In the foreground of the original poster for 1951's science-fiction favorite The Day The Earth Stood Still, a menacing robot disintegrates an army while clutching a screaming, scantily clad woman. In the background, a massive, almost simian hand grips the planet Earth like a softball. The images are in line with the fantasy pulp magazines of the late '40s, and seem to set the film up as an epic interstellar battle between good and evil. Then the movie starts, and out comes a slow, talky story ostensibly about the need for a strong United Nations. There's some bait-and-switch going on, but the sucker job serves a purpose: The Day The Earth Stood Still is actually about misperceptions. In one scene, a fretful Frances Bavier looks at an artist's rendition of invaders from outer space, and the picture bears an uncanny resemblance to the movie's one-sheet. She decides that aliens can't be good for anyone, adding that they're probably all communists. Adapting a Harry Bates short story for their Cold War purposes, producer Julian Blaustein, screenwriter Edmund North, and director Robert Wise developed a semi-realistic fantasy about an alien visitor (Michael Rennie) who comes to warn Earth's leaders to cease warmongering, lest an interstellar peacekeeping organization be forced to put down the Earthling menace. But before he can deliver this message, a twitchy U.S. soldier shoots him in the arm. So Rennie hides out in a boarding house for a few days while trying to contact Earth's leading scientist, an Einstein-like Sam Jaffe (who, in real life, was about a year away from being placed on the HUAC blacklist). Wise and company draw a surprising amount of low-key drama out of the covert spaceman's interactions with likable Earth folk, especially single mother Patricia Neal and her gung-ho son Billy Gray, who offer ample evidence that human decency endures. As the movie idles toward a heavy-handed finale, the lack of gooey, It Came From Outer Space-style monster attacks is missed, but the pointed Christian allegory (Rennie's character goes by the name "Carpenter" while on Earth) and the careful pacing create the intended "thinking man's sci-fi" effect even today. Fox's new DVD borrows an informative hour-long documentary from the old laserdisc, along with a commentary track by Wise and colleague Nicholas Meyer, who makes useful observations as a fan advocate, gently chiding the director for not giving his morality play more open ends.