Review of The Man from Earth (2007) by Zeke C — 03 May 2014

Never heard of this movie? Neither had I. It's the story of 14,000-year-old Cro Magnon man from the upper paleolithic that doesn't age nor scar and has the ability to recover from such diseases as bubonic plague and smallpox. Sounds kind of stupid, right - especially when I note it's filmed in one room on a budget of $200,000 using TV actors.

[PARAGRAPH INDENT] And it is what you'd expect. Bad acting with a made-for-TV quality to it, with that whole air of "When I stumble across this late on a lonely Saturday night five years from now, I'll very vaguely remember it as a TV dinner and wine from a mug experience".

[PARAGRAPH INDENT] However, it does keep you rapt throughout. The beginning and the end are rather bad, but the middle... yes, it's a cheap budget with bad actors, but they do alright for what they have. I kind of like finding these unknown movies.

[PARAGRAPH INDENT] The most interesting part of this was the claim by the protagonist that he learned under the Buddha (the most interesting man he'd ever met; move over Dos Equis guy) and later went on to repackage the Buddha's message against Roman imperialism and became Jesus. Unfortunately, it doesn't get much more philosophical than that, doesn't question the meaning of life much more deeply than a stoned teenager would, doesn't touch on the nihilism of immortality, and has a rather "Aw, shucks" ending frock with problems.

[PARAGRAPH INDENT] I'm reminded of a short lived Fox show from a few years back (starring Jamie Lannister, actually) called New Amsterdam, about a 400-year-old Dutchman dealing with his immortality as an NYPD homicide detective. Or better yet, just see "The Wolverine" for a good exploration of the terror that would be immortality.

[PARAGRAPH INDENT] But it's an interesting concept. The writer is associated with "The Twilight Zone", and it does feel like a rather long episode.