A Film Comparison of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and Independence Day (1996)

A Film Comparison of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and Independence Day (1996)

The Day the Earth stood still and Independence Day were both made by

20th century fox. This company used to be one of the main 5 in the

50’s, and is a well – known conglomerate company, recognised for their

Sci-fi genre. Star wars and X-files are two other of their best-known

productions.

The institution that made the films is one similarity; the main

difference in the films is the historical context. 20th century fox

made ‘The Day the Earth stood still’ in the 1950’s, the decade in

which sci-fi films were at their peak. It was post world war 2, where

people first had to live with the reality of nuclear wars and the end

of the world. This was also the time of the Cold War ‘stand off’

between the communists and the West. This fear of war and world

devastation was shown through the typical genre of films in that time,

with the fear of war being replaced with that of fear of aliens.

‘Independence Day’ was made 40 years later, when sci-fi films had gone

out of fashion. It was also made at a time when a threat was posed to

America. China was emerging powerful both economically and

politically. There was great fear at this time of the ‘millennium bug’

and what the 21st century had in store, and finally the uncertainty of

who America’s enemy was caused again for the aliens to be made the

villains. This period also launched space exploration projects, many

of which were financed by Japan, bringing with them stories of alien

abductions, crop circles and saucer sightings.

The other main similarity, other than Institutions is the genre of the

films. T...

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The audience is similar in each film, they are both films aimed at

men, sci-fi enthusiasts, cinema goers etc. The Day the earth stood

still would have been made entirely for people to watch in the cinema

meaning the audience would have been sat there watching it, however

when 20th century fox made independence day they knew that the film

would be watched on other formats such as DVD or video. This meant

that they had to draw in the audience so that they would not turn over

the channel or change the video. A good example if the way they have

done this is by making the title sequence shorter and placing the

credits at the end.

20th century fox have succeeded in recycling an old genre using modern

methods and concepts, by altering the narrative to make two completely

different stories, yet very similar movies.