The Day the Earth Stood Still

This view tends to see Klaatu as a misinformed or naïve idealist, unfamiliar with the nuances of world conflict. The novel became a best-seller in the United States 2004 after a recommendation by TV personality Oprah Winfrey. Others find resonance in the themes of the ascribed "uselessness" of the United Nations and of the assembling of the world's scientists to hear a message of peace. Adaptations include:. Some speculate that the film and others like it contributed to a popular philosophy that blossomed in the cultural revolution of the 1960s. The novel has been filmed more than a dozen times. This interpretation holds that it is the fearful hostility of "the government," not the will of people, that was the sole obstacle to Klaatu's plan. A public domain version of it is here (http://www.ccel.org/t/tolstoy/confession/confession.html).

Many see value in the film's statement of universal moral standing, finding an association with Klaatu as a well-meaning upstart, whose time had not yet come. The Confession contains many other autobiographical insights into the themes of Anna Karenina. Filmed in black and white with minimal, but effective special effects, the movie is a model of brisk, economical storytelling and direction. For in the end what are we, who are convinced that suicide is obligatory and yet cannot resolve to commit it, other than the weakest, the most inconsistent and, speaking frankly, the most stupid of people, making such a song and dance with our banalities?. In spite of the undeniable cliches of the movie (a race of killer robots, a spaceman in a silver suit and a flying saucer, etc.), its message of peace and dark outlook regarding human society separates it from the fray of 1950s science fiction and has made it a classic. There is even one passage that could possibly be interpreted as a sign of Anna's eventual redemption in Tolstoy's eyes:. The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. (Another theme in Anna Karenina is that the aristocratic habit of speaking in French instead of Russian is another form of society's falseness.).

The surprise ending of the short story "Farewell To The Master" by Harry Bates (where it is revealed that the robot – originally called Gnut rather than Gort – is the master and the alien man, Klaatu, the servant) was not used in the movie, where this remains an open question. 'Rien ne forme un jeune homme comme une liaison avec une femme comme il faut.'. Klaatu does explicitly refer to the "almighty spirit" when asked whether Gort has the power over life and death. A dear old aunt of mine, the purest of creatures, with whom I lived, was always saying that she wished for nothing as much as that I would have a relationship with a married woman. Carpenter's initials are "J.C.", perhaps another allusion to Jesus Christ. Tolstoy also details the acceptability of adulterous "liaisons" in aristocratic Russian society:. Further, Mr. Every time I tried to display my innermost desires – a wish to be morally good – I met with contempt and scorn, and as soon as I gave in to base desires I was praised and encouraged.

The Day the Earth Stood Still has been interpreted to contain religious symbolism, especially because of Klaatu's death and subsequent resurrection, and his chosen name "Carpenter". He describes his real-life dissatisfaction with the hypocrisy of his class:. (This phrase was hilariously mangled by Ash of the Evil Dead series, whose mispronunciation leads to the awakening of the Army of Darkness.). Many of the novel's themes can be found in Tolstoy's Confession, his first-person rumination about the nature of life and faith, written just two years after the publication of Anna Karenina. Earth, he tells them, can either decide to abandon warfare and join other spacefaring nations – a peace ensured by a massive deterrent force, the robot race Gort belongs to – or be destroyed as a threat. Thus scholars usually assume that Levin's thoughts reflect Tolstoy's own. After Klaatu is revived, he steps out of the saucer and speaks to the assembled scientists. The character Levin is recognized as a stand-in for Tolstoy himself, whose first name in Russian is "Lev." He incorporated other details of his life into the character, such as Levin's insistence that Kitty read his journals before they marry, something Tolstoy made his own wife do.

After these words are spoken, the robot aborts his attack against Helen, carries her into the flying saucer, retrieves Klaatu's corpse, transports him to the saucer, and revives him from death. In many ways, Anna Karenina was the most personal novel Tolstoy wrote up to that point. In a dramatic encounter, the huge robot nearly kills Helen before she gets the words out. But one of the most prominent themes Tolstoy expounds upon in the novel is the relationship between love and honesty, both the different varieties of them as well as the different degrees to which they coexist, and the happiness that does or doesn't result. Concerned far less about his own death than about the lives of countless others, he urgently sends Helen Benson to deliver to the robot Gort the words that will cancel the attack: "Gort, Klaatu barada nikto". He also draws contrasts between the peace and wholesomeness of the country and the decadence of urban society. Klaatu has benevolently warned his earthling friends that Gort has been programmed to defend him and that he will wreak great destruction if anything untoward happens to him. Tolstoy skewers religious hypocrisy and insincerity in several characters, especially Karenin, Anna's husband, and the moralizing Countess Lydia Ivanovna.

Klaatu is indeed shot before he and Helen can reach the scientists' meeting. Anna Karenina is filled with themes and imagery that illustrates Tolstoy's disdain of his aristocratic peers, and of a litany of human weaknesses. Helen is repulsed by Tom's indifference, and rushes to help Klaatu. So by the time Anna throws herself under a train at the end of the story, Tolstoy likely did not want readers to sympathize with her supposed mistreatment, but rather to recognize that her inability to truly commit to her own happiness or self-truth led to her ignominious end. "I'm not interested in the rest of the world," is Tom's reply, expressing the movie's theme of the unconcern most people have about the larger world around them. The joyous, honest and solid relationship of Levin and Kitty is continually contrasted in the novel with that of Anna and Vronsky, which is marked by constant upheaval, backbiting, and suspicion. "You'll feel differently about me...." "I feel different right now." Helen asks Tom about the impact that betraying Klaatu will have on the rest of the world. Levin tries unsuccessfully to fit into high society when wooing the young Kitty Scherbatsky in Petersburg; he wins her only when he allows himself to be himself.

Tom is sure that by betraying Klaatu, he can become rich and famous. Levin was a wealthy landowner from the provinces who could move in aristocratic circles, but who preferred to work on his estate in the country. After the blackout is over, Tom confronts Helen with his knowledge that Klaatu is the space man. But the novel contains the parallel and contrasting love story of Konstantin Levin. Helen now understands Klaatu's real mission. A common way to interpret Anna's tragedy, then, was that she could neither be completely honest nor completely false, showing a Hamlet-like inner conflict that eventually drives her to suicide. Because of the standstill, which lasts thirty minutes, Klaatu is now perceived as a security threat by the Americans, who decide that he must be taken dead or alive. Unable to accept Vronsky's rebuff, and unable to return to a life she hates, she kills herself.

At the same time, Tom is at the jeweller's, who exclaims that such a diamond could not have come from Earth. But when Vronsky's love cools, Anna cannot bring herself to return to the husband she detests, even though he will not permit her to see their son until she does. The blackout finds Klaatu trapped in an elevator with Helen, to whom he explains the whole situation. By falling in love, they go beyond society's acceptance of trivial adulterous dalliances. This is the situation referred to in the movie's title. Petersburg society until she leaves her husband for the handsome and charming military officer, Count Vronsky. As a demonstration of the seriousness of his message, Klaatu decides to turn off all electric power, all over the world (including combustion engines) -- with some notable exceptions, such as hospitals and planes in flight. Anna is the jewel of St.

Carpenter's room, which he takes to a jeweller to have appraised. However, Tolstoy was both a moralist and severe critic of the excesses of his aristocratic peers, and Anna Karenina is often interpreted overall as a parable on the difficulty of being honest to oneself when the rest of society accepts falseness. Their suspicions grow when Tom finds an obviously expensive diamond in Mr. The novel, set among the highest circles of Russian society, is generally thought by the casual reader to be nothing more than the story of a tragic romance. Helen refuses to believe that Bobby is relating anything other than a dream, but while Bobby is headed upstairs to bed, notices that his shoes are soaking wet. And in the joys and fears of fatherhood, Levin at last develops faith in the Christian God. When Tom and Helen return home from their evening out, Bobby tells them that Carpenter is the space man. Some Russian volunteers, including Vronsky, who does not plan to come back, leave to help in the Serbian revolt that has just broken out against the Turks (see also History of Serbia, 1877).

Carpenter" enter the space ship. Stiva gets the job he wanted, and Karenin takes custody of Annie. Bobby follows him and is amazed to see his friend, "Mr. Part 8 continues the story after Anna's death. Klaatu returns to his space ship that night to file a radio report to his colleagues. (Tolstoy reportedly was inspired to write Anna Karenina by reading a newspaper report of such a death.). A convincing demonstration...but not destructive. At last, he has found a human being on his own wavelength. They plan to return to the country, but in a jealous rage Anna leaves early, and in a parallel to part 1, commits suicide by throwing herself in the path of a train.

Barnhardt cautions Klaatu to think of a back-up plan in case his message is rejected...a "little demonstration." Klaatu, fascinated with the everyday objects on this alien planet, toys with a delicate tobacco pipe of the Professor's, and agrees. Anna and Vronsky become increasingly bitter towards each other. Klaatu convinces Barnhardt to organize a meeting among world scientists, who in turn are to carry Klaatu's messages to their leaders. Stiva, while seeking Karenin's commendation for a new job, again asks him to grant Anna a divorce; but Karenin's decisions are now governed by a "clairvoyant" – recommended by Lidia Ivanovna – who apparently counsels him to decline. Barnhardt dismisses the military guards outside his study. In part 7, the Levins are in Moscow for Kitty's benefit as she gives birth to a son. When government agents show up at the boarding house, and escort Klaatu back to Barnhardt's house, Klaatu reveals his identity to the scientist. So she writes to Karenin, and leaves with Vronsky for Moscow.

Klaatu leaves her with the address of his boarding house and the admonition not to erase his solution to Barnhardt's problem. Yet again, Dolly seems unsuccessful; but when Vronsky leaves for several days of provincial elections, a combination of boredom and suspicion convinces Anna she must marry Vronsky. Barnhardt's housekeeper returns home, discovers Klaatu and Bobby in the study, and angrily demands that they leave. In part 6, Dolly visits Anna, and at Vronsky's request, she asks Anna to resume seeking a divorce from Karenin. Barnhardt isn't home, but Klaatu uses his abilities to open the door to Barnhardt's study and leaves a "calling card" in the form of a mathematical solution to the n-body problem scrawled on Barnhardt's blackboard. Shortly afterward, she and Vronsky leave for the country. Klaatu-as-Carpenter proposes that he and Bobby visit Barnhardt. However, Anna manages to visit Seriozha unannounced on his birthday, but is discovered by the furious Karenin, who had told their son that his mother was dead.

When he asks Bobby to name the greatest person in the world today (besides the space man, Bobby's immediate reply), Bobby replies that the smartest man in the world is a leading American scientist, Professor Barnhardt, who lives "right here in Washington, D.C.". Karenin is comforted – and influenced – by the strong-willed Countess Lidia Ivanovna, an enthusiast of religious and mystic ideas fashionable with the upper classes, who counsels him to keep Seriozha away from Anna. Together, the two visit the Lincoln Memorial, where Klaatu is impressed by the inscription of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and concludes that there may be great minds on Earth who would understand his message. In Europe, Vronsky and Anna struggle to find friends who will accept them and pursue activities that will amuse them, but they eventually return to Russia. Bobby gives him a tour of Washington, D.C., including Arlington National Cemetery, where Klaatu absorbs with dismay the fact that "all these people [were] killed in wars.". The couple go to him, and Kitty nurses him until he dies, while also discovering she is pregnant. When Tom plans a day-trip getaway for himself and Helen, Klaatu offers to take care of Bobby for the day. A few months later, Levin learns that his brother Nikolai is dying.

Helen has a boyfriend named Tom, played by Hugh Marlowe. In part 5, Levin and Kitty marry. When asked by one resident what he thinks about the desires of the "spaceman," Klaatu (who is the spaceman) replies, "I must admit, I'm a little confused.". Much more straightforward is Stiva's matchmaking with Levin: a meeting he arranges between Levin and Kitty results in their reconciliation and betrothal. Helen is a widow of World War II, whose husband (Bobby's father) was killed "at Anzio." He listens to the paranoid breakfast-table banter among the boarding house residents, who are convinced that the space ship is the work of the Soviets, or Democrats, or some other real or imagined enemy of the cold war. Vronsky at first plans to flee to Tashkent, but changes his mind after seeing Anna, and they leave for Europe without obtaining a divorce after all. Department of Commerce, Helen Benson (Neal) and her son Bobby (Gray). However, Anna recovers, having given birth to a daughter she names Annie. Stiva finds himself pleading on her behalf for Karenin to divorce.

S. At her bedside, Karenin forgives Vronsky, who, in remorse, attempts suicide. Two of the residents of the house are an employee of the U. Again, Dolly seems to be unsuccessful, but Karenin changes his plans after hearing that Anna is dying in childbirth. He tells them that his name is "Carpenter," taking the name from a laundry label on a suit he has presumably taken from Walter Reed Hospital. Anna's brother Stiva argues against it, and persuades Karenin to speak with Dolly first. He applies at a boarding house on Harvard Avenue, and meets the family and other guests there, who are riveted to a television news special on the escape of the space man. By part 4, however, Karenin is also finding the situation intolerable and begins seeking divorce.

Klaatu escapes from the hospital and decides to meet a typical human family. Back in Petersburg, Karenin exasperates Anna by refusing to separate with her, and threatens not to let her see their son Seriozha ever again if she leaves or misbehaves. I wish it were otherwise.". Dolly seems to be unsuccessful, but a chance sighting of Kitty makes Levin realize he still loves her. Harley. "I'm very sorry. Part 3 examines Levin's life on his rural farming estate, a setting closely tied to Levin's spiritual thoughts and struggles. Dolly also meets Levin, and attempts to revive his feelings for Kitty. "My people haven't," says Mr. When Kitty learns that Vronsky prefers Anna over her, she travels to a resort at a German spring to recover from the shock.

My people have learned to live without it," Klaatu says to the Secretary, upon hearing of the world leaders' infighting. Anna's anguish when Vronsky falls from a racehorse makes her feelings obvious, prompting her to confess to her husband. "I'm impatient when I encounter stupidity. In part 2, Karenin scolds Anna for talking too much with Vronsky, but she returns Vronsky's affections nonetheless, and becomes pregnant with his child. The United Nations is cited as a largely defunct and irrelevant organization. Levin returns to his farm, abandoning any hope of marriage, and Anna returns to her husband Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, a senior government official, and their son Seriozha in Petersburg. Harley, played by Frank Conroy, Klaatu fails to convince the humans to organize a meeting among world leaders, where he wants to present to them an important message that "all humans" have to hear. There a man commits suicide by jumping in front of a train.

Visited in his hospital room by "Secretary to the President" Mr. Kitty turns him down, as she is expecting an offer from army officer Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky. Vronsky has no intention of marrying, however, and falls in love with Anna after meeting her at the Saint Petersburg railway station. Klaatu is taken to Walter Reed Hospital, where he quickly recovers. Meanwhile, Stiva's childhood friend Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin, a serious young aristocratic landowner who actually lives on and manages his estate, arrives in Moscow to offer marriage to Dolly's sister Katerina Alexandrovna Shcherbatsky ("Kitty"). Subsequently the robot Gort is activated and makes all weapons evaporate. Anna Karenina, Stiva's sister, persuades Dolly not to leave him. When he offers a device as a gift to the humans, he is shot when the device opens with a snap and is mistaken for a weapon. Part 1 introduces Prince Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky ("Stiva"), a civil servant who has been unfaithful to his wife Darya Alexandrovna ("Dolly").

As Klaatu exits the saucer, he is welcomed not by politicians but by soldiers. The novel is in eight parts. Klaatu (Rennie) arrives in a flying saucer in Washington, DC, wearing a silver spacesuit and accompanied by a large human-like robot called Gort (Martin). Dostoevsky, Tolstoy's contemporary, in reviewing the book, declared it to be "flawless as a work of art".
. Widely regarded as a pinnacle in realist fiction, Tolstoy considered this book his first true novel. North from the story "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates, and directed by Robert Wise. The score was written by Bernard Herrmann and is notable for its use of a theremin. Consequently, the novel's first complete appearance was in book form.

The movie was adapted by Edmund H. The novel initially appeared serially in the periodical Ruskii Vestnik ("Russian Messenger"), but Tolstoy clashed with its editor Mikhail Katkov over issues that arose in the final installment. It stars Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Billy Gray, Frances Bavier, and Lock Martin. Anna Karenina (Анна Каренина) is a novel by Leo Tolstoy that was first published in 1877. The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 1951 science fiction film which tells the story of a humanoid spaceman who comes to Earth to convince its leaders to learn how to live in peace. 2000: A 4 part British TV adaptation directed by David Blair. 1997: The first US version to be filmed on location in Russia, directed by Bernard Rose and starring Sophie Marceau.

1985: Starring Jacqueline Bisset and Christopher Reeve, directed by Simon Langton. 1977: A 10 part British TV miniseries directed by Basil Coleman. 1967: A Russian version directed by Alexander Zarkhi. 1953: A Russian version directed by Tatyana Lukashevich.

1948: Starring Vivien Leigh and directed by Julien Duvivier. 1935: The most famous and critically acclaimed version, starring Greta Garbo and Frederic March and directed by Clarence Brown. This version featured significant changes from the novel and had two different endings, with a happy one for American audiences. 1927: An American version titled Love, starring Greta Garbo and directed by Edmund Goulding.

1915: An American version starring Danish actress Betty Nansen. 1914: A Russian adaptation directed by Vladimir Gardin.