NEW REVIEW: "The Man Who Fell To Earth" (1976)

MRMOVIESETC REVIEWS:

“The Man Who Fell To Earth” (1976)

"Are you Lithuanian?"

"I come from England."

"Well, that's not so terrible."

I just realized as I sat down to write this review that this viewing of “The Man Who Fell To Earth” is the first time I’ve delved into anything with David Bowie in it since he died over three years ago. I have listened to his music, sure, but I’ve not really watched him then. Unsurprisingly, his unique presence, even after death, has not diminished one iota.

I really hate that he is gone.

***  

“The Man Who Fell To Earth” comes courtesy of Director Nicolas Roeg, whom most people my age may have first been introduced to his work as a kid back in 1990 with “The Witches”.

You remember “The Witches”, right?

Sure you do. It’s the one where Anjelica Huston does the whole –

Those were good times!

Anyway, before Roeg thought it fun to try and scare the shit out of little kids with witches attempting to eat kids they transformed into mice, he had a string of gems back in the 1970s with “Walkabout” (1971), “Don’t Look Now” (1973), and “The Man Who Fell To Earth” in 1976; the latter of which is considered to be his one true masterpiece, and one of the most iconic personas played by David Bowie outside of Ziggy Stardust.

If there’s one thing Roeg expected from his audiences with these kinds of films, it was their patience. Roeg excelled at taking big ideas and presenting them with a minimalist, yet psychedelic style of filmmaking that never moved at breakneck speed. Hell, the plot for “The Man” is pretty simplistic and stripped at its core, and somehow still justifies its over two-hour runtime on the back of a captivating performance from Bowie.

Bowie plays Thomas Jerome Newton, as he is known on Earth, for he is an extraterrestrial that, at first, appears to crash land on Earth. He quickly assumes the disguise of an Englishman and integrates seamlessly into human society, and by seamlessly, I mean he uses his own alien technology to launch one of the biggest conglomerates on Earth, making him beyond wealthy. Pulling strings behind the curtain so as to keep a certainly level of anonymity, Thomas has his attorney Oliver Farnsworth (Buck Henry) handle a bulk of the business dealings, and a hired professor/confidant, Dr. Nathan Bryce (Rip Torn), to realize his true objective – build a spacecraft that can transport both Thomas and water back to his family and home planet that has been ravaged by drought.

Prior to his arrival, Earth wasn’t equipped with technology advanced enough to carry out this objective, so the film’s story arcs over the course of many years; with the supporting characters growing noticeably older while Thomas never changes in appearance. Thomas must obviously occupy some of his time on Earth, so he develops a romantic-esque relationship with Mary-Lou (Candy Clark), manically absorbs human behavior via multiple television screens in his living room, and creates in him a rather dependent alcohol addiction to help keep his mind calm from the growing fear that his family will soon parish.

Unlike “Don’t Look Now” that came before it, Roeg makes “The Man That Fell To Earth” about the journey more than the destination. There are no big hooks, twists, or mysteries outside the being that is Thomas, and the reasons behind his quietly mysterious behavior. Throughout the entirety of the film, he gives off a vibe of having this incredibly vast knowledge of the universe beyond our borders, but at the same time, seems to believe that the human race is not capable of handling it all based on observed behaviors.

As I touched on earlier, it’s really kind of amazing how David Bowie was able to carry the weight of this film just with his mannerisms and ability to make the viewer hang on his every carefully-chosen word. Keep in mind that Bowie’s music career was still young at this time, and “The Man” was his debut as an actor. It’s unimaginable to think a film like this could be sold in today’s Hollywood with such a risk, even if this novel adaptation was tailor-made to fit Bowie’s quirks.

Thankfully, Roeg had already proved at this point that he has the kind of vision to make a combination like this work. True, the special effects in this film nowhere reach the heights nor sophistication of Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” that came out only eight years prior, and one could argue the effects do not hold up very well to today’s standards also unlike “2001”; however, that’s where Roeg’s minimalist approach comes in handy. All the film’s flair just needed to be enough to help accentuate the narrative, and what it does have is effective in that endeavor.

Besides, there is one thing Roeg had that Kubrick didn’t always have – awkward drumroll – the art of the sex scene. If I were to ask myself from twenty years ago what I thought was important about the artistic style and context of sex in a film, the answer likely would have been, “I don’t care, they’re naked and that’s good for me!” I’m still a pretty immature bastard most days, but I have grown to appreciate how much sex and nudity being inserted cheaply into a film can often ruin it, or at least damage it.  Nicolas Roeg, on the other hand, has a kind of finesse with this art that is sorely lacking in modern cinema. Think about it – the final, steamy stanza with Thomas, Mary-Lou, and the gun – that was intense and suspenseful, and not in the way one would traditionally assume. The scene was something truly over-the-top, and yet felt right at home like the audience should have seen it coming.

It is humorous how something like that isn’t too strange anymore, but I cannot fathom the gasps it generated back in 1976. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall.

Another thing that a Roeg film often has a lot of is editing. Hell, editing was one of the big crutches of his previous film, “Don’t Look Back”. I can’t possibly imagine how much extra footage for “The Man” was out there that was taken out of this cut. Still, while not perfectly constructed, it’s another job nicely executed here. The passage of time is pretty vast in this film, so it’s not shocking to see random jumps without warning, although there were a couple that were kind of displacing. I could count a few instances where I was really into what was going on, and then suddenly found myself lost, thinking “Wait, how many years just went by? Thomas and Mary-Lou were just rolling around in the sack a second ago, and now Thomas is a miserable drunk breaking Mary-Lou’s heart?”

Of the few complaints I have, that covers most of them. I also cannot say I cared for some of the American interference angles that, while I won’t spoil them, came out of nowhere and didn’t really accomplish much. As far as villains go, they could have been kept in England and been much better developed.

Concerning the span of Roeg’s career and his films that I’ve seen so far, I completely agree, “The Man That Fell To Earth” is a must-see for not only sci-fi fans, but fans of film in general whom are willing to strap in for the slow ride. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect here, and I ended up walking away having loved the movie. Roeg and Bowie were perfect for each other in this film, and it absolutely deserves its status as a piece of classic cinema.

“The Man Who Fell To Earth”: 9.5/10