The Day the Earth Stood Still, directed by Robert Wise with a distinctive Theremin-infused score by Bernard Hermann, is one of the classics of sci-fi. Released in 1951, it captured the imagination of a world just entering the Cold War and coming to grips with the idea that the human race was to the point where it could extinguish its very existence (more on that here).
So, of course, some dipshit has decided to remake . . . er, excuse me, "reimagine" the film. To make matters worse, it relies on the talents of Keanu Reeves, the only in actor in Hollywood who can honestly be confused with a cardboard cutout of himself. Judging from the early reviews, apparently "reimagine" means "turn a classic into crap." Color me surprised.
But that's not the bad news, merely expected. The bad news is that the producers of the new version are beaming it into space:
Seeking the ultimate red carpet, or perhaps a chance to get a good word in for humanity to whoever might be Out There watching, the makers of the new movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still” have arranged for it to be beamed into space on Friday, on the same day the movie opens here on planet Earth.Oh, great, just what we need: to assault our nearest interstellar neighbors with dreck like this. At least it's not the first thing that's gone up:
As an interstellar broadcast, the movie at least beats a Doritos commercial, which was broadcast into space by a set of European radar stations in June in the most recent high-profile space transmission. Whether it lives up artistically to the Beatles song “Across the Universe,” which NASA sent off in February as part of the agency’s 50th anniversary, remains to be seen.Of course, as anyone who's read Carl Sagan's Contact (or seen the inferior film) knows, we've been sending TV signals into space for decades. The first broadcast powerful enough to reach the stars? Adolph Hitler's welcoming address from the 1936 Munich Olympics. So it's not as if we put our best foot forward in the first instance, either.
If we're lucky, the signal will just reach the Omicronians which, evidence has shown, don't have very good taste, anyway. They might appreciate it.
3 comments:
Great post!
There's a technical term for beaming a movie out into space: Marketing.
I haven't seen the remake yet (and won't unless forced by gunpoint), but from what I gather the "green" twist renders the plot illogical. In the original, the fear was that our weapons and technology were close to becoming a threat to other worlds. In the new one it's simply that we're a threat to ourselves?
"Stop killing yourselves or we'll, uh, kill you."
I kind of liked it ... and I'm a big fan of the original.
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