The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Audio Commentary-Robert Wise (Director) and Nicholas Meyer Featurette-Movie Tone News 1951 (6:04) Theatrical Trailer-1.33:1, not 16x9 enhanced, Dolby Digital 2.0 (2:03) Featurette-Restoration Comparison (4:19)
Rating
Year Of Production	1951
Running Time	88:23
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Robert Wise
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Michael Rennie Patricia Neal Hugh Marlowe Sam Jaffe
Case	?
RPI	$31.95	Music	Bernard Herrmann

    Klaatu barada nikto.

    If those words mean diddly-squat to you, then you are definitely reading the wrong review. Those words have a deep meaning to connoisseurs of classic science fiction. For when we are talking about classic science fiction, there is no more classic film than this B-grade effort. So B-grade in fact that in the over fifty years since it was first released, the film has not just influenced a whole host of films, but also managed to make the Internet Movie Database Top 250 films of all time and been selected by SFX magazine as one of the greatest science fiction films of all time. Now for those myriad of fans of the film, lets get something out of the way very quickly - the Region 4 release is not on a par with the Region 1 release and true aficionados should definitely head to NTSC country for the (current) definitive release of the film. As you will find out if you continue reading this review, the big difference is that the Region 4 release dips out on the excellent and extensive featurette Making The Earth Stand Still.

    On the face of it, the film is a simple tale of a visitor, Klaatu (Michael Rennie), from regions not of this Earth who has travelled here to deliver a message of great importance about the ongoing survival of the planet. Now since the at-times xenophobic Americans are the recipients of this visit, the result is a fitting tribute to the National Rifle Association as Klaatu is promptly shot. All Klaatu wants to do is gather together the leaders of the world and deliver to them a message of great importance. What is so difficult about that? Unable to comprehend the idiocy of the humans he encounters, Klaatu realises the only way he will get any attention in the paranoid times is to change tack and seek out men not motivated by political means. So, he checks himself out of the hospital where he is incarcerated and heads off in search of intelligent life on Earth. Klaatu, taking the name of Mr Carpenter, finds a nice place to rent a room and promptly meets Helen Benson (Patricia Neal) and her son Bobby (Billy Gray). Whilst being shown around Washington by Bobby, Klaatu decides to visit noted scientist Professor Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe) in the hope that he may prove to be the man to aid him. The fly in the ointment (there always has to be one) is Helen's boyfriend Tom Steven (Hugh Marlowe), and it becomes a race to see whether Klaatu gets to deliver his message or not.

    The story is nothing really that great at face value, but it is a superbly written screenplay and there has been no end of analysis of the real meaning contained therein. One of the most popular is the ascribing of religious overtones to the film (something that director Robert Wise was completely unaware of judging by the audio commentary). One thing is inescapable - the film makes no bones about taking a very large swing at the rampant McCarthyism of the period, where communist paranoia was at fever pitch. But whatever the true meaning of the film (notably Robert Wise does not cover this topic in the commentary), where the film really scores is in the realisation of the screenplay. Foremost amongst that is the casting - Michael Rennie was virtually unknown at the time and brought to the role of Klaatu an almost completely believable persona for the alien. Patricia Neal is terrific as the female interest in the film, making one question why she seemed to be so underutilised in films. Sam Jaffe is another highlight, and it is very interesting to hear the comments in the commentary about thinking actors. Hugh Marlowe was not one apparently, resulting in a truly one dimensional character that really serves no purpose other than to be the obligatory fly in the ointment. Given that Robert Wise is probably better known for his musicals (The Sound Of Music or West Side Story anyone?) his directorial effort in science fiction is certainly fine.

    With a great screenplay, terrific acting, great direction and a great score (more of which anon), the stature of the film as a genuine classic film would appear to have been a foregone conclusion. That was not exactly the case, but fifty-odd years later and that is the general consensus about the film. I would doubt that too many genuine fans of film would not be very familiar with this film. In this instance, it is certainly not a case of familiarity breeding contempt. No matter how many times I watch the film, there is always some new nuance that can be discerned or some new point of view that can be discerned. In my estimation, that sort of situation is only to be found in genuinely classic films. Simply stated, there is no representative film collection that could afford to not include this film. Highly recommended, but which Region?

Video

    As far as I can work out, the film has been the subject of restorations in 1993 (for the laserdisc release) and 1995. The 2002 restoration is therefore the third time that the film has been subject to rejuvenation. Believe me, the effort that has been made with the restoration is seen in just about every frame of the transfer. Given the age of the film, this is one very good transfer indeed, with barely a blemish to be found. For those familiar with previous incarnations of the film, this will be something of an eye-opener.

    The original aspect ratio of the film was 1.37:1 (the Academy ratio) so the Full Frame transfer is very, very close indeed to the original aspect ratio. It is of course not 16x9 enhanced.

    So, let's start with what is wrong with the transfer! Like many films of the age, grain is something of an issue at times. As a consequence of the excellent restoration, the fine grain is a little more obvious than it has previously been, but it certainly does not impinge upon the visual aspect of the transfer that much. Just once or twice I found myself a little disappointed with the shadow detail in the film - an example is to be found at 30:20. However, this is only a minor consideration again and in broad terms the shadow detail is quite excellent and certainly highlights aspects of the film that previously were perhaps not the case. That really is about the extent of the complaints! The transfer is otherwise as sharp as could be - indeed a little too sharp on occasions. Whilst lots of small detail that has previously been hidden can now be seen, it would have been nice if this did not extend to the wires that were used to suspend Patricia Neal during the scene when Gort carries Helen to the spacecraft around the 77:00 mark. Let's just say that they are rather obvious! There are other examples but this is perhaps the most obvious, however, try looking for the zipper on the Gort costume, or the breathing holes in the costume, or the rather obvious seams to the ramp that are supposedly unable to be detected by the engineers trying to get into the spacecraft... There is perhaps just the slightest hint of edge enhancement to be seen at 10:18 and 11:08, although this is hardly a serious issue.

    The contrast between black and white here is terrific too. Blacks have a very good depth and consistency to them, whilst there is plenty of fine detail in the grey scales across the whole transfer. Whites could perhaps have done with a bit more of the film equivalent of Napisan but are otherwise very acceptable indeed. The overall transfer has a nice vibrancy to it, at times quite excellent but never less than darn good for a film of this age.

    MPEG artefacts seem to be absent from the transfer and what issues there may be with loss of resolution are more likely to be a reflection of the stock footage or the processed shots used. There is a bit of jitter around the 68:00 mark, but nothing terribly noticeable. Some of the stock footage is now revealed to have some jitter too but again nothing really awful. That is about the extent of the film-to-video artefacts, with just about no shimmer present - which was quite unexpected. As for film artefacts - basically forget them. The restoration processes have worked something close to a miracle here and there is very little in the way of residual dirt or scratches to be seen.

   This is a dual layered DVD, presumably an RSDL formatted effort given the language options available, although I am unable to verify where the layer change is if this is the case.

   There are a decent collection of subtitle options on the DVD, but I stuck with the English efforts - both for the film and the audio commentary. The English efforts for the film would be about 95% accurate, although the missing 5% hardly alters the context of anything that is said. The audio commentary effort is worse - about 80% accurate and missing some vital stuff. The subtitles are white on a black background, which I did not especially like as it sort of intrudes upon that great, restored image.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are six soundtracks on this DVD: an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, a French Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, an Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, a German Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, a Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and an English Audio Commentary in Dolby Digital 2.0. I stuck with the two English soundtracks. Slightly disappointingly, we do not get the original mono soundtrack on the DVD for the 2.0 soundtrack seems to be a stereo mix.

    The dialogue comes up well and there is really no problem in understanding anything here at all. There did not seem to be any problems with audio sync in the transfer.

    The excellent score to the film comes from the incomparable Bernard Herrmann. The score is one of the better efforts to be found in film, simply because Herrmann did a terrific job of supporting the film with a slightly eerie score. Regrettably, there is no isolated music track on the DVD, for this is one film that I would really like to watch in this manner. I would be willing to bet that with just the music alone, the film would succeed quite wonderfully.

    There really is nothing at all wrong with the soundtrack, something that I found quite remarkable. I remember one tape of the film that I had that was something akin to static city and television broadcasts have on occasions not cast the film in a good light. But there is certainly nothing wrong here, unless you want to be very anal about the odd, very minor instance of slight distortion that evidences that the source is fifty years old. There is quite a decent body to the sound that I found quite natural. The old tapes I have of the film always seemed to me to bring Klaatu's dialogue out too much in the soundscape, resulting in an unnatural balance to the dialogue. This certainly does not seem to be the case here. The sound is a lot smoother and less strident than in the past and I certainly have no problems with what we have been given here.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Whilst on the face of it the extras package is quite a good one, the fact that there is more stuff on the Region 1 release certainly weighs heavily on the mind when writing the review.

Menu

    Not too bad an effort, with (for a change) a very obvious highlighter! The problem that I really have is that you have to endure copyright notices for about half of Europe before even getting to the menu. These cannot be skipped past and constitute a monumental pain in my opinion. Why do we need to have these running for a minute or so? Surely a quick ten second effort in English is all that is required?

Audio Commentary - Robert Wise (Director) and Nicholas Meyer (Leader)

    Right, you know how I hate these things? Well, this one is excellent! Whilst it was apparently made for the laserdisc release, and certainly sounds as if it is two separate efforts cobbled together (there are variations in sound level as well as background hiss), this is not to be missed. Rarely screen specific, it covers not just the film itself but also various aspects of film-making. When a man with the experience of Robert Wise starts talking about film-making, you might just learn something! Nicholas Meyer sort of leads the show with questions or comments and Robert Wise responds. The disc is almost worthwhile buying for this alone. This is a (very) rare instance where I would listen to the commentary again. The only problem I have with the commentary is that the recording is rather hissy at times, and this is made very noticeable when the recording ends and you are suddenly confronted with almost absolute silence.

Featurette - MovieTone News 1951 (6:04)

    Sort of a compendium of the famous MovieTone News efforts from 1951, of which one is actually about the film, this pretty much sets the scene for the basis of the film by demonstrating the political situation of the era. Whilst it is hardly of great relevance to the film itself, the era is certainly well established and provides an interesting indication of the sort of era into which the film was set. Presented in the standard format for MovieTone News, namely a Full Frame format that is not 16x9 enhanced, the Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is typically strident and slightly hissy. The transfer is rather grainy at times, but probably no more than I would expect from news reels of the day.

Theatrical Trailer (2:03)

    Another of those gems of 1950's film marketing that are so much more interesting than the two minute versions of the films that they make nowadays. The transfer is a little dark, so contrast is not the best but is otherwise quite acceptable. There are a host of film artefacts but no more than would be expected in a trailer of this age. Also presented in a Full Frame format that is not 16x9 enhanced, and with slightly strident Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

Featurette - Restoration Comparison (4:19)

    I will never understand why we don't get some sort of commentary over the top of these things - it would really help to educate the viewer as to what the restoration entails, how it is done and so on. Still, on its own it remains an interesting effort. The picture in picture presentation initially compares the over-bright 1995 film transfer master to the darker but smoother looking 1993 laserdisc master, before moving on to a comparison between the 2002 film restoration and the 2002 film restoration with video restoration. Very nice stuff, and demonstrating how fine the new restoration is.

    It would appear that the Region 4 release misses out on:

• Original mono soundtrack
• THX Optimizer
• 80 minute documentary Making The Earth Stand Still
• Stills Gallery
• Shooting Script
• Preview trailers

    It would appear that the Region 1 release misses out on:

• Nothing - well maybe some different language soundtracks

    Obviously this is so heavily in favour of the Region 1 release it is not funny. By all accounts the documentary is quite an excellent effort that is very sadly missed.

    There really is nothing significantly wrong with the DVD release of The Day The Earth Stood Still - at least until you see how once again Region 4 has been well and truly stiffed. In all honesty I could not recommend that you buy this Region 4 release despite its excellence. The additional extras on the Region 1 release are highlighted by an essential documentary and its omission from the Region 4 release borders on criminal. As the Region 4 release currently stands, I would be quite willing to put significant money on a two disc Special Edition reissue down the line. Save your money until then - or buy the Region 1 release instead. One day the distributors will wake up to the fact that this discrimination against Region 4 is woefully counterproductive to their businesses.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall