UK, 1975
139m
35mm film, colour, 2.35:1
4-track stereo, English
A British science fiction film directed by Nicolas Roeg.
Plot Summary
An alien arrives on Earth, takes the name Thomas Jerome Newton and becomes a multi-millionaire with a series of highly lucrative patents. His goal is to build a ship that will carry him and much-need water back to his drought-ridden homeworld. Unfortunately, he falls foul of human nature and addiction and his mission goes terribly wrong.
Credits
Crew
Directed by: Nicolas Roeg
British Lion Film Corporation, Cinema 5
Executive Producer: Si Litvinoff
Produced by: Michael Deeley, Barry Spikings
Written by: Paul Mayersberg
From the novel by: Walter Tevis
Director of Photography: Anthony Richmond
Editor: Graeme Clifford
Music by: John Phillips, Stomu Yamashta
Sound Recordist: Robin Gregory
Costume Designer: May Routh
Make-up: Linda de Vetta
Hair Stylist: Martin Samuel
Special Photographic Effects: Camera Effects
Production Designer: Brian Eatwell
Cast
David Bowie (Thomas Jerome Newton)
Rip Torn (Nathan Bryce)
Candy Clark (Mary-Lou)
Buck Henry (Oliver Farnsworth)
Bernie Casey (Peters)
Jackson D. Kane (Professor Canutti)
Rick Riccardo (Trevor)
Tony Mascia (Arthur)
Linda Hutton (Elaine)
Hilary Holland (Jill)
Adrienne Larussa (Helen)
Lilybelle Crawford (jewelery store owner)
Richard Breeding (receptionist)
Albert Nelson (waiter)
Peter Prouse (Peters’ associate)
Links
See also
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1987)
Press
1976
Monthly Film Bulletin vol.43 no.507 (April 1976) pp.86-87
A composite, all-purpose Nicolas Roeg extravaganza, The Man Who Fell to Earth bears visible echoes not only of Walkabout (Newton’s sentimental memories of his dying family on a parched planet), Performance (Newton with his TV sets recalling Mick Jagger with his sound equipment) and Don’t Look Now (the love scenes), but also Petulia, where Roeg served as a cameraman and the rudiments of his later methods are clearly set down. Basic to this approach is kaleidoscopic cross-cutting between diverse narrative strands, which tends to make simple plots appear relatively complex and relatively complex plots seem downright intractable. […] Paul Mayersberg, who reportedly scripted a lot of varied material designed for subsequent Roeg manipulations, has hopefully described the results as a “circus”, but with the right elbow of the trapeze artist grafted on to the left ear of the clown which is then strained through the digestive tract of the lion and shot from a cannon, a more accurate description might be an extremely photogenic mess. The fact that whole sections of the plot are at best only semi-comprehensible […] is not altogether to the film’s discredit. Compared with the compulsive lucidity of a Ken Russell, who generally uses stylistic flourishes to hammer home the obvious, Roeg’s deft juggling of more diversified ingredients keeps his film watchable on a moment-to-moment level even when its implications veer straight towards banality. […] In a way, the only consistently unimpeachable source of fascination in the movie is David Bowie’s extraterrestrial persona and performance: genuinely uncanny with his asexual ambience, surreal red hair, chiselled features and underplayed reactions, he offers one of the eeriest screen presences since Katharine Hepburn in Sylvia Scarlett (whom he oddly resembles in the last scene), and thanks to his centrality effectively provides a measuring-stick for the over wrought contributions of Rip Torn and Candy Clark and a contrast to the more conventional inertness of Buck Henry. Foundering on the notion that a maximum number of thematic vectors automatically guarantees an ‘open work’, Roeg and Mayersberg have blocked out most of the options in their design with dead ends. Yet Bowie bears the burden of this confinement so admirably that his monotonal expressive range paradoxically becomes the film’s one steady form of coherent expression – a cool, quivering reed at the centre of a hurricane that is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. – from a review by Jonathan Rosenbaum
Sight and Sound vol.45 no.3 (Summer 1976) pp.145-147
[T]he way to tame The Man Who Fell to Earth is not by trying to perceive an intellectual logic which isn’t there, but by following the tangential, emotional continuity that orders its ideas into a tightly woven structure which becomes an astonishingly literal illustration of Marvell’s conceit: ‘As lines, so loves oblique, may well/Themselves in every angle greet/But ours so truly parallel/Though infinite, can never meet.’ One point on which the critics are unanimous is in finding David Bowie entirely convincing as a visitor from another planet. Since no one could reasonably be expected to recognise an extra-terrestrial, what this means is that Bowie’s presence and performance suggest qualities that are recognised as common denominators of difference, of alienness, of-in fact-non-humanness. […] The Man Who Fell to Earth does not, of course, end with a sci-fi vision of destruction; but it achieves the same effect of desolation as Newton slowly bows his head, leaving us staring at the crown of his hat like a sun that may never rise again. Having come to Earth in search of hope, he finds only the self-destruction he has already witnessed well under way again; and by a curious osmosis, the futility of his space odyssey becomes our own dangerous folly in attempting to reach, per ardua, ad astra. – from an illustrated review by Tom Milne
Cinefantastique vol.5 no.2 (Autumn 1976) pp.28-29
The casting of Bowie is as perfect for this role as the young Welles was for Citizen Kane: the feature film debuts of both Welles and Bowie are ones in which the persona of the actor is embroidered into the script and character. […] Since audiences are conditioned to accept film background music as establishing mood and atmosphere, Roeg, by turning his back on this tradition, offers what may be the most unconventional music track ever recorded for a commercial film. Instead of the down to earth AM-FM dial-switching sound of the track, the imagery could have been unified through the use of a single piece of music (as was done with Stockhausen’s “Hymnen” in Walkabout). In this respect, it’s unfortunate that Orentte [sic] Coleman’s harmolodic “Skies of America” with the London Symphony Orchestra was overlooked. It’s a unique composition that could have underscored Newton’s fascination with Earthlings touchingly. – from an illustrated review by Bhob Stewart
2002
Sight and Sound vol.12 no.10 (October 2002) p.64
In hindsight, David Bowie’s alien who crashes in the American desert in Roeg’s visionary fable […] seems like a hybrid of Bill Gates and Howard Hughes. As he falls in love with a small-town girl (Candy Clark) and gradually turns into a reclusive tycoon with a hi-tech business, the film becomes as much a love story as a satirical sci-fi yam, but can’t escape its melancholy undertow – from a review (Home movies: reviews) by Geoffrey Macnab
2007
Sight and Sound vol.17 no.3 (March 2007) p.83
Like Roeg’s Performance, Walkabout and Castaway, this cult sci-fi parable is a study of cultural dislocation, though here it is the protagonist rather than the environment that’s (literally) alien. [A] kaleidoscopic jumble of images and ideas, free-floating around the hollow centre of Bowie’s glassy-eyed performance. Some bravura camera and editing tricks, but one senses Roeg straining self-consciously for a visionary quality better achieved in his other 70s works, especially Don’t Look Now. – from an illustrated review (Reviews: The Man Who Fell to Earth) by Matthew Leyland
References
Periodicals
- American Cinematographer vol.87 no.1 January 2006) p.20 – illustrated review (DVD Playback: The Man Who Fell to Earth by Kenneth Sweeney)
- CineAction! no.82/83 (2010) pp.29-33 – illustrated article (Milan Pribisic)
- Cinéaste vol.31 no.2 (Spring 2006) pp.68-70 – illustrated review (by Royal S. Brown)
- Cinefantastique vol.5 no.2 (Autumn 1976) pp.28-29 – illustrated review (by Bhob Stewart)
- Cinema of the ’70s no.1 (2020) pp.4-9 – illustrated interview with Candy Clark (Candy Clark in conversation by John H. Foote)
- Cinema TV Today no.10137 (7 June 1975) p.8 – credits
- Cinema TV Today no.10138 (14 June 1975) p.10 – credits
- Classic Television no.5 (June/July 1998) pp.10-25 – illustrated article (British Film: The Classic Television top 100)
- Continental Film Review vol.23 no.5 (March 1976) pp.22-23 – review
- Empire no.198 (December 2005) p.202 – illustrated review (At home/movies: The Man Who Fell to Earth: Criterion Collection by David Hughes)
- Empire no.213 (March 2007) p.142 – illustrated review (At Home/DVD Reissues: The Man Who Fell To Earth: Special Edition by Sam Toy)
- Film Heritage vol.12 no.1 (Fall 1976) pp.18-25 – review
- Film Review vol.26 no.4 (April 1976) p.28 – review
- Film Review no.621 (August 2002) p.91 – illustrated review (The Man Who Fell to Earth by Terry Richards)
- Film Score Monthly vol.10 no.6 (November/December 2005) p.62 – illustrated review (The Laserphile: Criterion Corner: The Man Who Fell to Earth by Andy Dursin)
- Films and Filming vol.22 no.1 (October 1975) pp.45-47 – note
- Films and Filming vol.22 no.5 (February 1976) pp.26-30 – article
- Films and Filming vol.22 no.8 (May 1976) pp.28-29 – review
- Films Illustrated vol.5 no.56 (April 1976) pp.284, 286 – review
- The Hollywood Reporter vol.242 no.2 (23 June 1976) p.3 – review
- The Hollywood Reporter vol.242 no.7 (30 June 1976) pp.8, 10 – article
- Interzone no.27 (January/February 1989) p.26 – review (by J.G. Ballard)
- Interzone no.233 (March/April 2011) p.58 – review (by Tony Lee)
- The Listener vol.95 no.2450 (25 March 1976) p.390 – review
- Literature/Film Quarterly vol.6 no.4 (Autumn 1978) pp.371-379 – article
- Monthly Film Bulletin vol.43 no.507 (April 1976) pp.86-87 – credits, review (by Jonathan Rosenbaum)
- Premiere vol.19 no.3 (November 2005) pp.110, 112 – illustrated review (HomeGuide: The Man Who Fell to Earth/Bad Timing by Glenn Kenny)
- Science Fiction Film and Television vol.1 no.1 (Spring 2008) pp.155-159 – review (DVD reviews: The Man Who Fell to Earth by Adam Roberts)
- Screen International no.29 (27 March 1976) p.28 – review
- Screen International no.249 (12-19 July 1980) p.7 – illustrated note (Brian leads Eady runners)
- Sight & Sound vol.44 no.4 (Autumn 1975) pp.225-231 – article (The story so far… The Man Who Fell to Earth by Paul Mayersberg)
- Sight & Sound vol.45 no.3 (Summer 1976) pp.145-147 – illustrated review (by Tom Milne)
- Sight & Sound vol.12 no.10 (October 2002) p.64 – review (Home movies: reviews by Geoffrey Macnab)
- Sight & Sound vol.17 no.3 (March 2007) p.83 – illustrated review (Reviews: The Man Who Fell to Earth by Matthew Leyland)
- Starburst no.289 (September 2002) p.73 – illustrated review (The Man Who Fell to Earth by Ben Woodhams)
- Take One vol.5 no.4 (October 1976) pp.38-39 – review
- Time Out no.313 (12 March 1976) pp.12-15 – review
- Variety 24 March 1976 p.20 – review
Books
- The 100 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen by Richard Crouse p.148-151
- 500 Essential Cult Movies: The Ultimate Guide by Jennifer Eiss with J.P. Rutter and Steve White p.159 – illustrated credits, synopsis, review
- Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction by Phil Hardy (ed). p.330 – illustrated credits, review
- BFI Screen Guides: 100 Science Fiction Films by Barry Keith Grant pp.103-104 – illustrated review
- The British Pop Music Film: The Beatles and Beyond by Stephen Glynn p.3
- Caligari’s Children: The Film as Tale of Terror by Siegbert Solomon Prawer pp.11, 53
- Cult Movies 2: 50 More of the Classics, the Sleepers, the Weird, and the Wonderful by Danny Peary pp.81-83 – illustrated credits, review
- The Encyclopedia of Novels Into Films second edition by John C. Tibbetts and James M. Welsh pp.286-287 – credits, review (by B.D.H.)
- The Films of Nicolas Roeg by Neil Sinyard pp.56-67; 143-144 – illustrated article; credits
- The Films of Nicolas Roeg: Myth and Mind by John Izod pp.87-103 – article
- Fragile Geometry: The Films, Philosophy, and Misadventures of Nicolas Roeg by Joseph Lanza pp.20-21, 26, 30, 36. 43, 46, 50-54, 56, 59, 61, 67, 69, 72, 76-77, 79, 81, 89, 92, 100-104, 197-110, 113-118, 126, 131, 133-135, 137-138, 141, 143-145, 148, 153, 159-160 – notes
- Heroes, Monsters and Values: Science Fiction Films of the 1970s by Michael Berman and Rohit Dalvi (eds.) pp.viii, 7, 8, 14, 179-195 – article (The Man Who Fell to Earth: The messiah and the amphicatastrophe by Andrew M. Butler)
- Horror and Science Fiction Films II by Donald C. Willis p.244
- Horror and Science Fiction Films IV by Donald C. Willis p.308-309 – credits, review
- Island of Terror: A Book of 60 Great* British SF and Fantasy Movies from 1936-1984 *And not so Great by Keith Topping pp.483-493
- Looking for a New England: Action, Time, Vision: Music, Film and TV 1975-1986 by Simon Matthews pp.18, 24, 34, 65, 68, 70-1, 74, 77, 87
- Nicolas Roeg Film by Film by Scott Salwolke pp.53-72; 212-213 – illustrated article; credits
- Rock-Film: In 450 film, trent’anni di Cinema & Rock by Paolo Belluso and Flavio Merkel p.230-231 – credits, note
- Rock on Film by David Ehrenstein and Bill Reed pp.86-88, 186, 190
- Sci-fi Chronicles by Guy Haley (ed.) pp.231
- Science Fiction Films of the Seventies by Craig W. Anderson pp.119-122 – credits
- Uneasy Dreams: The Golden Age of British Horror Films, 1956-1976 by Gary A. Smith pp.148-149
- Variety Science-Fiction Movies by Julian Brown (ed.) p.71 – illustrated credits, review
