It's worth a revisit, though, as Wise's film, based on a short story by Harry Bates, remains an enduring (and fittingly cynical) work of satire.
To watch Robert Wise's The Day the Earth Stood Still today is to view it through the prism of film history; it's near-impossible for a modern audience to separate the movie (and Bernard Herrmann's score) from the iconography it helped popularize. Flying saucers, space lasers, hulking silver humanoids — to this day, they continue to manifest in homage, parody, art, and subversion. It's worth a revisit, though, as Wise's film, based on a short story by Harry Bates, remains an enduring (and fittingly cynical) work of satire. Nearly 75 years later, the thought of a unified front and nuclear disarmament remains as elusive as ever. Klaatu would stand even less of a chance.