MovieChat Forums > The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Discussion > Lack of people at landing site.

Lack of people at landing site.

posted 15 years ago by lelysee
12 replies | jump to latest

Firstly I love this movie and it's a classic. One thing that bugs me about this movie is the lack of people near the landing site. When Klaatu borrows Billy's flashlight and goes off to the spaceship there is absolutely nobody around except for two soldiers. Later when Helen goes off to the spaceship to stop Gort destroying the world there is nobody around. A spaceship landing in Washington DC would be surrounded by the military and the general public day and night.

[–] novastar_6 15 years ago

Well they did have some of the military there watching the spaceship...but I think probably nobody wanted to come back to see it after Gort came out because here is an 8 foot robot that can destroy things...I don't know too many people that would want to be in the same vicinity as that thing.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] kbarada 12 years ago

Sure there are many goofs and such, but I try to enjoy the movie without over thinking it or looking for what may be "goofs". Doing so diminishes the enjoyment of the movie.

Think of a great stage play. Notice that the backdrops and sets just suggest a place and time. All the details need not be filled in to make it real...in our minds. I think this is also true for this movie.

Fun to talk about such things after the movie, but I say so what? TDTESS is still a great movie.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] leader-7 12 years ago

It's not really a goof.
In the 1950's (and don't forget it was a very different country then) when the government said, "Stay away" people heeded that dictum.

Additionally, Washington D.C. truly was a sleepy southern town, and with respect to not only that, but also the general culture at the time, no one was out in the middle of the night; stores were closed, nothing was "user friendly" in the wee hours, and so, there was really no reason for anyone to buck the order.

Plus, the Army had things under control rather well, didn't they? The couple of guards were more than enough to control a robot whose powers they fully understood and knew what to expect, right?

:-)

[–] Attillio 11 years ago

Years ago, I remember watching this film with my late father, who had been an infantry officer during World War II, and he said that instead of two lone G.I.'s providing security at the landing site, the US Army would have had perhaps an entire division of soldiers to keep watch over Gort and the flying saucer, what with the "visitors" being so relatively close to both the White House and Congress.

(Who knows, maybe the great, "Give 'Em Hell" Harry Truman took one of his famous night time strolls over to the field to check out both Gort and the landed ufo in the wee hours of the Washington, D. C. morning?)

[–] leader-7 11 years ago

Everyone's reading too much into it. Maybe they DID have an entire division of soldiers there that Gort systematically "LASER'D" out before we saw the scene w/ the two remaining.

:-)

We'll never know. Point is, it still is ONLY a movie.

[–] Attillio 11 years ago

The late Col. Gordon Cooper, one of the original Mercury astronauts featured in the film, "The Right Stuff," wrote in his autobiography that President Truman used to take unannounced nightime walks through Washington, D.C., during World War II.

It seems that Mr. Cooper was a young US Marine, who was stationed in a building not far from the White House, and, the President occasionally walked in with his Secret Service agents just to have a cup of coffee and shoot the breeze with the young Marines in the building. The title of of Col. Cooper's fascinating autobiography is "Leap of Faith: An Astronaut's Journey Into the Unknown."

And, oh yes, Col. Cooper (who was also a USAF fighter pilot), did express the firm belief that we have been visited by "others" (just like Klaatu and Gort, I suppose).

One other point on the late, great Robert Wise's sci-fi film: Just how did Gort make it to that police station to retrieve Klaatu's body without being sighted by anyone? Heck, considering how rough Washington, D. C. is (even back in the early 1950s), it's a miracle that no one tried to mug Gort as he walked along the dangerous streets of the big city.

[–] leader-7 11 years ago

Just how did Gort make it to that police station to retrieve Klaatu's body without being sighted by anyone? Heck, considering how rough Washington, D. C. is (even back in the early 1950s), it's a miracle that no one tried to mug Gort as he walked along the dangerous streets of the big city.

I'm going to take this in the spirit in which it was served, and respond thus:

? Mug GORT? We don't know if anyone tried -- as it was the director's choice not to show it, and had they tried, they'd have been LASER'd right off the streeds of NW washington. As for "even back in the early '50's" -- yes, that was exactly when DC was rough. I was a student there in the '70's (1970's, that is ;-) and it was rough even then but getting better.

The point is, everyone is overinterpreting the scenes and who did what to/for/with whom.

Newsflash: IT'S A MOVIE. ok? There's lots of room for interpretation; and artistic license. So, on that note, or, that page of the script... let it go.

Many details will never be figured out, nor should they be.

this update corrects a typo

[–] Attillio 11 years ago

You know, your point is exceptionally well taken. In his autobiography, actor William Shatner (he being one of THE most understated actors of all time, if I may venture to say) expressed the belief that there are certain mysteries in life which we will never know the answer to while we are still here in this mortal existence.

As examples of mysteries we will never the answer to, the unfailingly self-effacing and mellow Mr. Shatner cites: Just who really DID murder President Kennedy in November of 1963? And, Mr. Shatner also poses THE number one question of all: "Do I wear a toupee?"

[–] poetcomic1 11 years ago

Also, the world in the movie is black and white and the real world is in color.

[–] Degree7 10 years ago

I feel like these details are left it either due to time or budget constraints. If the director had decided to have an entire division guarding the ship, then I assume the writers would have written a way for Klaatu to somehow sneak on board without being detected.

~ I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech.