With the abysmal remake just hitting theaters, it only seems obvious 20th Century Fox has dipped into their vaults to release on Blu-ray the 1951 version of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Thankfully, even though it’s almost without question the studio’s motives were more profit-driven than they were anything else, that does not make this Blu-ray any less stunning. Hands down, this might just be one of the very best Blu-ray releases I’ve had the pleasure to watch this year.
The science fiction epic, directed by Robert Wise (whose eclectic career includes classics like The Sand Pebbles, The Haunting, Somebody Up There Likes Me and West Side Story), with a screenplay by Edmund H. North (In a Lonely Place) and based upon a short story by author Harry Bates, is easily one of the all-time greats.
It’s story of an alien being, Klaatu (Michael Rennie), coming to warn the human race about the cost of the current use of violence, distrust and aggression, is a remarkable Cold War parable sprinkled with stirring, and still all-too relevant insights, into the threats of nuclear destruction. After meeting with stiff resistance from the military establishment, he turns to a single mother (Patricia Neal), her young son (Billy Gray) and an Einstein-like scientist (Sam Jaffe) for insight as to whether or not humanity should be left to work things out on their own. Waiting in the wings is Klaatu’s massive robot Gort, a harbinger of doom only he can stop.
I’ve always been impressed with this film. I love the documentary-like verisimilitude of it, the way Wise keeps things grounded in a real and believable world that feels tactile and true. I love the crispness of North’s writing, the way it doesn’t beat you over the head with his message-driven point of view. And, finally, I love the great Leo Tover’s (The Heiress) photography, his usage of light and shadow giving the film a noir edge that’s creepily unsettling.
Fox’s Blu-ray meticulously restores the film to absolute pristine elegance, the fine grain of the film stock giving the picture a rich, aged quality that’s frequently lost when these old black and white classics are transferred for high definition. Watching this disc is almost like seeing the movie for the very first time, the image so crisp and clean it’s downright breathtaking.
As for the special features, some are carryovers from the previous standard definition release, most notably a fascinating audio commentary between Wise and fellow sci-fi director Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan). Other retreads from the earlier version include the solid 70-minute documentary “Making the Earth Stand Still,” a vintage 1951 Movietone newsreel, a collection of Still Galleries and the film’s theatrical trailer.
New for this release is an audio commentary with film and music scholars John Morgan, Steven Smith, William Stromber and Nick Redman, an isolated music track featuring composer Bernard Hermann’s legendary score, a reading of the original Harry Bates short story Farewell to the Master, an Interactive Pressbook, the Edmund H. North documentary short Race to Oblivion and six new featurettes (“The Mysterious, Melodious Theremin,” “Main Title Live Performance by Peter Pringle,” “Decoding Klaatu Barada Nikto,” “Science Fiction as Metaphor,” “A Brief History of Flying Saucers,” “The Astounding Harry Bates” and “Edmund North: The Man Who Made the Earth Stand Still.” Blu-ray exclusives include “Interactive Theremin: Create Your Own Score” and “Gort Command! Interactive Game.”
The audio commentary is better than your typical scholarly conversation even though it does cover much of the material already given ample debate and examination in the featurettes making listening to it more than a tad redundant. Said documentary shorts, however, are all pretty great, each of them far more in-depth and informative than the usual behind-the-scenes filler found on a lot of these releases. I also loved the inclusion of North’s 1982 television doc Race to Oblivion, the film a fascinating time capsule chronicling our Reagan-era fear of mutually assured destruction. As for the Blu-ray exclusives, each of them is cute for a few minutes, both wearing out the welcome incredibly quickly, however, and I imagine most people will view and play them once never to return to either again.
All-in-all, as bad a year as Fox is having theatrically (and that freakishly awful Keanu Reeves remake of this title is only going to continue that downward spiral), their release of the original The Day the Earth Stood Still is certainly cause for at least a small bit of celebration. This science fiction feature doesn’t just get its due, it gets a full-blown coronation. I loved this Blu-ray disc, and I imagine fans of this classic will feel very much the same.
