THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH Review
Haha! I’m back once more with some reviews! Oh, how I’ve missed this. Anyway…David Bowie as an alien. How original.
Now don’t mistake me, getting the chance to finally witness a genuine film performance from Mr. Ziggy himself was more than an enticing reason to check out this film. Another was the fact that this film was being helmed by Nicolas Roeg, a director who I’ve heard about plenty of times but have rarely had the chance to see. So in that way, I guess you could say the hype behind THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH was pretty high for this intrepid reviewer and after a watch I can firmly say that this is indeed a movie starring David Bowie as an alien directed by famed auteur Nicolas Roeg.
Adapted from the novel of the same name by Walter Tevis (note: I have not read the novel) and turned into a screenplay by Paul Mayersberg, THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH is a lucid depiction of an alien (Bowie) making the most of his time on the planet he’s crashed on (Earth). In this world crafted by Roeg and Mayersberg, time and places flow together: the past and the future mix and mingle from scene to scene with characters aging on a whim while out alien protagonist saunters from one edge of America to the next seemingly unconcerned with aging or any other human problems. Despite this inhuman cool approach to life, the alien, who goes by the name of Thomas Jerome Newton, has a mission: to return to his alien homeworld to his own alien family of a wife and two children. As it goes, Mr. Newton fails to take account for one big roadblock in his way: the excessive sensations of a 1970’s Earth, ranging from Newton’s literal lust for life found in his physical entanglements with a small town hotel maid (Candy Clark) or in his eventually disastrous dabblings in capitalism as he indifferently advances mankind through his various alien inventions. Indeed, Mr. Newton becomes something much more terrifying than a lizard man from some faraway planet: a greedy, lustful human man.
As you can tell, THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH isn’t treading any new ground with its “capitalism and human excess is bad” talking point but due to the inhuman efforts of Roeg and to a lesser extent, Bowie, the film displayed here becomes a modern parable turned into something that looks and feels like something made by an alien. Whether through the abrupt and flowy editing of Graeme Clifford, which strangely transitions scenes into other times and worlds at the drop of a hat, to Anthony B. Richmond’s equally off kilter camera movements and scene setting, THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH is a movie that takes a bit for audiences to latch onto (if they choose to that is). What Roeg concocts here is a film that overindulges in the sensations of the human experience; from deliriously lush sex scenes to dreamlike meanders through small towns, Mr. Roeg manages the herculean feat of putting audiences in the shoes and observations of a strange alien visiting our planet. While this allows the film to never lack in an intriguing scene in a traditional sense, it also opens the door to uneven moments of tone and pacing (to its credit or detriment, for a 2 hour film, this thing feels like an exhausting journey into human excess) as one scene will have bumbling, football helmet clad goons trying to toss out Buck Henry through a high rise window and another scene indulging in quiet ruminations on humanity. So as mentioned, this is a film that successfully captures the unbridled sensations that our alien protagonist experiences, for better or worse.
Speaking of the alien protagonist, I can’t really say that David Bowie does much acting here so much as he just kinda shows up to the set and acts like, well, whatever persona David Bowie was in the mood for. Luckily for Roeg and co., Bowie showed up as a cool and unmoved alien. While the actor is basked in a character that looks memorable and iconic, thanks to eye catching costume and makeup design, the actual performance literally sits there and looks cool and responds cooly, with a dash of awkward mad-eyed temper tantrums and sexual releases. Surprisingly, Ms. Clark actually puts in the best performance here as Mr. Newton’s lovestruck muse Mary-Lou, a cliche small town girl with a twang who eventually develops into something more due to her chaotic romance with an alien visitor. With a sweet, unassuming look Ms. Clark pivots from some dopey small town comedic character to a weirdly tragic portrayal of a woman loving something that simply doesn’t love her back, try as she might. Outside of those two performances, most of the other performers kind of just show up and say some lines, from the likes of Buck Henry as a bespectled business partner of Mr. Newton to Rip Torn as a randomly horny professor turned scientist. While these performers do their best, most of the other characters outside of Mr. Newton and Mary Lou seem unnecessary and unimportant, particularly Rip Torn’s character who seems to be guided towards becoming an integral part of the story only to more or less recede back to the sidelines.
A few unnecessary characters aside, THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH leaves a lasting impression, especially as it nears its quietly powerful conclusion. In these moments, where Roeg and Mayersberg violently pull Mr. Newton into the dehumanizing process of becoming something of an unwilling cultural icon, the film nears its aspirations as a trippy visualization of the the terrors of our modern world and values. Even so, in an ironic result, the film can never really overcome the previous minutes that seemed to find comfort in the excesses of psychedelic, pretentious filmmaking. But hey, for a film about watching a space lizard who looks like David Bowie experiencing the unrelenting churn of a heartless capitalisitc society, you could do a lot worse.
3.5/5
