of Gort, the preview made me feel like it will not be lame. So I’m very hopeful.