The Day the Earth Stood Still: Who is the Better Klaatu - Keanu Reeves or Michael Rennie?

Director Scott Derrickson set himself a serious challenge when he took on the remake of the 1951 Robert Wise classic sci-fi film, The Day the Earth Stood Still. Keanu Reeves however, took on an even greater challenge when he decided to reprieve the role of Klaatu. With Klaatu, science fiction gave viewers one of the most recognizable character roles in Hollywood.

In the original 1951 film, Michael Rennie's understated and elegant portrayal of the benign yet powerful alien who has come to save the Earth is excellent. As Klaatu, Rennie's performance exudes almost parental compassion for us lesser beings, 'lesser' being the operative word, while alluding to daunting mental and physical strength. In the time before computer generated graphics and cell phones, much less bikinis and mini vans, the idea that technology could literally stop time was a decidedly scary thought. Considering that the world had recently experienced the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings, Rennie's cool sincerity with which he delivered Klaatu's message of "get along or we'll blow you up" resonated with an audience recovering from a World War and only newly immersed in the initial years of the Cold War and nuclear proliferation.

Overall, this should have been a career launching performance but Rennie appears to have been unable to follow up. With the exception of a few notable film roles including Peter in The Robe and Jean Valjean in Les Miserables, Rennie's acting career after The Day the Earth Stood Still was primarily in television. From 1959 to 1965, Michael Rennie played Harry Lime, the lead in the popular British series, The Third Man. Of course, he has also been immortalized in the opening song of Rocky Horror Picture Show. As Riff Raff so aptly states in the song Science Fiction, Double Feature, "Michael Rennie was ill the Day the Earth Stood Still, but he told us where we stand."

Keanu Reeves has been accused, and rightly so, of being stiff and seemingly uncomfortable in his own skin when in front of the camera. For the role of Klaatu, his tendency towards rigidity serves him well. Klaatu makes no bones about not being of human origins, so the aura of alien discomfort that Reeves characteristically offers with his performances, actually works. The Klaatu of 2008 is very much the off-worlder. He is also a bit more angry and vengeful than his 1951 counterpart. Unlike the message from the past, which gave us some time to come to grips with the problem, the current message is much more dire. The warning against aggression has been usurped by the death knell of environmental disaster and humanity's part in destroying our planet. Klaatu does not seek to reform us humans, only to inform us of what will happen next and it isn't a pretty picture. The Reeves character spends very little energy warning us. He simply pronounces ultimatums. Considering the back and forth on whether or not global warming exists, you can rather understand why Klaatu goes right for the "this is the last time I'm going to tell you" position. There is little, if any, of the shepherd in Reeves portrayal.

Critics have generally panned Reeves performance but then they usually do. The comments about his wooden performance continues to plague the reviews of Derrickson's film but there has also been an appreciative nod towards the accuracy of the science and its depiction on screen and through dialogue. The 2008 film is no slouch in the revenue department either, however short on story. In the opening weekend, The Day the Earth Stood Still grossed $36 million. Not bad for a film that no one likes.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=review-day-the-earth-stood-still

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/day_the_earth_stood_still/

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-boxoffice15-2008dec15,0,1031300.story