Review of The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) by Ronnie P — 18 Mar 2009

So, lets get this straight: "The Man Who Fell to Earth" is a film, starring David Bowie as an alien, that involves such scenes as a girl speaking into a young Rip Torn's penis, and several kinky alien sex scenes that, at one point, involve erotic gunplay? Sign me up!

Alas, the film is nowhere near the sum of it's parts. While it should be praised for it's memorable cinematography and imaginative screenplay, it ultimately falls flat due to an incoherent narrative and simply uninteresting characters. While I didn't have much of a problem with the alien and his Earthling mistress, the film grinded to a complete halt everytime it devoted itself to the characters played by Rip Torn and Buck Henry. Nicolas Roeg has an interesting story to tell, but the manner in which he presented it was not remarkably effective.

Thomas Newton (David Bowie) finds himself crashing to Earth after bidding farewell to his wife and two children back home on his desert wasteland of a home planet. His mission is to save his family - although it's not made exactly clear what Newton wishes to do, we assume he's attempting to transport a great deal of water to his home planet to battle the drought.

To do this, Newton needs money. Luckily, he has wacky alien inventions that allow him to take over World Enterprises, a company that will dominate all other technological powerhouses. With such products as film that develops itself, it's not long before Newton's industry becomes a global phenomenon. Don't ask me where said inventions came from - all we see of his planet is a shabby shack and a whole lot of sand. Did the Tuskan Raiders have self-developing film? He retreats to solitude in New Mexico where he meets a woman, Betty Jo (Candy Clark), whom he falls in love with.

The film is about the cutthroat world of business, and although our protagonist is an alien he could be replaced with any simple man with an innovative mindset. It's also very much a film about the corruptive influence of modern Western culture.

I liked the relationship between Betty Jo and Newton, and both actors played their parts fairly well. However, once Newton is captured by the government for testing, the film begins to spiral out of control. At nearly three hours long, I had enough of these characters long before the credits rolled.

"The Man Who Fell to Earth" is more of a disappointing film than a bad one. I liked a lot of what the film had to say, but I didn't find myself moved in anyway by the end. It may be worth seeing for the cinematography - but, lets face it, if you want to see David Bowie act, the only way to see him is singing songs with goblins.