Ugh
December 16, 2008
Still feeling pretty spacey today, but I have a public service announcement that must go out.
As some of you are likely aware, The Day the Earth Stood Still has been remade recently, and to be honest those previews looked kind of intriguing to me. So, being in general a fan of old movies, I promptly netflixed the 1951 original, which I knew only by reputation.
While my particular neurosis for trying to fit things into a linear framework with a clear beginning and subsequent progression made watching the original film first nigh-mandatory for me, it is an idea which may have occurred to others of you as well.
Don’t bother.
Although I am generally able to adapt my expectations a bit when watching older films (ask ‘Bekah about the time we watched Arsenic and Old Lace, for example), I still can’t get to a place where this movie is a good watch for the contemporary viewer. Even allowing for the dated acting styles and special effects whose chief value is now their quaintness, this movie was not that good. Its chief claim to greatness has always been its criticism of the politics of fear which dominated Western society in the 1950′s (and, some would argue, today). Unfortunately, the film’s criticism itself no longer stands up to a critical viewing. Characters presented as moral authorities in the film now appear to be open to the charge of hypocrisy, etc. Personally, I have seen the subject treated approximately as well in certain episodes of the cartoons I watched as a child.
Although it doubtless exercised a great deal of influence on subsequent films, its only interest now lies in that historical significance. Unless you are a film student writing a paper, leave the original on the shelf.
