The Man Who Fell to Earth

1970 artsy-fartsy science fiction

Rating: 14/20

Plot: Alien David Bowie comes to earth in search of water. Apparently he's thirsty. He's able to use his planet's advances in technology and inventions to start a billion-dollar corporation with the help of an attorney and a science professor. He's then able to fund a space exploration project. Unfortunately, his girlfriend and America get in his way.

Frustrating. I love a lot of the imagery, especially the noisy contrast between David Bowie's orange hair and the New Mexico landscape. See also: the contrast between Bowie's quiet home planet and loudly modern Americana. I think Bowie et. al. do a fine job, and there are some really cool moments--Bowie watching multiple televisions, a very strange sex scene, another very strange sex scene some disorienting editing. I also like the cross-pollination of genres. This is part-fable, part-Western, part-sci-fi, and part-love story. It's also part-flatulence. There's just so much clutter. This is a movie that needs to clean out the garage and yard sale the forty-five minutes that just doesn't need to be there. I like some of what this movie has to say (specifically about American materialism and violence) but it says it too pretentiously and not really very clearly. There's definitely a lot to like with The Man Who Fell to Earth, but you really have to be willing to like it for a lot longer than most people will want to. The ending's also a bit of a let-down.