OK. Maybe that's dramatic, but it's true. I'm not nearly as old as this film and the first time I saw it, I was a young child and impressionable as only young children are. I can honestly say that every alien encounter I've experienced through movies, t.v. shows and literature has been measured against The Day The Earth Stood Still, and most have come up short. I credit the film's depiction of human/alien interactions with my present-day feelings about how people should treat each other - within communities and groups and how we often fail in our dealings with outsiders. I think the movie made the young girl I was think about issues that would otherwise have gone unexamined for many years to come, and in those years I would have become a different person. The effect was deeply profound, and remains so even 30 years after my first screening. That said, it is still entertaining, a joy to revisit. There are no expensive, hi-tech special effects that look great in teasers, but do nothing for the plot. It's very straight forward, honest, pure. It's emotional and intellectual instead of the typical shoot-em-up space battle films that are today's norm. And while I enjoy a good explosion now and then, the change of pace is refreshing.
Review of The Day the Earth Stood Still
