The Day the Earth Went “Whoa”
November 12th, 2008 by park
So, as everyone knows by now, they’ve remade “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. Starring Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connolly, they’ve decided instead of the original story about a newsman who stays overnight to see what the visitor is doing to go with a more “the environment is dying, and you have to die” idea.
Okay, first off, it’s The Day the Earth Stood Still. It’s a classic that lives and breathes even in today’s environment. The original film, made in 1951, was about our exploration into Atomic Energy and how it could someday tear us apart if we kept acting like complete asses to each other. A brilliant story that begs us to look at one another not as enemies, but as one race. I like to think in my small little brain that this reverberation of warning went on to pull us out of the dark cold-war status we were in for so long. Probably not true, but it’s my fantasy so back off.
Secondly, it’s important to note that this is a remake of a classic. And while I detest remakes, this is the lowest form of that flattery. Inspiration, sure, I can buy that. But a remake it is not. The original film is so far off the basis of the story it was based on as to be shocking. This follow-up remake is so far off…well it’s just damned sad is what it is.
See, in the original story “Farewell to the Master” by Harry Bates it explores what kind of strangeness can happen when our limited understanding of sentience is dwarfed by the revelation that not everything from a strange-far-off world would fit into our little paradigm. You see, Gnut (the robot they call Gort in the film) is not the servant, but the master. It’s a very revealing story about how we try to place our limits onto others.
In the original film from 1951 Klaatu is a visitor who is shot, but then heals miraculously and calls a summit of all earth’s greatest thinkers. There, he tells them that our tinkering with forces outside our understanding could be the potential downfall of our planet or make us a threat to our other galactic neighbors. Therefore, we either learn to get along, or our neighbors will put a stop to the bickering. It’s a great warning about the cold war, and how we could so easily destroy ourselves playing with nuclear weapons. It was a warning that was so far outside its time I think the entire country was a bit shaken by it.
The changes made to the story between the written short story and the film where drastic, to say the least. I understand this new telling is supposed to be about environmentalism. Gee, didn’t see that coming, did you? Let’s hope no one goes, it flops and maybe we can stem this tide of remakes and poor excuses for film making. Seriously. Enough.