Review of The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) by Kenr — 05 Dec 2018

Waited a long time to see this concoction but should have waited longer. In typical 70s shapeless style it tells the story of an alien who comes to earth looking for water to save his dying planet, sounds okay ay.

..that’s where it stops. This is virtually a remake (or copy) of a number of cheap 50s B pictures with sexed up porno scenes and pseudo ‘social comment’ added (compared to this – some of the cheap 50s shows actually come off better) Looking like a bigger budget backyard movie complete with clumsy ZOOOM lens shots and vague jumbled editing - this leaves the trained eyed viewer feeling seasick and longing for a little ‘studio professionalism’ to come along & save the day.

No wonder the studio turned it away when the first cut was presented to them! - I can’t say the ‘directors cut’ helps enough to save it. If you study the main plot it’s simply preposterous and it seems this could also be why the movie makers spent so much time padding it out - with outlandish sex scenes and beat-you-over-the-head ‘consumerism /corporate greed’ messages.

..in an attempt to add some sort of depth --sorry, that didn’t quite work either-- Many folk love to ‘analyse’ this type of hodgepodge and can create all manner of excuses and meaning based on film school and festival ‘intelligence’ (maybe the book was better?).

Love it or hate it, there’s basically not much more.