Bobby
Gort
"The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)", is probably the greatest Sci-Fi movie ever made, but somehow, it has been lost from our collective consciousness. But even fewer people know, that it was actually a thinly disguised story of the life of Jesus Christ, or you might say, a parable of the life of Christ. The name that Klaatu takes when he assumes the identity of a civilian is Major Carpenter. Jesus was a carpenter. There is a boy who stars in the movie Bobby (played by Billy Gray), who gets close to Klaatu. In the New Testament, it is John the Apostle, who was a teenager at the time that Christ lived, who also was a close companion to him. At the end of the movie, Klaatu rises from the dead and ascends into the heavens, much as Christ did on the Mount Of Olives. These are just a few examples of the parallels between Klaatu and Jesus Christ. There are many more subliminal clues in the film. Much has been made of the cryptic phrase "Klaatu Barada Nikto". That is the command that Klaatu gives to Bobby's mother Helen, to say to Gort (who is St. Michael the Archangel, the avenging angel), in the event that he dies. The phrase will stop Gort from destroying the earth. By-the-way, it is Billy Gray's excellent performance as Bobby that makes the movie so believable. Michael Rennie, the late British actor, gave an outstanding performance as the other-worldly Klaatu. Robert Wise was the director of "The Day The
Earth Stood Still", and he later went on to direct such cinematic blockbusters as
"West Side Story" and "The Sound Of Music". In 2008, a remake of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" was released, but it certainly did not have the emotional and mystical impact of the original. Klaatu Barada Nikto to all the fans of Angel Watchers, wherever you may be.
