The Day the Earth Stood Still by Robert Wise is widely acclaimed as one of the most influential sci-fi films ever produced to date. I agree with this statement, even though this movie might be considered "cheesy" compared to today's standards. I also think that this movie has a good message, which in the bigger picture of the movie's purpose, is to promote world peace.When this movie was produced in 1951, not many other sci-fi films existed. At this point in time, this movie was very popular due to its special effects and technology. Though these effects aren't as amazing as what is made today, they still played a major role in the success of this movie at that time.
Another technique that I have noticed with Robert Wise, is that during important scenes in the movie, musical motifs are often used to emphasize that particular scene. I have found this beneficial since it helped me be more alert so I got more out of that particular scene. I have noticed that the motifs help emphasize the main characters as well.
When I was about half way through the movie, I noticed that at the part when "the Earth stood still" there were rhythmic relations with each shot that showed different parts of the world and the music that corresponded. I personally thought that this technique of filming was very appropriate because I have never really before been able to point out rhythmic relations in modern films prior to this since, they are not as obvious as they were in this movie.
At the beginning of the movie, I noticed that there was an extreme long shot where the space-ship had landed in Washington, D.C. I thought that this shot was useful because it showed to scale how enormous the ship was compared to other things in its background. I also thought it was a good establishing shot as well.
In conclusion, I thought that this movie was pretty good, keeping in mind the time it was produced in. Overall the film used various techniques of filming that I have noticed to be useful in watching. This is definitely a classic to the genre of sci-fi.
3 comments:
Way to dig up some information on movies during the era, i also liked how you figured out the importance of the long shot. Based on the poster that movie looks tight
I like how you described the filming that was involved in the making of the movie. The old school sci-fi genre does not exactly appeal to me all too much but after reading your review I'm somewhat motivated to see the movie due to the explanations of all the interesting filming and all the other elements of cinematography mentioned.
Konner!
Nice blog. I'm not sci-fi fan at all, but from your review I can see that this movie would be interesting to watch because of the old special effects...can show how far the industry has come.
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