The original is full of cheesy, sentimental moments, there is no doubt. The female character, of whom the actress and her character name I cannot remember, is an embarrassing 1950s archetype, and her son is also of little interest. The scientist character in the original is at least as cliched as John Cleese in the new film--nonsense prizes about "biological altruism" replacing the absurd Albert Einstein caricature of the original.
What the original gets right is Klaatu, probably Michael Rennie's best performance. Nobody in their right mind is claiming he's a great actor (can anyone even name two other Rennie performances?), but this is a great role. And, yes, he's easily identifiable as a Jesus figure (John Carpenter is the Earth name he chooses--J.C.--get it?). Gort is also pretty menacing in its simplicity. Silver body, red-light, that's it, but somehow we're able to believe Gort could destroy the world, and it works. In the new version, the filmmakers don't have much faith in the robot, or their audience, so it has to grow several sizes, and show its powers explicitly.
I'm not sure if your comment about the score is in jest or not--certainly the innovative use of the theremin has been come to be identified with cheesy 1950s science fiction scores that followed The Day The Earth Stood Still and stole this device. But in the context of Hermann's score, it's an incredibly successful work, which is more than I can say for the ineffective underscore of the new movie (which I'm curious to hear on album, to find out if it is as boring on disc as it ended up being in the film).
What the original gets right is Klaatu, probably Michael Rennie's best performance. Nobody in their right mind is claiming he's a great actor (can anyone even name two other Rennie performances?), but this is a great role. And, yes, he's easily identifiable as a Jesus figure (John Carpenter is the Earth name he chooses--J.C.--get it?). Gort is also pretty menacing in its simplicity. Silver body, red-light, that's it, but somehow we're able to believe Gort could destroy the world, and it works. In the new version, the filmmakers don't have much faith in the robot, or their audience, so it has to grow several sizes, and show its powers explicitly.
I'm not sure if your comment about the score is in jest or not--certainly the innovative use of the theremin has been come to be identified with cheesy 1950s science fiction scores that followed The Day The Earth Stood Still and stole this device. But in the context of Hermann's score, it's an incredibly successful work, which is more than I can say for the ineffective underscore of the new movie (which I'm curious to hear on album, to find out if it is as boring on disc as it ended up being in the film).
