|
The Man Who Fell To Earth
(1976, UK)
In Nicolas Roeg's impressionistic, hallucinatory,
disjointed, non-literal sci-fi film and parable:
- the scene of pale, ethereal humanoid alien visitor
Thomas "Tommy" Jerome Newton's (rock star David Bowie
in his feature film debut) arrival on Earth by splashing into a
Southwestern lake in New Mexico
- his first unsettling contact with society, but soon
he acquired wealth as a tycoon, heading up a technological firm using
advanced inventions from his home planet
- "Tommy's"
bored, crippling and addicted habit of watching a dozen televisions
at once (and his screams of "Get out of my mind, all of you!
Stay where you belong! Go away! Go back where you came from")
- Thomas' memories/visions of his Anthean family suffering
and dying on his drought-stricken home planet
- the frequent and often unusual playful encounters
between Tommy and Mary-Lou, including the scene in which he drunkenly
threatened Mary-Lou with a pistol: ("I think you know, you know
too much about me... I can do anything, now, you know? I can kill
you right here on this bed. Then I could phone room service. And
they'd - they'd take your body away, and then I'd have them send
up another girl"); she begged for her life: ("Oh, Tommy.
Tommy. I just want it to be like it was. Me, the two of us. You.
You. The way you were"); however, he was fooling her - it was
only a blank-firing fake gun
Threatening Mary-Lou With a Mock Pistol - and
Love-Making
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- in an exploratory and explicit sex scene involving
the mock pistol, Tommy dipped the gun's barrel into a glass of
wine, licked it and drank from the glass, and then had a frenzied
and loveless encounter with Mary-Lou
- the startling revelation of his true Anthean form
- androgynous, cat-eyed and hairless - to naive and lonely New Mexico
hotel cleaning lady/girlfriend Mary-Lou (Candy Clark) who uncontrollably
peed down her leg at the horrific sight of him; before long, she
had taught him about many human ways, including sex
"Tommy's" True Planet Anthea Form
|
|
|
|
- after a few decades passed, Newton eventually ended
up corrupted and ravaged by alcohol and despairing depression -
and unable to return to his doomed home; the final image was of
a completely drained, eternally-trapped, broken, depressed and
alone alcoholic Thomas - inebriated in a cafe chair (with his head
bowed, and his hat facing the camera), with the film's final lines:
("I think maybe Mr. Newton has had enough, don't you?"
"I think maybe he has")
|
Arrival of Humanoid Alien "Tommy" - Splash into
Lake
A Bank of Televisions
Mary Lou: "You can come in Tommy, don't be embarrassed"
Love-Making
Mary-Lou Peeing in Shock
Last Image: Thomas Alone and Drunk in a Cafe Chair With
Head Down
|