THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
© 2003 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Mania Grade: A+
Disc Grade: A
Reviewed Format: DVD
Rated: G
Stars: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, High Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Billy Gray, Frances Bavier, Lock Martin
Writer: Edmund H. North
Director: Robert Wise
Distributor: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Original Year of Release: 1951
Retail Price: $19.98
Extras: THX approved new transfer; English stereo track; trailers; audio commentary; feature length documentary; newsreel; restoration comparison; galleries; script; THX Optimizer; English, French & Spanish mono; English & Spanish subtitles

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THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL

An absolute movie classic of not only science fiction cinema, but of all kinds of cinema, 20^th Century Fox has at last brought THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL to DVD in a special edition package. Since most of the DVD's extras were previously available on Fox's special edition laserdisc, one may well wonder what kept them.

For those few who still haven't seen it, DAY concerns a space traveler named Klaatu (Michael Rennie) who lands his flying saucer in the middle of Washington, D.C., and his struggle to bring a message to the Earth's population. Immediately troubled by interference from the military industrial complex (a soldier shoots him in the arm right away), Klaatu goes undercover, moving into a boarding house under the name Carpenter. While there, he covertly gains the assistance of a young widow (Patricia Neal) and her young son (Billy Gray) in tracking down a famous scientist (Sam Jaffe), who may be able to help him circumvent politics to deliver his message (which is actually more of a warning). In order to demonstrate he means business, Klaatu creates a worldwide shutdown of all electric power for several minutes. But when he's spied in communication with his huge robot enforcer Gort (Lock Martin), his newfound friends nearly bring cataclysm to the entire Earth.

Director Robert Wise is accompanied by Nicholas Meyer on a wonderful commentrak. There's nothing like hearing a director's comments on a classic film shot-by-shot, but having Wise' fellow STAR TREK veteran Meyer on hand to prompt things with pertinent questions doubles the track's worth. Included as another bonus is a 1951 "Movietone News" short that features the film receiving an award at an early science fiction convention, as well as stories on beauty pageants, and several openly insulting "Soviet Russia." A rarity in these days of double-disc sets, DAY's features are spread to both sides of a single platter. Side B brings us a full length making-of documentary that does an excellent job detailing the creation of this landmark picture.

But all these extras were included in the 1995 special edition laserdisc release. What's new to this release that caused its delay? Well, one of the new features explains the main reason to trade up: a side-by-side comparison of the previous transfer from ten years ago for film and LD distribution, contrasted with the much-improved new transfer from the original negative, which has been further cleaned up digitally, one frame at a time. Despite the relatively marvelous transfer, there are still a few negligible quibbles, including moiré patterns on Mr. Carpenter's suit in several shots, but unless you're in a quibbling mood, this THX-approved DVD is cause for celebration. To further insure that you're enjoying the transfer to its fullest, Fox has included THX Optimizer tests to fine-tune your system. The original theatrical trailer, not the more commonly seen reissue trailer, has been restored as well. To top things off, trailers for ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. and JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH are also included.