Luke
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CibbuanoThe Man Who Fell to Earth
January 26th 2007 04:52
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
Who better to play an alien than everyone's favourite musical freak, David Bowie? It's one of those masterful strokes of casting genius that would make modern-day fanboys gush and slobber and cream their pants completely. Nicholas Roeg's cultish adaptation of Walter Trevis's progressive science-fiction novel has become a surrealist classic, memorable mostly for Bowie's presence. It was with some eagerness that I grabbed this film from the video rental store when I finally saw that it was available.
Bowie plays Thomas Newton, an enigmatic alien who has come to Earth to save his own planet (or - by extension - his family back home). He disguises himself as a human and sells off alien technology to amass a business empire as a means to procuring water for his own people. That's pretty much the gist of the film... Rip Torn plays the scientist who befriends Newton and learns his secret, and Candy Clark plays the girl who falls in love with Newton. It's her role in the film that leads to the humanisation of the alien - she introduces him to human culture... mainly religion, alcohol and sex, and Newton subsequently loses his way and forgets his original motivations. He is corrupted by the vices of the natives.
I didn't find this an easy film to watch, being as it was somewhat 'arty'. It's quite surreal at times and is unusually slow for an American-set film, feeling more European than Western. As such, it exists as a curioso for me - an exercise in atmosphere and feeling. Bowie's portrayal of Newton is spot on in it's ambiguity, curiosity and essential alienness. His eventual fate remains a haunting and disturbing image for all it's mediocrity, and although I feel the film might've benefited from a little more cohesion or tighness in the plot or direction department, I won't really hold it against it as 'The Man Who Fell to Earth' remains a wholly original and unique science-fiction film. No one should wish to take that away from it. At any rate, this film made me think - and I guess that's what makes it art.
It's said that this film is quite different from the book it's based on, with Roeg taking several liberties and using the book mainly as just a basis for his own take on the story. A remake is slated to appear sometime in late 2007. Also, a television remake, more faithful to the novel, was made in 1987.
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A classic and one of my favourites. I don't think O'toole could have pulled it off as well as Bowie did.
What worries me is this remake thingy. Who will play the role and having never read the book - a movie that follows it more closely - may be a let down for me and those who never read the book?
Like Bryn I always remain wary of remakes of classics and this is no exception.
Cheers,
L
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