Thursday, December 11, 2008

Pulp Screen: "The Day the Earth Stood Still", 1951

Pulp Screen
Hello Pulp friends,

if I am not wrong, a certain "remake" is opening tomorrow here in US so I thought to tribute the original version, directed by Robert Wise.
The pacific alien Klaatu and his bodyguard robot Gort land in Washington on front of the White House and they bring a message (warning and ultimatum at the same time).
Inside Gort's costume there is the gigantic Locke Martin, a doorman at Hollywood who was often used in movies thanks to his incredible height. He fainted many times during the shooting of the movie because of the heat of the spotlights: try to imagine to be in that armor and be fully toasted...

KLAATU BARADA NIKTO, everyone :)

Francesco

The Day The Earth Stood Still

8 comments:

Chad Carter said...

Adore the composition, if that's what it's called. Gort is the George Sanders of cinema robots, suave, smooth and unforgettable.

Steve Epting said...

Great!

I think the original is on AMC tonight.

Francesco Francavilla said...

Mike: thank you! :)
Chad: Yeah, I think that's how we call it :) Glad you liked it :)
Steve: thanks! And yes, you're right: it was on TV at 8 pm ET but I missed it because of dinner and CSI. Luckily it will be aired again tomorrow at 3pm ET. Thanks for the tip :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Unknown said...

What a wonderful piece! I agree with the composition...it "feels" just like the movie.
I remember "The Day the Earth Stood Still" as being the first b&w Sci-fi movie I watched that I said afterwards "Woah..that was a great movie!" I just watched it recently (with my wife seeing it for the first time) as an "instant view" on Netflix. We'll see how the remake turns out!
Thanks, Francesco!
-Dave

Greg said...

Beautiful piece. I remember the first time I watched this had to have been in oh, say '91 or '92, but maybe later because my mom let me rent that and Darkman and it was a strange but wonderful double bill. I can't bring myself to even think about the remake. The Day the Earth Stood Still is the last film that needed remade.

SIMON said...

Nice! I too love the composition and the atmosphere. Great stuff.

It's been too long since i last saw the original. I really should buy it on DVD or something.

The remake looks pretty bleh... Keanu is totally miscast, altho Jon Hamm and Jennifer Connelly are always awesome.

Ilia said...

You are putting out some great art.

Stunning.

Francesco Francavilla said...

Dave & Greg: thank you both for the kind words on my illo AND for sharing these cool sci-fi memories with us: I really appreciate it :)
Simon: Thank you! :) It appears you watched the remake and didn't like it much. I didn't have chance to go this past weekend but I heard some other negative comments too about it so I guess I will just wait for the tv screening.
Ilia: thank you :) Wait to see that piece ;)

Cheers,
Francesco