Julian Perez-Garcia

Red Group
CINEMATIC ANALYSIS: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951)
Part A: Summary
For this cinematic analysis, I watched the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951).
This movie, said to be a science fiction classic, contains an overwhelmingly strong theme of
nonviolence, especially at the end.
The movie opens with a spacecraft landing in Washington, DC, piloted by the kind alien
Klaatu (Michael Rennie) and his large metal robot Gort. He tries to tell the humans of an
important message, but the military shoots him upon arrival and imprisons him in a hospital.
When you continue watching the movie, we see he has a benevolent message, furthering the idea
that violence isnt always the answer. He escapes quickly, and goes out into the world to find
why we have such "strange, unreasoning attitudes." He takes a room in a boarding house, where
he meets the widowed Helen Benson (Patricia Neal) and her young son Bobby (Billy Gray).
When Billys mother goes out for a day trip, Klaatu babysits Bobby and takes him out for
a walk. While out, Bobby tells Klaatu about the greatest living man, Professor Jacob Barnhardt,
who lives in Washington. They go to his house but the Professor is not there, so Klaatu leaves his
contact information with the housekeeper and then leaves.
Later, the Professor asks to meet with Klaatu and they do. Klaatu talks about how
humans have become dangerous with the atomic bomb, and says if Earth does not give up these
weapons, Earth will be eliminated. Prof. Barnhardt agrees to gather the worlds top scientists to
hear Klaatus message, and the two decide the only way to show Klaatus power is to turn off all
electricity around the world for a half hour.
Julian Perez-Garcia
Red Group
Klaatu meets Mrs. Benson at her work the next day and is stuck with her in the elevator
when the power goes out. He tells her who he really is and talks of his plan.
After the power outage, Klaatu rushes back to his spaceship while being chased by the
government and addresses the people of Earth, saying that humanitys thirst for violence and
forays into space have caused concern among other inhabitants of the universe. He adds that
robot enforcers (such as Gort) have been created to stop possible aggression. He warns that if the
people of Earth threaten to extend their violence into space, the robots will destroy Earth. With
this message, he retreats into his spaceship and takes off. This part of the movie stresses the
importance of nonviolence, especially at a time in our nations history when any people feared an
extraordinarily destructive war with the Soviet Union.









Julian Perez-Garcia
Red Group
Part B: Historical Analysis
The historical setting of this film is postwar America, one that is in the dicey beginning
of the Cold War. It portrays not American society but more human society as a whole at that
time, characterizing us as having a thirst for incredible violence (we do, but not as much as the
film suggests); and as not having the ability to change, even when change is for the better.
Without even knowing much about the time period, one can easily tell the reason it was
made at the time it was. As stated earlier, the US and the Soviet Union had entered into the Cold
War, a war that pitted not only two great powers against each other, but two clashing
ideological systemscommunism and capitalism (Cold War). The main message of the movie,
nonviolence, restated Americans fear that the Cold War could destroy the planet if it got out of
hand. The movie captured this sense of fear in an interesting way and through a story that was
actually engaging.
The film also deals with space travel, a new but emerging field of study at the time.
According to ABC-Clio, space travel was a way that the U.S. and Soviet governments sought
new ways to establish their predominance over one another, the effort to explore, and eventually
conquer, what lay beyond the planet proved a powerful psychological factor in the cold war
(space exploration).
The movie has countless scientific errors, but these are to be ignored as the move was
made in the 1950s when much of the science the film dealt with simply hadnt been studied yet.
Surprisingly, however, the film contains no factual inaccuracies, more than likely because it
didnt deal with history and more with the fears of the country.

Julian Perez-Garcia
Red Group
Part C: Cinematographic Techniques
With my new knowledge of framing and shot types acquired in film class, I picked up on
several things in the movie I would not have noticed had I watched this movie earlier.
One major thing I noticed was the framing: the shots were wide and large in scenes
dealing with the spacecraft or Gort; but in scenes with humans and normal interactions, the shots
seemed to be smaller and framed in a more compact way. Besides the obvious reasons for this
such as fitting everything onscreen, this also seemed to evoke a sense of awe and wonder when
looking at the spaceship. I feel safe in saying this was done on purpose and for both of those
reasons.
Another special technique used was the lighting, especially visible in black-and-white.
Most of the scenes in the movie, especially with Billy, were done with bright lighting. But at the
end of the movie, when Klaatu extends his warning to the press, the lighting is dark and somber,
almost brooding. This was doubtlessly done to set the mood.










Julian Perez-Garcia
Red Group
Works Cited
"Cold War." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 4 Mar. 2014.
Sowards, Adam M. "space exploration." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 4 Mar.
2014.