Re: DAY THE EARTH STOO... secrets and lies


"Alric Knebel" <alric@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:dcifl416n2q6ec2rgjt8m4ftb72ti6ph1q@xxxxxxxxxx
On Sun, 28 Dec 2008 10:16:28 -0800, "Arthur Lipscomb"
<arthur@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Although it could have easily been better, overall, I liked the remake of
the Time Machine.

But while I didn't hate the Day the Earth Stood Still, the more I thought
about it the less I liked it. I rewatched the original the day before and
listened to the commentary track. Then I went to the remake with an open
mind. My problem with the remake isn't what they changed or kept the same,
it's they blindly followed plot points from the original while removing the
motivation from the original to do so so there was no logical motivation to
move the characters from point a to point b. They just went through the
motions of doing certain things because the plot called for them to do so.

But in the original, can you really say that the characters acted
realistically? That they were motivated in anyway above a
cardboard-cutout device to keep things moving. Take for instance the
Helen Benson's fiance (Hugh Marlowe) motivated by a drive to fame and
riches. Here he is within a touching distance with an alien, and he's
thinking about fame and fortune. Does that seem plausible to you?

1. They gather a group of scientist to investigate a strange phenomenon
that's heading for New York. At the time they believe that when it hits
it's going to wipe out New York yet they gathered the scientists and put
them in a helicopter to hover over the impending ground zero.

That's not what they thought. It had slowed down, and it was
obviously it was piloted.


My recollection is they didn't know it wasn't going to wipe out the city until after they already got there.


2. They shoot the alien visitor because he reached out his hand. In the
original they shot him because he had what appeared to be a weapon. No such
motivation for the hostility here. Plus in the original human hostility was
a key plot point. Not so in the remake so the shooting made even less
sense.

I didn't see it as hostility in either case, the original or the
remake, but as a result of tensed awareness in a very unusual
situation.

And human hostility was indeed a key point in this one, if that's what
matters.

3. They refuse to let the alien visitor speak at the UN. In the original
it was the dumb humans who refused to come and meet with the alien because
humanity couldn't get past their mistrust of each other. There was no good
reason articulated why the alien visitor wouldn't be allowed to speak at the
UN and it wasn't believable. However once he refused to answer the are
there plans to attack Earth question, as far as I can tell the actions of
the humans to hunt down and kill Klatu were justifiable. He was in fact on
Earth to wipe out humanity. And despite his comments about killing him not
changing anything, had they killed him before he escaped the interrogation,
I'm not sure GORT would have done anything. On the other hand if Earth was
facing a possible alien invasion mistreating the alien emissary would surely
trigger it. If Earth was not facing an alien invasion, mistreating the
alien emissary is a good way to trigger one. Either way mistreating the
alien emissary was just dumb and not believable.

Man, that's all a lot of just looking for stuff to find wrong. You're
adding all sorts of thing you think he should have or could have done.
No. Every one of these complaints could have been levied against the
original. Every one of them.


Doesn't make them any less valid. Besides, if you're going to remake a movie you might as well fix the flaws in the original instead of making them worse.


And he originally wasn't on the earth to wipe out humanity.

If the byproduct of saving the Earth is humanity is wiped out, then as a human, as this may be a bit egocentric, but I see his purpose as wiping out humanity. He didn't seem to care very much if humans lived or died until the end.


And
you're not sure GORT would have done anything?

I'm not sure if GORT was on a timer or if it attacked after getting a signal from Klatuu when he went to the swamp. If he attacked after getting a signal from Klatuu then killing Klatuu would be an effective method of preventing the attack from GORT. That doesn't mean the aliens couldn't attack later but that also doesn't mean humans should at least try to stop the attack.

What the hell are you
talking about? In the original, the fact of Klatuu's death would have
set Gort off. Klatuu wasn't there in secret. His friends would have
certainly missed him.

Which was my point that if the aliens wanted to attack Earth, killing Klatuu wouldn't have stopped them. And mistreating him was a mistake.



4. They let the scientist who's not a practicing medical doctor and there
under duress administer the shot.

You know, I'm reading this and shaking my head. She might not have
been a practicing medical doctor, but she knew how to give shots (like
lots of nurses and medical assistants) and she was a doctor associated
with the project.


Have you ever been given a shot by someone who screwed up or couldn't find the vein and had to do it again? I'm not saying she lacked the ability to give a shot. Just about anyone can jab a needle in someone's arm. I'm saying in reality that job would have been given to someone more...practiced, for lack of a better word. The problem isn't they let her do it, the problem is the whole scene was contrived. The plot calls for him to not be drugged so she volunteers to give the shot (so she can fake it) and they let her. If you're enjoying a movie you let things like that slide. But for me, that scene was just one of many straws that when combined broke the camel's back.


5. The scientist puts all of humanity at risk by not giving the shot.

Call it an intuition. She wasn't buying into the whole
distrust-the-alien thing. What would you have done? Myself, if I
could have gotten away with it, I wouldn't have cooperated either.


There's a difference between not cooperating and giving the soviets the technical knowhow to build their own atom bomb, if you catch my meaning.

6. Klatu claims that technology isn't the solution but the human's lack of
will to change. Yet he never articulate exactly what humans are doing
that's killing the planet.

That's obvious, isn't it?


No it's not. We could launch a full scale nuclear war against every nation on Earth and it wouldn't kill the planet nor wipe out all life. And what we're doing now isn't close to wiping out all life. Worse case scenario we kill ourselves but the planet and life keeps right on going.


What humans should be doing differently. Or why
if giving the technology to change why humans wouldn't use it.

I think that might have been what he wanted to talk to the UN about.
That's the impression I got.

I understand
he tried to talk at the UN and wasn't allowed to. But seeing as how he
tapped into our satellite system he certainly had the ability to broadcast a
warning.

What makes you say that?

Because any species capable of interstellar travel, cloning human bodies, stealing satelites, and building GORTS, out to be able to build and transmit on radio.


Picking up a signal is a bit different from
broadcasting one. At what point should he have done this?

Before deciding that wiping out all human life on Earth was a preferable alternative to broadcastign a warning on the radio to change our ways, complete with specific instructions as to what we need to to from now on.

And if
that's so logical, why wasn't it plausible in the original, for the
aliens to simply take over the entire broadcasting system of every
radio station on the planet, and speak directly? See how that works?

In the original he cut off all power everywhere on Earth. That was his way of saying listen to me or else to the people of the Earth.


You can go on and on with this, if you choose to. You're riding the
carriage of logic just as far as you want to, then you get off.



I won't exscuse flaws with the remake because the original had the same flaw. Not that this was a flaw in the original. Unlike in the remake, Klatu did actually get up on his soapbox and give his warning to the people of Earth. And he did so after demonstrated he could turn off our planet if he so chose and in a way that didn't cause any deaths.


And it's absurd to think that between giving the choice of using
environmentally friendly technology or being slaughtered by aliens, humans
would choose to be wiped out by aliens. He never even presented a do as I
say or die ultimatum.

Why should he? What would be his motivation to do that?

Assuming he cared, to not wipe out all human life.


The object
was to save the planet for life.


Last I checked humans are alive. If human life wasn't to be given a chance to continue, why ask to talk at the UN? If he wanted to give humans a chance to change then give humans a chance. He's deciding the fate of billions of people based on the actions of a few. And I refute the notion that humans are a threat to life on this planet. We may be a threat to any number of species but we couldn't wipe out all life if we tried. And assuming for sake of argument we were a threat to all life we certainly aren't a threat in the immediate future. It's not as if he said change your ways or else then came back a few years later to see if his warning took the planet would be dead by then.


Again looking at the original, those aliens never
claimed to have overcome their violent tendencies. In fact they hadn't.
But they did have a solution that worked for them that they were offering to
the humans.

I think that's what he was going to do for the humans. Again, he
wanted to talk to the UN. I'm assuming his plan for fixing the world
was on his agenda. Like in the first one.

But in the first one Klatuu didn't try to wipe out civilization when he wasn't able to talk to the UN. And he took care to make sure no one was hurt.


7. His comment about there very few planets capable of supporting life
forces me to ask what concern is it to the aliens unless they plan on
colonizing the Earth themselves. That may not have been the alien's intent
but that's how he came off to me. Especially when combined with his comment
about the Earth not belonging to the humans.

You've completely misunderstood that context.


I'm basing my opinion on his words and actions.

.

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