The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951

Last week, I listened to Robbie Graham - who runs the Silver Screen Saucers website - discussing the relationship between media and UFOlore.

He began to talk about the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still. According to Graham, its mature, grounded depiction of the subject was rather unique for the time. He goes on to mention rumours that aspects of it might have been influenced by the government.

So what do I do? I watch it of course.

1. The disc glows when in flight.
   
2. The surface of the disc is perfectly smooth even after it opens up. This is echoed several times by different characters.
   
3. There are hardly any instruments inside the ship. No physical panels. Very minimalistic.
   
4. It travels at 4,000mph. Again, this specific speed is repeated several times by different characters in different contexts.
   
5. Klaatu represents an "organisation" that seemingly represents other civilisations
   

All of the above are specific points of UFOlore, and it seemed that the movie - rather than just mentioning them or having it as part of its makeup - made a point to emphasise it.

a reply to: Shino

Well, of course, you'd watch it.

Assuming the premise is right, of govt. influence over portions of the movie...Why?

Why would they do that?

originally posted by: seagull
a reply to: Shino

Well, of course, you'd watch it.

Assuming the premise is right, of govt. influence over portions of the movie...Why?

Why would they do that?

Perhaps it wasn't the government that fed the movie makers these details....

a reply to: Shino

Still leaves the why, though, doesn't it?

But the influences, I suppose, could be from outside the govt. Indeed, why not from outside.

It does, if this is indeed the case, make for some interesting pondering, doesn't it?

It may be a good idea to see if those points were being made prior to the movie. Or did they enter the "lore" because of the movie?

Some interesting things I found about the film :




lexiconcordance.com...
turnmeondeadman.com...

here are parallels between Klaatu and Jesus Christ. Klaatu comes from another world and chooses the name of Mr. Carpenter (the occupation of Jesus Christ). He came to warn about the destruction Earth is going to face if they don't believe him and his words. Jesus Christ said to the people that they will face destruction if they don't believe in him and in his words. Like Jesus prophesying about the destruction of Jerusalem, Klaatu prophesies that Earth may have to face destruction like leveling New York City or sinking the Rock of Gibraltar. Both Jesus Christ and Klaatu die and later come back to life. Like Klaatu's flying saucer seen by people in the film, People in Jerusalem and in Judea saw flying chariots and soldiers in the sky right before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. This was recorded by Hebrew Historian Josephus, Roman Historian Tacitus, Eusebius, Document "Pseudo Hegesippus", and Jewish History Document "Sepher Yosippon".

Also....

The Army refused to co-operate after reading the script. The National Guard had no such qualms and gladly offered their co-operation.

The name of the actor who played the role of Gort was LOCK MARTIN (Lookheed ???....pretty close).

www.imdb.com...

a reply to: Shino

I've explained before that the fresh, simple scope of that little movie was an eye-opener for many folks. But there is a new relevance for today's world when you know one important detail.

The movie is based on a short story by a fellow named Harry Bates. In Bates' written account, which I read long, long ago, the robot--an AI being in our world today--was the master and the "human" spaceman wascreated on the spot as the UFO sat in the park for several days. So that is one hellofva twist to a fantastic tale.

You can sometimes find the movie in the big bins at Walmart and other stores for about five bucks. A two-disk set, the second disk details the making of the movie and the part about Harry Bates, but it DOES NOT tell you about the changed twist to that key aspect of the story. (That older version was reintroduced for the incredibly poor newer version of a few years ago.)

a reply to: homeskillet

Well we gotta figure that the first mass attention was in 47 ish so four years later out comes this movie. Not a schlock sifi movie but a real honest to goodness Hollywood type production. And the message. That humans needed a superior power to control it, that being the galactic police force of which Gort was only one. Join the intergalactic family.

Could be conditioning, but could just be making a fast buck on a popular fad.

originally posted by: homeskillet
It may be a good idea to see if those points were being made prior to the movie. Or did they enter the "lore" because of the movie?

^^ This!

The 'language' of the UFO movement, or whatever you want to call it, has developed from the visual imagery in science fiction films, which they themselves derived from books and pulp fiction of the time, and which drew on intense post-war anti-Soviet paranoia.

People have learned what they think UFOs should look like and how they behave.

GORT, KLAATU BARADA NICTO!

IMHO, one of the greatest sci-fi flicks of all time!

originally posted by: Trueman
The name of the actor who played the role of Gort was LOCK MARTIN (Lookheed ???....pretty close).

www.imdb.com...

Cool, but a coincidence.

The name Lockheed Martin has a long genesis.

The company was started by two brothers named "Loughead" (which was phonetically pronounced as 'Lockheed") started the Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company in the early 1900s. in the 1920s, new investors came on, and the company was renamed to "Lockheed Aircraft Company" in order to use the phonetic pronunciation to avoid confusion over the name (you DO want you potential clients to be clear who you are). Later it became the Lockheed Corporation.

The "Martin" part of the name was added in 1995, when the Lockheed Corporation merged with another aerospace and defense firm named "Martin Marietta". The name "Martin Marietta" came from an earlier merger between the Glen L. Martin Company and American-Marietta. The Glen L. Martin Company was founded by Glen L. Martin in 1912.

So "Lockheed Martin" didn't exist under that name when the actor Lock Martin chose his stage name, which came from his middle name (his full name was Joseph Lockard Martin).

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
a reply to: homeskillet

Well we gotta figure that the first mass attention was in 47 ish so four years later out comes this movie. Not a schlock sifi movie but a real honest to goodness Hollywood type production. And the message. That humans needed a superior power to control it, that being the galactic police force of which Gort was only one. Join the intergalactic family.

Could be conditioning, but could just be making a fast buck on a popular fad.

The message( like the Jesus comparison) of man needing control is common going as far back as the Old Testament. I believe that it's a common trait of man to hope and wish for someone to take responsibility because life is very difficult.

I think believing this movie is conditioning or telling a true story is wishful thinking.

a reply to: Aliensun
Making Klaatu on the spot is a very enlightening thought. I hadn't known that before and it could lead to a very deep rabbit hole.
Take the idea, Gort lands and has to "bargain" with the inhabitants. What a better way than to produce a replica of the inhabitants to do the negotiations for him. Klaatu looking human envokes empathy in other humans as he looks like them therefore humans are more likely to give him a chance to talk rather than Gort telling them how he wants it to be.
Now here's the kicker. I think with these supposedly alien abductions and breeding hybrids that could be their agenda, breeding a human looking hybrid to talk for them as we would be more empathic to a human looking alien.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

I know that and agree. It's just all that bunch of interesting things about that movie that makes it even cooler. I watched it like 10 times. The new version sucks by the way.

There are 3 races/characters in the Star Wars universe named after that famous line in the movie:


starwars.wikia.com...
starwars.wikia.com...
starwars.wikia.com...

If anyone wants to delve deeper into this movie and it's origins our good friend Bybyots authored an interesting thread :

The CIA, the Movie Mogul, and ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’

This also comes from Robbie Graham's research and links to the fact that Edmund H. North (the script writer), Julian Blaustein, and Darryl Zanuck (the producer) were both part of the US Army Signal Corps and had worked on training films during the war.

It could be their skills were sought for the film or there could be more to it.