80 Years Of Robots In Hollywood Options

[noorie]

The Eyes of the State
Metropolis (1927)

ROBOT:Maria

QUOTE: "There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator."
—Maria, the leader of the underground world of the workers, calling out to her followers.


Alfred Abel and Rudolf Klein-Rogge in Metropolis.

Fritz Lang's silent masterpiece set many of the ground rules for the sci-fi epics to come, not just in the way it depicted a dystopic future, but also the way it dealt with mad scientists and of course, their creations.

Depicting a world in which the bourgeoisie and the proletariat are literally divided by the Earth's surface — the elitists living above ground and the workers living in the dark, dank caverns beneath the surface — Maria is a robot used by those in power to pry their way into the workers' world. A silver machine created in a secret lab, Maria takes on the face and characteristics of the female leader of that underground world, the one who the workers trust and rally around. By controlling the robot, the surface-dwellers manage to control the underground populace, turning Maria's words of uprising into words of reassurance: Get back to work, and be happy.

One of the very first big-screen depictions of a robot in this, the first great sci-fi film, is that of a mole and an imposter; of an enemy that can't be defeated, much less identified. For so many of the movie robots to come, Maria was the defining transition from the robots of sci-fi literature to the artificial intelligence of the sci-fi movie.

[noorie]

Misunderstood Visitor
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

ROBOT:Gort
QUOTE: "For our policemen, we created a race of robots... In matters of aggression, we have given them absolute power over us... At the first sign of violence, they act automatically against the aggressor."
—The alien Klaatu, describing his robotic companion.


Gort the alien robot from The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Call it the Alien vs. Predator of its day; a sci-fi movie that took three of the most tantalizing sci-fi concepts — flying saucers, aliens and robots — and fused them all together in a movie about the planet brought to the brink of destruction in a single day.

Landing in Washington, a mysterious spacecraft holds two occupants: Klaatu, an alien, and Gort, a robot. As the ship opens its doors, Klaatu flees, determined to hide among the people in hopes of learning about the human race. Gort, meanwhile, stands guard — a silent, silver sentinel. The American military approach him with fear and suspicion because — surprise, surprise — they believe these creatures came to hurt humans and that the spacecraft can mean nothing but doom for all. Considering Klaatu the enemy, the military opens fire when the alien returns to the spaceship, and Gort responds to the attack by firing a death ray before Klaatu intervenes.

Released shortly after the end of World War II, in the midst of America's Cold War tensions that would influence so many sci-fi films to come, the message of The Day the Earth Stood Still is steeped in a fear for the future of our own species and destructive earthly ways. As for Gort, he is a peaceful alien who is misunderstood — but when provoked, he is not above protecting his own, even if that means killing us all.