So, yes, there I was, at work, describing this Star Wars Exhibition to one of my colleagues. I happened to mention that there were a bunch of aliens on display with familar names. I couldn't be certain whether they were species names or individual names, but I certainly saw a Nikto and a Klaatu, and I'm pretty sure I saw a Barada as well.
Funny thing: Those three words are a reference to the 1951 Sci-Fi classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still, in which the alien visitor played by Michael Rennie asks the human woman who's helping him to memorise the command "Gort, Klaatu barada nikto", which evidently translates as something like "Gort, Klaatu has been killed. Please find and retrieve his body and bring it back to your spacecraft to resurrect him."
Who knows that sort of thing? Seriously?
Great movie, by the way... And I've been saying for the last couple of years that it's ripe for a remake. Of course, now I know a remake is in progress, I'm wondering why...
2 comments:
Why a remake? Well, the message is still applicable. We're still backward enough for in-fighting and yet capable enough technologically to do damage not only here but out in our celestial neighborhood. AND, sadly, there's a generation or two that just can't seem to sit through a B&W movie, no matter how terrific it is. So, freshen the message? I hope they do it justice (but have my doubts).
Agreed, but I can't help thinking that all the subtle changes they'd have to make - to appeal to today's audiences - would ruin it. For example:
Both Klaatu/Carpenter and Helen Bensen would be played by younger, sexier actors, becoming the main pull of the movie. Additionally, the story would be rewritten so that Klaatu and Helen Bensen would kiss (at the very least). There has to be some romance between our protagonists, after all.
Bobby Bensen would be played by an older actor, to avoid any suggestion of impropriety when he ends up spending so much time with Mr Carpenter. In terms of the actors' ages, there would probably be only about ten years between 'mother' and 'son'. Ew
Helen Bensen would be smart and sassy, while her boyfriend, Tom Stevens, would be rewritten as an even more selfish moron, making their relationship seem even more unlikely than the original, just so the audience would know from the outset "Tom = Bad"
They'd have to cut the bit where Bobby asks what powers the spacecraft, and Carpenter posits that it must be some form of atomic power. These days, Bobby would know that atomic power isn't just "for bombs". If the writers were smart, Google-savvy Bobby would be able to explain - in detail - how the spacecraft's propulsion systems might work. He'd later get a tour of the ship, during which he'd be proven very nearly right.
The message might get a little confused if the Gort robots are taken as allegorical of the current American administration's habit of taking aggressive action against perceived/imagined threats. As Klaatu says, "In matters of aggression, we have given them absolute power over us. This power cannot be revoked. At the first signs of violence, they act automatically against the aggressor. The penalty for provoking their action is too terrible to risk."
While the original has a car chase, there is not much tension to it. The new version would ramp up the speed, put Mrs Benson in the driver's seat, throw in some stunts and pyrotechnics, and have loads of cars crashing in her wake.
Would anyone these days be particularly scared or impressed if the world stood still, as it does in the original? Personally, I'd like to see the remake feature a shot of people on the London Underground do their collective "tut, sigh" when everything grinds to a halt.
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