Klaatu comes with a dire message for our species: mend our warlike ways – particularly our tendency to build atomic weapons – or forces elsewhere in the universe will destroy us for their own protection. Alongside him stands Gort, a shiny robot armed with a energy ray capable of melting human weapons into nothingness. A flying saucer lands in the middle of Washington, and from it emerges a gaunt, elegant alien named Klaatu (Michael Rennie in silver space suit). There’s an almost naive simplicity to The Day The Earth Stood Still‘s story, but therein lies its almost timeless appeal. The first two are among the best SF films to emerge from America, while his Star Trek film, although divisive, still looks stunning today. But The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), The Andromeda Strain (1971) and Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) were among the best movies he ever made.
That Wise turned his hand to so many genres, and tended to win awards for his musicals (he won Best Director and Best Picture for both West Side Story and The Sound Of Music) meant that his sci-fi films were often eclipsed. An American filmmaker who began as an editor of music and film at RKO (he won an Oscar for his editing work on Citizen Kane), Wise’s varied career took in hit musicals ( West Side Story, The Sound Of Music), horror ( The Body Snatcher, The Haunting), comedies, thrillers and war films. One name that doesn’t necessarily get brought up all that much in sci-fi conversations is Robert Wise. To that list you could also add Paul Verhoeven, Andrei Tarkovsky or the mischievously creative Terry Gilliam. Stanley Kubrick, perhaps, or George Lucas, or James Cameron. If you were asked to name a few of the great science fiction film directors, some answers would immediately spring to mind.