Review for The Man Who Fell to Earth - 40th Anniversary Edition

Like many Bowie fans, it’s taken me a while to get over his passing. He has been singularly the most important musical icon in my life. I wasn’t there from the beginning. In fact, it wasn’t until I returned from four years in the USA at the age of 13 that I heard my first Bowie tracks – he had yet to make any significant impact in middle-America. That album, Aladdin Sane, was one of a very few that I had to buy again from sheer wear and tear. After the next album, ‘Diamond Dogs’, I was totally sold and from then on in, having sought out his back catalogue, I bought each and every release right up to, and including, ‘Blackstar’ which I still find tough to listen to. I even persisted with this devotion through his creatively lean years (from ‘Never Let me Down’ through to, but including, the excellent ‘Outside’).


Nicolas Roeg’s incredible film, ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’ caught Bowie at arguably the very height of his creative powers. He’d pretty much abandoned white-boy soul in favour of a new, startlingly cold, very European and utterly unique sound and was soon to release ‘Station to Station’ (which featured stills from the film) and, was about to embark on the journey to ‘Heroes’ and ‘Low’ (which also featured a still from the film) – still top five Bowie albums for me to this day. Of course, ever the chameleon, he also took on the so-called thin-white duke, semi-alien look which undoubtedly contributed to Roeg’s almost perfect casting of him for the film. In some ways, ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’ was almost the perfect film for Bowie and is, by a country-mile, his greatest cinematic achievement.


The combination of Roeg’s no-nonsense, harsh reality and Bowie’s other worldliness were a powerful combination. Bowie was perfectly supported by a great cast (so normal in contrast to Bowie’s alien-ness) including Rip Torn, Candy Clark, Buck Henry and Bernie Casey in a film which seems as vital today, 40 years on, as it did when first released. It’s a shame that, other than an acclaimed performance on Broadway as John Merrick, The Elephant Man, and a decent portrayal in a BBC version of Brecht’s Baal, Bowie never bettered or equalled his big-screen debut.



This new Blu-Ray release from Studio-Canal is a welcome one which started with a 4K scan of the original camera negative, followed by a complete digital clean-up, resulting in a transfer which is really stunning and the best possible way to watch the film as intended – other than a theatrical release of course.

Based on a novel by Walter Tevis, ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’ is essentially about an alien who lands on earth and, somewhat like ET, sets about finding a way back home. However, it could also be seen as a metaphoric tale about the pain and loneliness of being an outsider.


Bowie plays the role of Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien who has come to planet earth in search of water for his own drought-ridden planet. He quickly discovers that he can ‘invent’ and patent many new technologies from his own planet, not yet discovered on earth, and, as a result, gain enough wealth and power to construct a space ship which can take water back to his own planet. He employs a patent lawyer, Oliver Farnsworth (Buck Henry) who, whilst exasperated by Newton’s bizarre personality, recognizes his genius and the opportunity to make money.


In the meantime, Newton starts a relationship with his hotel maid, Mary-Lou (Candy Clark), an All-American, down-to-earth kind of girl, and this provides the film with some of its most fascinating moments, as he starts to open-up his feelings to her.

Visually, perhaps the most memorable scenes are those where we see Newton watching half a dozen screens at one time, all playing different news items, shows, films and documentaries as he quickly tries to get an understanding of life on planet earth. Of course, sitting watching TV with a number of screens no longer seems quite so alien as it did, but it remains an iconic film moment nonetheless – one of many from this film.


Of course, not all Newton’s progress on earth is plain sailing. His working colleague, Dr. Nathan Bryce (Rip Torn) is duplicitous in a way never before encountered by Newton and could scupper is plans to leave Earth by revealing his true identity.

Having cast Bowie for his other worldliness, Bowie was originally due to compose the soundtrack too – and indeed, he started doing exactly that until Roeg decided he didn’t like the direction that was going in. So, bizarrely, John Phillips (ex-The Mamas and Papas) was brought in instead and, in truth, did a very decent job.

NOTE: IMAGE IS FOR SPECIAL EDITION LIMITED EDITION BOX-SET ONLY.

What’s also great about this 40th Anniversary edition of the film is the quantity and quality of extra features, including lots of very recent in-depth interviews with cast and crew, many lasting for 30 minutes plus. Interviews include Candy Clark, Nic Roeg, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Paul Mayersberg, Tony Richmond, May Routh, David James, and Michael Deeley. There is also a 1977 French TV interview with David Bowie for French TV (in English then translated to French by the interviewer) which is delightfully candid and which shows Bowie at his most relaxed.


A brand new featurette, ‘The Lost Soundtracks’ (15 min) talks about the trials and tribulations of how the soundtrack was eventually created after so many false-starts, including from Bowie himself.

All in all, a fabulous edition of a very special film. Bowie fans will, of course, devour it – but fans of Roeg’s (Walkabout, Don’t Look Now, Bad Timing) will also be delighted with it. If, like me, you’re a huge fan of both, then it’s a complete no brainer.