ShareThis"Klaatu barada nikto."
It was the phrase heard 'round the universe as an alien shared the words that could spare Earth from certain destruction.
As Klaatu, actor Michael Rennie spoke them in "The Day the Earth Stood Still," the landmark 1951 science-fiction thriller that played into America's fears about communism, McCarthyism, the Korean War, flying saucers and shadowy spies with nuclear secrets.
Klaatu wants no part of earthbound squabbles. "I don't intend to add my contributions to your childish jealousies and suspicions. I'm impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it."
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment this week released a two-disc special edition ($19.98 and well worth it) of the 1951 film, and the story is being reinvented for a modern audience. A remake, starring Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Jaden Smith, Kathy Bates and Jon Hamm, just opened.
America in 2008 is jittery from a war on terrorism that proves what the alien visitor said a half-century ago: "The universe grows smaller every day and the threat of aggression by any group anywhere can no longer be tolerated. There must be security for all or no one is secure."
This time, the movie's message has been given a modern twist. It's not the only change from old to new:
THE PREMISE
1951: Klaatu, accompanied by a robocop named Gort, travels 250 million miles to Washington, lands in a silvery spaceship and declares, "We have come to visit you in peace and with good will" -- and is promptly shot. After recovering, he asks to meet with representatives from all nations and later warns: "If you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder."
2008: An extraterrestrial, also named Klaatu, arrives in a shimmery sphere and declares, "I'm a friend to the Earth." He, too, is shot, hospitalized and escapes, as the nature of his friendship is revealed. He also has little patience for the inhabitants of the planet and how they have treated it.
Edge goes to: The original, which, sadly, has proved timeless.
THE ALIEN
1951: Englishman Michael Rennie was a late bloomer when it came to acting. He had been a salesman who entered films as an extra in the mid-1930s and became a star in the 1950s. He was 42 when he portrayed Klaatu and died 20 years later of emphysema.
2008: Keanu Reeves is a bankable action star who helped to propel "The Matrix" and "Speed" franchises under his blockbuster belt. The 44-year-old always has had a spacey, otherworldly quality, and Klaatu taps into what a co-star once called his mysterious, enigmatic nature. When Klaatu says his body feels unreal to him -- downright alien -- you believe it.
Edge goes to: Reeves looks more like an alien, but nod goes to Rennie.
THE LANDING PAD
1951: Washington, where the flying saucer becomes a magnet for tourists with cameras, news crews and boys hawking newspapers.
2008: New York's Central Park, the go-to home for oddball occurrences, as in "Cloverfield" and "The Happening," just in 2008.
Edge goes to: D.C., which allows respectful visits to the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
THE WOMAN
1951: Patricia Neal is Helen Benson, a widowed mother and a secretary at the Department of Commerce. While she's being wooed by an insurance salesman (Hugh Marlowe), her young son plays tour guide for Klaatu. Helen realizes who Klaatu is after being trapped on an elevator with him while Earth stands still. She speaks the magic words "Klaatu barada nikto" and is the only human to get a look inside the spaceship.
2008: Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly is Dr. Helen Benson, an astrobiologist who studies the characteristics of life you might find in other worlds. She is a widow with a young stepson and is the first human to make physical contact with Klaatu when he emerges from the spacecraft.
Edge goes to: Split decision, with an edge to Neal, even though Connelly demonstrates her characteristic warmth as a modern working mom.
THE BOY
1951: Billy Gray, now best known as Bud Anderson on "Father Knows Best," plays Helen's son, Bobby Benson. He lost his father in World War II and gives Klaatu -- who he initially believes to be friendly but clueless Mr. Carpenter -- a tour of Washington landmarks. "I like you, Mr. Carpenter, you're a real screwball," he tells him.
2008: Off-screen, Jaden Smith's father knows best, too. He is Will Smith, and the pair co-starred in "The Pursuit of Happyness." Jaden is on his own here as Helen's stepson, Jacob, whose Army-engineer dad died a year ago. He provides the movie's heart, in touching scenes with Reeves and then Connelly, and they have nothing to do with FX.
Edge goes to: A tie, each bringing something to the party.
THE BRAINIAC
1951: Sam Jaffe plays brilliant Professor Barnhardt, a Nobel Prize winner who invites the world's leading scientists to meet with Klaatu. He's fascinated, not frightened, as he tells the visitor from outer space, "Sit down, please. There are several thousand questions I'd like to ask you."
2008: John Cleese takes over the role of Professor Barnhardt, but he doesn't get as much screen time as Jaffe. He is, however, a Nobel scientist who scribbles scientific equations on a blackboard and tells Klaatu, "I have so many questions to ask you."
Edge goes to: Jaffe.
THE FUN FRINGES
1951: A physician marvels that the youthful E.T. is 78 and has a life expectancy of 130. The doc says this as he hands his colleague a cigarette. Klaatu may not have diamonds on the soles of his shoes but in his pockets, as currency. Soon to gain TV fame: Gray on "Father Knows Best," Frances Bavier on "The Andy Griffith Show" and Jaffe on "Ben Casey."
2008: Fun? There's no fun in this doomsday sci-fi thriller, although a laugh may come unintentionally when you see where an alien encounter takes place. Talk about your product placements!
Edge goes to: Old-timers, hands down.
STANDING STILL
1951: Klaatu, arguing that "violent action seems to be the only thing you people understand," considers leveling New York or sinking the Rock of Gibraltar to get everyone's attention. He settles on "neutralizing" electricity for 30 minutes, stopping cars, roller coasters, assembly lines and milkshake mixers but benevolently allowing planes in flight and hospitals to carry on.
2008: Earth stands still once more, as enormous satellite dishes, trains, an oil drill, cars and even watches stop.
Edge goes to: Nothing like a stuck elevator to hammer home your point about stopping time.
RELIGIOUS OVERTONES
1951: On the new two-disc edition, film historian Steven Jay Rubin says it's no coincidence that Klaatu takes the name of "Mr. Carpenter," spreads a message of peace and is resurrected. He asked screenwriter Edmund H. North, who adapted the Harry Bates story, if the comparison to Jesus was intentional, and he said absolutely.
2008: Klaatu never adopts the pseudonym of Mr. Carpenter, but he does know how to miraculously heal himself and, under the right circumstances, bring the dead back to life.
Edge goes to: Thanks to North's confirmation, the first film.
THE EFFECTS
1951: The saucer streaking through the sky looks dated and cheesy and cannot compare with anything onscreen in the past three or four decades. Especially dated is the outfit Klaatu wears upon disembarking from the ship -- it's someone's idea of space-age material, complete with sparkly flecks.
2008: This is all about the effects and the action, losing sight of the smaller, more meaningful encounters that tap into the humanity of the humans and humanoid. However, the texture akin to whale blubber that serves almost as a skin for Klaatu is cool, and the effects masters wipe out a football stadium and speeding truck with surprising ease.
Edge: New trumps old, although there is a beauty in the black-and-white simplicity of the original, as the faces of Neal and Rennie are crisscrossed with light in a darkened elevator.
THE DIRECTOR
1951: Robert Wise, who would later win four Academy Awards for producing and directing "West Side Story" and "The Sound of Music," directed the sci-fi classic. He died in 2005 at age 91. In his earlier years, he also edited Orson Welles' masterpiece, "Citizen Kane."
2008: Scott Derrickson's directorial claim to fame is 2005's "The Exorcism of Emily Rose," which he also co-wrote. In the film's press notes, he recalls meeting Wise during a festival honoring the veteran director. "He told me that if I was interested in genre films, then I should make my first film a horror film, because a horror film will really show what you can do as a director."
Edge goes to: With seven Oscar nominations, four wins and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, it's wise to opt for Wise.
(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette movie editor Barbara Vancheri can be reached at bvancheri(at)post-gazette.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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