Gort makes his way through the shadows in Robert Wise’s sci-fi gem
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (Robert Wise, 1951)
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Friday, May 7, free with $7 bar minimum, 9:30
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org/cabaretcinema
This cold-war-era classic stars Michael Rennie as an alien who lands on earth with a very important message: No peace, no planet. He brings along with him one of the great robots in cinema history, Gort (Lock Martin), and later utters to Patricia Neal one of the ten best lines ever: “Klaatu borada nikto.” This science-fiction fave works on a number of different and fascinating levels; during a 1998 UC Berkeley interview, director Robert Wise even noted, “Some people read a religious connotation into the thing, the resurrection and all. If you want to put a beard on Rennie and all, he could be a Christ figure.” The film will be screening May 7 at the Rubin Museum as part of its Cosmic Cabaretcinema series, featuring “films that explore a new frontier in humankind’s understanding of the universe,” and will be introduced by writer Larry Doyle, a veteran of THE SIMPSONS and BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD.