Starring
David Lee Smith, Tony Todd, John Billingsly, Ellen Crawford, Annika
Peterson, William Katt, Alexis Thorpe, Richard Riehle. Directed by
Richard Schenkman. (2007, 87 min).
Time
for a bit of honesty here. I'm pretty knowledgeable about movies in general, more so of certain
genres which interest me the most. However, until I received this Blu-Ray to review, I had never even heard of The Man from
Earth.
Apparently,
however, this ten-year-old film is held in high regard by some, has won numerous
awards and was touted as the last thing written by Jerome Bixby (who
allegedly finished the script on his deathbed in 1998). The write-up and
interviews included with the disc would have you believe Bixby was the second
coming of Isaac Asimov, but aside from a few well-regarded Twilight
Zone & Star Trek episodes, I'd wager few reading this
are all that familiar with his name.
So,
is The Man from Earth a rediscovered classic by an
underappreciated visionary? Not really, but for a microbudget sci-fi
film that takes place in a single room and consists entirely of
dialogue, it's sometimes quite interesting.
 |
| "Yes, yes, John...you're trapped in a box. We got it the first five times." |
David
Lee Smith plays John Oldman, a respected and admired college
professor who's about move on with his life, with no particular destination
in-mind. A few of his friends & colleagues gather to see him off,
at which time he claims he's actually over 14,000 years old, born
during the Cro-Magnon era. At first, they think he's joking around,
but before long his utter sincerity and attention to historical
detail has them thinking maybe he's lost his marbles. Still, their
attempts to poke holes in his story spark some occasionally heated discussions on the possibility that he's telling the truth.
The
dialogue is the whole story, which eventually raises a few intriguing
questions about commonly-held beliefs (including foundations of faith
and religion). Some of it descends into philosophical goobledegook
and silly revelations, testing the viewer's patience a bit. And
even at 87 minutes, the film drags on longer than it should. However,
everything does culminate in a pretty nifty twist ending.
Though
it might have been more effective if Bixby had originally written
this as a Twilight Zone episode, The Man from Earth's
unique premise renders it fairly engaging. It's intelligent and
well-performed by a cast semi-recognizable character actors (many of
whom, coincidentally, also have Star Trek connections).
It
also needs to be said that the video transfer betrays the film's ultra-low budget (which was originally shot with camcorders). Sometimes it's pretty distracting, and the night scenes in particular are really drab and grainy.
EXTRA
KIBBLES
"THE
MAN FROM EARTH: LEGACY" (feature-length documentary)
FEATURETTES:
"From Script to Screen"; "Jerome Bixby's Sci-Fi
Legacy"; "On the Set"; "The Story of the Story"
AUDIO
COMMENTARY by director Richard Schenkman & actor John Billingsley
AUDIO
COMMENTARY by exec-producer Emerson Bixby (Jerome's son) & author
Gary Westfahl
ORIGINAL
TRAILER
TRAILERS
FOR THE MAN FROM EARTH: HOLOCENE (upcoming sequel)
SHORT:
"Contagion"
PHOTO
GALLERY
DVD
COPY
KITTY CONSENSUS
NOT BAD...LIKE CAT CHOW
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