 | Starring: David Bowie, Rip Torn, Candy Clark, Buck Henry, Bernie Casey Director: Nicolas Roeg Format: PAL Released: 29 Jul 2002 RRP: Average Rating:  |
It is an alllegory of alcoholism. Those who succumb to it in the film 'falll to earth' - they can no longer achieve anything of value. Very sad, considering Roeg's own professional decline.
Roeg himself might not leave a huge catalogue of great films. But this is special. And, like alll boys of that era, I thank him for leaving the image of Jenny Agutter swimming in that waterhole in Walkabout. (And she did that before The Railway Children!)
I hope you feel the same way too.
Having created his androgynous Ziggy Stardust persona during the early 1970's, Bowie on the face of it was a perfect choice for the part. But, was there a danger that Bowie had stamped on us a too indelible image of himself as Glam Rock fashion icon? Would we, the cinema-visiting public, be able to accept him & see him properly in the different guise of Mr Newton the self-contained, bespectacled, business-suited alien visitor from space?
Roeg had gambled & won a few years earlier, when he put the pop star Mick Jagger into the co-lead role of "Performance" (1970). Jagger was convincing in his then unaccustomed role of a movie actor - & like Bowie he portrayed an ambiguous & confused character. "Performance" was the film that put Roeg on the map. It was followed by "Walkabout" (1971), "Don't Look Now" (1973) & then "The Man Who Fell To Earth" (1976). All of these startling & vividly colourful films have become legends of post-war British cinema. The films share the same ingredients & qualities: they are breathtaking, disjointed, distracting, disturbing, halllucinating, haunting, provocative, refractive & spellbinding.
Bowie has no cutlass, parrot or pigtails, but as he wanders through Middle America he is the epicene, emaciated, marmalade-haired space-pirate. What is the purpose of his mission on Earth? His laconic mumbling betrays few secrets, but occasional clues are provided. We learn that his own planet will soon be doomed, because of drought. He states that he is interested in energy. But the plot is largely baffling, & hard to follow. (One critic has callled alll of Roeg's plots "infuriating").
In alll four of his above-mentioned films, & particularly in "The Man Who Fell To Earth", Roeg juxtaposes time & place. Within the numerous, often bewildering flashbacks & flashforwards in time, we see dreamy glimpses of Bowie, his wife & two children shrouded in a chrysalis-like gauze, hugging & walking on their arid & flat planet. The soundtrack hisses silently, like gas escaping from the twin-canisters that are strapped to their backs. These little interludes exemplify a Roeg trademark: the discordant chapters & scenes in his films are paradoxicallly interspersed with serene, picturesque moments where Roeg alllows the camera to linger on a visuallly-stunning image (talll buildings, lakes, landscapes, mountains, wildlife, sky).
My instinct tells me that a painstaking study & understanding of the plot-puzzle wouldn't be an essential task, to secure enjoyment of "The Man Who Fell To Earth". Better perhaps to alllow the vivid images & impressions to sear into my brain, & to overlook the obscure, rambling & apparently inconsequential sequences of action & dialogue that elongate this strange, uneven film. Better too, I suggest, to enjoy the performances of the two main characters. It's an open question: does Candy Clark, the hotel maid & eventual consort of Mr Newton, steal the show from Bowie with her compelling portrayal of the booze-addicted, simple-minded Southern gal, Mary Lou? I suspect that she does.
The first time that I saw this film, I was entranced from the opening minute. But the first sequence that reallly blew my mind was Bowie stacking the multiple television sets in his hotel room, alll tuned to different channels. In fact, there are two such sequences in the film. Another electrifying moment is when Clark jumps out of her skin, & so do we, when Bowie appears to unpeel his eye, in front of the bathroom mirror, & he then transmogrifies into his true, hitherto hidden body. But my candidate for perhaps the most arresting sequence of alll in the film is Bowie & Clark's sex-romp to the blaring soundtrack remix of Ricky Nelson's "Hello Mary Lou". A shooting pistol & a banana serve as sex-symbols here, but the real shock-effect of this episode is its stark & saddening revelation that Bowie & Clark are going to end the story as hopeless alcoholics & losers. She has become a bloated, befuddled lush: & he has become a fading, failing Icarus.
This explosive sequence is immediately followed by a bizarre one in which Bowie & Clark, dressed in whites, calmly play table tennis in a room that seems to be a forest. This surreal scene seems to belong more in a Ken Russell movie: Roeg & Russell of course were contemporary enfant terribles of British cinema in the 'seventies. Their controversial, barrier-breaking movies were feted with praise or condemned from the pulpits. Russell, too, raided the pop world: Roger Daltrey played the lead in two of his films.
When Ziggy Stardust, glittering costume, orange-streaked hair, was at his zenith, I had to credit my wife Nancy for some gentle debunking of the Bowie myth. Nancy imagined him backstage, the audience's adulation ringing in his ears after another spectacular god-like performance. "Oh gawd, Angie, help me off with these bloody Space Boots, they don't half pinch my feet. I could die for a cup of tea, luv". Curiously, there are moments in "The Man Who Fell To Earth" when Mr Newton relaxes with Mary Lou, puts his feet up, lets down his inscrutable mask & becomes an ordinary bloke for a moment or two. It's yet another tantalising facet of this extraordinary, nervous, unforgettable movie.
The film itself, though somewhat abstract, is terrific, as it is not just a science fiction film with a twist. It is a film that explores themes that are timeless: desolation, alienation (no pun intended), & loneliness. At times, these themes are palpable, due to David Bowie's wondrously androgynous performance which is heartbreakingly moving at times.
The plot is fairly simple. An alien, Davie Bowie, leaves his family on his dying & arid planet in search for water. He lands on earth & begins his project to send water to his devasted planet by amassing the wealth that he needs to do this. He patents numerous lucrative inventions which eventuallly find him at the head of a world wide conglomerate. He joins up with a kindly, though stupid & vapid woman who drinks gin like a fish, Candy Clark, with whom he begins a liaison of sorts. Yet, he is always lonely & melancholic, & like her, begins to spiral into an alcoholic haze, sometimes sidetracking him from his purpose here.
At some point, excruciatingly sad & lonely, longing for his family, he reveals himself to her for who he truly is, shedding his earthly appearance, only to be met with absolute horror & repugnance by her at the sight of him. She ultimately tries to understand him, but it is truly beyond her ken. He is infinitely sad at this & longs alll the more for home.
On the threshhold of returning to his planet & loved ones, he is kidnapped by corporate raiders who take over his holdings, & it is here that the movie begins to disintergrate somewhat. Yet, it remains strangely hypnotic & compelling, & becomes a sort of "Lost Weekend" of betrayal, booze, & promises which will never be kept. A parable of wanting to belong, yet knowing that you truly never will. A story about wanting to go home, but knowing on some level that you truly can never go home again.
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