The Man Who Fell To Earth

The Man Who Fell To Earth 

Director: Nicolas Roeg.
Written By: Paul Myersberg.
Photography: Anthony B. Richmond.
Starring: David Bowie, Rip Torn and Candy Clark.
Year: 1976.
Country: UK.


 It's often said of rock-stars that they can't act to save their lives. This isn't too unfair, we've all seen and winced  at Madonna and Henry Rollins attempting to act in movies before. But let's not forget how how phenomenal Björk was in Dancer in the Dark and that Will Smith was once The Fresh Prince.

 David Bowie stars in this 1976 cult sci-fi classic. Bowie is held in the minds of most as a poor actor. Mostly for his performances in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence and his small role in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. The only Bowie movie I've seen actually (other than The Man Who Fell To Earth) is Labyrinth, and that was a long time ago. All I know about David Bowie's acting in The Man Who Fell To Earth is, frankly, amazing.

 Nicolas Roeg's first film was Performance, which stars Mick Jagger. Then four years after making The Man Who Fell To Earth, Roeg made Bad Timing starring Art Garfunkel. Roeg got a reputation of liking to cast musicians as his leads. But Roeg originally wanted to cast Peter O'Toole as the lead in The Man Who Fell To Earth, but was watching the BBC one night and saw the TV Documentary David Bowie: Cracked Actor. He thought that Bowie had an ethereal quality, perfect to play a space alien.

 The Man Who Fell To Earth is about an alien from a planet that's suffering from eternal draught. He's sent to earth to try and find a way to transport water from earth to theirs. But when on earth he becomes corrupted by capitalism, emotion and becomes a drunk.

 That's all moot, because nobody involved in the production of The Man Who Fell To Earth cared about telling the story. The Man Who Fell to Earth is more about, and I'm quoting Nic Roeg here,  pushing the structure of film grammar in to a different area by taking away the crutch of time that the audience holds onto.  In layman's terms: It doesn't make sense. If you thought Prometheus was bad, wait till you see this!

 Despite it being completely incoherent, it's actually a really impressive film in an avant-garde sense. As is often the case with science fiction movies, the art direction is stunning. And Nic Roeg does some really impressive and progressive stuff with his direction, especially with inter-cutting.

 The Man Who Fell To Earth has a diverse soundtrack, from Roy Orbison  to Grace Kelly. The real surprise is that there's no Bowie in the soundtrack. Actually, Bowie was working on the soundtrack. There's a lot of stories about why we never it never appeared on the finished film, non official. But Bowie has said that some of the music he was working on for The Man Who Fell To Earth ended up on the b-side to Low. (The cover to low is also a shot from the movie, as are the covers to Station to Station and John I'm Only Dancing)

 If you can handle the incoherence, The Man Who Fell To Earth is worth checking out as it's aesthetically stunning and Bowie's acting alone is worth your time.

 Score: 3.5/5