The surRealist Review: The Man Who Fell to Earth
David Bowie is a sexy, bald, lizard eyed alien man from that desert planet in Dune. He rode to Earth on a a sandworm wearing nothing but a suit of tin foil with clear plastic tubing in it to keep him fresh and moist to save his family from dying.
Wait, retract some of this. Let me explain better. So I saw David Bowie naked the other day… No. That’s even worse. Whoa, stay with me! I can do this! I swear!
What I’m trying to say is that I watched The Man Who Fell to Earth after finding out that it was a ‘70’s sci-fi flick starring David Bowie. That’s it. That’s the entire reasoning behind me wanting to see it. A love for Bowie and a love for ‘70’s sci-fi stuff. And I was not disappointed.
Bowie is a bald lizard-eyed Space Dad who comes from a world plagued by two terrible nigh insurmountable things: a global drought turning his once beautiful lush world into a desert, and being able to receive Earth’s television transmissions on those little clear plastic pages teachers write on while using overhead projectors. But for once, TV comes in handy as it reveals to Bowie (or Thomas Jerome Newton as he seems intent to go by on Earth) and his Space Wife and Space Kids that Earth is filthy with water.
Insert 'Space Oddity' lyric.
So by way of Space Magic that seemingly involves stitched together NASA stock footage, Space Bowie comes to Earth to make lots of money to build a spaceship to take as much Earth water as he can back home.
Simple plan right? You’d think that. Until you realize that Space Bowie is a bit fragile. And easy to take advantage of by Candy Clark’s character of Mary Lou, a hotel staff member turned love interest/corrupter who introduces him to booze and multimedia entertainment. It gets even worse when an embittered Rip Torn quits his position as a university professor and comes to work for Space Bowie’s company and starts to suspect that his new boss may be rather… inhuman in nature.
From there its all down hill for poor Mr. Newton though, as The Government comes in and does what it does best when it comes to aliens. It picks and prods and pokes. Nothing but leering smiles and false reassurances as their machinations leave Bowie less than he was. Suffice to say, in the end he has his freedom. And his money. But love, happiness, and sobriety? Not so much.
Wait. Rip Torn? Wasn’t he the guy in charge of the Men In Black? He was! Sweet Space Jesus! Bowie is the entire reason Rip Torn founded the MIB! It all makes sense now! Especially considering that Rip ends up ruining all of Space Bowie’s plans and betrays him to the government right before Space Bowie’s about to head home! Its obvious that Rip feels bad about it later on so he starts the MIB to insure that other extraterrestrial visitors are treated fairly!
Rip even asks after Bowie reveals his true origins if he’s the first visitor to Earth and Bowie tells him that he’s seen obvious signs that others have visited before him! Thus its makes way too much sense for “The Man Who Fell to Earth” to be a prequel to “Men in Black”!
Okay. I’ve gotten way off topic here. What did I think of this film? I loved it. Its strange, with that surrealism so often found in sci-fi of the 70’s where you’re not always quite sure what they’re trying to get across to the audience but it still makes for a lovely experience. It reminded me a lot of “The Prisoner” series from the late ‘60’s, which is a fantastic, though short lived, mind bending TV series in its own right.
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