Customer Reviews

The Man Who Fell To Earth (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you are a fan of The Criterion Collection movies, you will love their first wave of Blu-Ray titles. Once again, the quality is top notch. I have been purchasing Criterion Collection movies since laserdisk started. They are known for their " classic " titles, super clean transfers and in depth extras.

This great 70's movie directed by Nicolas Roeg is a cult classic. Filled with surreal images, this title stands the test of time in the Sci-Fi genre. If you like straight forward Sci-Fi movies like Star Wars, this may not be for you. This movie is more along the lines of 2001 A Space Odyssey.

First off, the picture quality is awesome. Super clean transfer with no artifacts or blemishes to speak of. This title has been taken well care of. It is very sharp and clean. The colors are super vivid with great landscape shots. The skintones are spot on without that waxey look. The blacks are nice and deep, the whites are super clean without blooming. Alway's in focus, with nice sharp backgrounds to give great depth. The closeups have very nice detail also. Though this film has that classic 70's look and feel, it looks very fresh. I would give this film a 4 1/2 stars out of 5 for picture quality. You simply cant ask for anything more from Criterion on this title which is over 30 years old. Although the special effects are dated, you will enjoy this movie which is not dominated by CGI.

Next...the audio is presented in 2.0 uncompressed stereo. Though the rear speakers do not get a ton of use. The sound is great. The voices are crisp and clean without any distractions of any kind. The subwoofer does not get much action either. But....this film is not Star Wars. Overall this title does the best it can with the source. Once again, awesome effort. A solid 4 to 4 1/2 stars on audio overall.

This title is presented in the 139 minute version. As it was intended.

Lots of extras on this disk: Audio commentary by Roeg, Bowie and Buck Henry. Interview with screenwriter Paul Mayersberg, video interviews with Rip Torn and Candy Clark, audio interviews, multiple galleries, costume sketches, behind the scenes photos, publicity stills, galleries of posters and lots of movie trailers. Plus a booklet with facts and photos.

Great movie...looking even better on Blu-Ray. This is a must have for the classic Sci-Fi lover. Great screenplay, great actors with very cool music to boot. Enjoy!

Criterion is known for choosing and presenting both classic and "challenging" art films from across the entire history of the medium. They continue their run with "The Man Who Fell To Earth."

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First, let me get the good part out of the way - The Blu-Ray:

Criterion has presented the film in a director-approved transfer which very faithfully represents a 1970's film. It is not the sort of slick, whiz-bang HD material you may be accustomed to seeing from modern films. It's grainy. It's a bit soft in detail. But that is the way the film looked, the kind of film stock it used, etc. etc. If you let the transfer work on you, you'll notice the fine detail in things like cloth and facial lines. But the film is limited by its source materials and Criterion has thankfully left well enough alone. Instead of giving us a "DNR" slathered wax-dummy-festival, they let the film breathe. The same goes for the audio - presented in stereo, not a remastered surround sound track that didn't exist in theaters of the day.

Supplements are typically top-notch, as per usual for Criterion. Commentaries, trailers, documentaries, it's a tremendous grab bag of info for fans of this film.

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Now for the bad news:

Why would you be a fan of this film? Ugh. It was terminally boring from start to finish. Now let me say - I am a fan of "challenging" material. I loved "2001," I enjoy the films of Todd Solondz, I don't think I am a mouth-breathing action junkie non-sophisticate. But this film is just a mess, especially its interminable, dragging, plodding final act.

Some of the performances are interesting, including Bowie's turn as the space man (for better Bowie, check out "The Prestige"). While Bowie's Tom Newton is easy to forgive if you find little to nothing resembling human motivation, the same can't be said for many of the other actors. About the only other bright spot is a nearly unrecognizable Rip Torn - but even that's a stretch.

I applaud experimentation. But it needs some sort of hook, something to maintain a viewer's interest - and this was lacking for me. At first, I thought I might find an interesting social commentary on 1970's America. Then, I thought I might be interested in Bowie's portrayal. But as minute after minute of nothing unspools on the screen, I just found myself checking the time remaining and hoping that something of interest would pop up. Have you ever seen an awful play written by a graduate fresh out of theater school? Have you ever watched a student film? This very ably elicits that feeling in a viewer. I don't think this is quite what director Nicholas Roeg was going for, though...

To be fair, Roeg is adept at quick-cut montages which create new, strange emotions in the viewer. Some of the sex-scene montages were interesting. However, his ham-handed handling of the special effects (such as they were) really tore me out of the scene. His inability (or unwillingness) to wring a human performance out of his actors is the gravest sin, though. To further compare it to 2001 - a movie with some wooden performances, to be sure - 2001 had spellbinding effects and one great character in HAL 9000 - enough to make up for its long, indulgent stretches and noodle-scratching logic. In its corner, "The Man Who Fell To Earth" has pasty naked Bowie.

That might be enough for some. But I found it dull, and I wish I had those 2 hours of my life back after having sat through it.

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So let me say it as loudly and clearly as I can - RENT BEFORE YOU BUY! You may be a fan of this film. But you may not. It is, as best I can tell, an extremely divisive piece of work which is usually loved or hated. I don't know that I hated it, but I'm sure glad I didn't pay 25 big ones to own it (I rented it on Netflix).

Because I do think it is a vital service that Criterion is providing the public, by presenting challenging art-house fare to the public in faithful, comprehensive editions such as these, I give the whole thing 3 stars. But just as no normal person ought to like everything that's playing at a given theater, no one should assume that every Criterion release is worth the BD-ROM it's pressed upon. Caveat Emptor!

I have to say, there's apparently a very special effort put into sci-fi on blu ray. My three favorite sci-fi movies ever (2001, Blade Runner, The Man Who Fell to Earth) are possibly three of the best looking discs in my collection.

For those unfamiliar with the movie, it's essentially David Bowie playing himself. That is to say, he's playing an alien. Suffice to say, it comes very natural to him.

It's a story about a man who falls to earth, on a journey to save his home planet and family from drought. But that's not what the movie is about. The movie is about the universality of the human condition. Every creature in this galaxy is a sucker for sex drugs and rock and roll, and we don't have to feel bad about what we perceive as human weaknesses because it is not specific to humans. At one point, David Bowie reassures a character that they don't have to feel bad about the way Bowie's character is being treated as a visitor to earth, as a human visitor to Bowie's planet would receive the same treatment.

The way the film is directed and shot places great emphasis not only on the characters and story, but on the feeling. The strange world created by Roeg and company is exhaustingly surreal. We feel like visitors to an alien world, one that is uncomfortably familiar. Watching this decently long movie almost becomes difficult. The destruction of standard linear storytelling combined with the brilliant landscapes and imagery strike a certain chord that resonates pure strangeness.

This being a Criterion release, everything about the package itself is top notch. It comes in a pretty little cardboard package that folds open once and gets slid inside a slip case. The art is gorgeous all around. The booklet, a standard inclusion in Criterion releases, provides the usual information about the production of the film, more great artwork, an essay analysis about the film, and a poem about the original Boy Who Fell to Earth, Icarus. If anybody in the universe puts as much love into anything as Criterion puts into their releases, I would be amazed.

The transfer itself is fantastic, of course. The film is presented in what is unarguably Roeg's original vision, and preserves the grain and softness present in the original photography. That is how all releases should be handled. Not every movie on blu ray needs to look like Speed Racer. Of course, detail gets a very nice boost and the image is slightly sharper than it ever was on DVD. Look no further than the DVDBeaver review for great examples. Look at Bowie's hair and the fountain in the screenshots provided.

A 5/5 package if there every was one. A great movie, a great package, and a great presentation by the greatest film company in the world.

Don't be fooled by the horrible looking stock footage of something falling from the sky that starts the film. Immediately after that scene, the film takes off in breathtaking, stunning clarity. I didn't imagine that a film from 1976 could look so much better on Blu-ray, but it does.

The extras are done well too, but as much should be expected for a Criterion release.

"The Man Who Fell to Earth" reached American theaters in a truncated form one year before "Star Wars" blew open a giant junk-shop door in the culture that still hasn't closed to this day. "The Man Who Fell to Earth" was a complicated film that had David Bowie, at the height of his exotic powers, as its main calling card. It told the story of a space traveler from a dying planet, with a visual intelligence similar to the same filmmaker's "Walkabout." "Star Wars" was a comic book come to life. Guess which one Americans fell in love with? The Criterion Collection blu-ray of "The Man Who Fell to Earth" gives the film a second chance to get overlooked, ignored or puzzled over in the marketplace. Thank you! Many minutes have been restored in this, director Nicholas Roeg's approved version, and, as others have written, the transfer and sound are gorgeous to behold. Blu-ray is a brilliant format, and that stores and Netflix are charging more to rent them will inhibit their growth. They should become the norm, the standard. They are amazing. My video store, Potomac Video, rents them at the same price as DVDs, as they should. I thank them. Retailers should stop killing the goose that could lay their golden egg, and put blu-rays front and center in their displays. Have you ever noticed that the physical video stores still remaining don't sell hardware -- DVD players and blu-ray players? They just don't get it.
Anyway, what struck me most in revisiting "The Man Who Fell to Earth" all these years later is Candy Clark, who I believe turns in one of the finest film performances of the '70s here. She is heartbreaking as a simple southwestern hotel housekeeper who finds herself shacking up with an alien who she loves but can't possibly fathom. Knock that role out of the park, and you are a great actress. She was three years removed from her triumph (Academy Award nomination) in "American Graffiti" and had done no notable work in the interim. How can this be? Why did Hollywood overlook this gifted and beautiful actress? It would be two years before she returned with an aging Robert Mitchum in a little-seen remake of "The Big Sleep." She then reprises her role in an inferior return to "American Graffiti," makes something forgetable, and then winds up with Michael Moriarty in "Q: The Winged Serpent" from nut job Larry Cohen. I like her challenging work, but Candy Clark deserved a much better career. Her character's life with Bowie's alien is marked by her increasingly desperate attempts to please him. She could handle the gun play during sex, a scene that had enormous impact in its day, but his detachment and obscured motives bring her to ruin, and she begins to reach for anything, including making herself look like a geisha, showing her total, clinging, pathetic devotion to him. It is a remarkable performance that climaxes several times when she finds out the truth. She is the human center of the film. Another human aspect is the portrayal of a gay couple in "The Man Who Fell to Earth." This was 1976, mind you, many years before "Brokeback Mountain," and yet it is a mature, matter-of-fact display of two men who live together. No over-the-top hysterics, none of the laughing and twittering that still too often is a signal to the audience that it is ok to accept gays in culture. It is quite a nice piece of quiet commentary in a film about a being from another planet. Band of outsiders, indeed. The story, which from reading some other reviewers here, was hard to grasp, is that Bowie's Thomas Newton has come to earth because there is abundant water on the planet. His ambition is to find a way to save his home, or at least the wife and children he left behind. With nine original patents he becomes one of the richest, most powerful businessmen in the world, and he drives that wealth toward building a ship that will take him back through space. He is absolutely otherworldly and the joke is that he says he is from England. Business competitors don't like that he doesn't play ball and infiltrate and destroy his empire and then he is captured and experimented on by the government while being made into an alcoholic. The film is a subtle but blistering commentary on modern American culture, its trash television, its addictions, its vacuousness, its pornography, its casual violence, its destructive capitalist nature, its secrecy, its inhumane medical apparatus, the absence of empathy for those not like us, the inability to make deep emotional attachments, it goes on and on. "Star Wars' was lucky not to have predated its exacting knife. It is also, as if that is not enough, a tragic masterpiece, with two loves unrequited, the woman who loves the alien and the alien who can never again return to his family back home. Time passes by and everyone ages but Bowie. It's shattering to see, more so because of Roeg's remarkable restraint. The old adage, "Show, don't tell," is on full display. No, there is not a lot of action; yes, it is beautifully thought-out and rendered. There is a scene in which Bowie takes a scientist into the capsule he's built to fly home (a shot of it was used on the cover of the original release of the "Station to Station" album) and asks if he could be comfortable in there. The scientist replies that he would go stir crazy very quickly. I think potential viewers of the film have to ask themselves the same question because this is no thrill ride on the Millennium Falcom, that's for damn sure.

The Man Who Fell to Earth [... (DVD) ~ David Bowie

This movie is a must for any Bowie fan!! Uncut and in Blu-Ray is so fantasic. When I saw this back when released in the USA, it was so chopped up and edited !

The audio and video quality on the blu-ray are top notch. You also get Criterion's great selection of special features. They are definitely worth watching, even if you are just a casual fan of the film. The film itself is not for everybody, but you will probably enjoy it a lot if you like weird sci-fi. All in all a great buy, the only caveat is that I heard Criterion was losing the license for the film so the price will probably be going up.

David Bowie's popular film debut is also one of rich visual imagery and profound cultural implications of worth and reason. Nicholas Roeg directs, using Paul Mayersberg's alteration of Walter Tevis' 1963 novel, which describes an extra-terrestrial being (Bowie, in the film) that becomes stranded on Earth after crashing his spacecraft while in search of water for his drought-plagued planet. The film also stars a middle-aged Rip Torn and previous American Graffiti star (and Academy Award-nominee) Candy Clark. Roeg never made a more significant work of pop art or social and cultural insight. The Man Who Fell to Earth is an essential picture. The Blu-ray remastered package, with filmmaker commentary and other fine supplements courtesy of the Criterion Collection team, eclipses most other sci-fi Blu-rays and is easily a must-own item for lovers of both film as artistic expression and film in general.

Version: U.S.A / Criterion / Region A
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
MPEG-4 AVC BD-50 / AACS / High Profile 4.1
Running time: 2:19:14
Movie size: 37,80 GB
Disc size: 46,41 GB
Total bit rate: 36.20 Mbps
Average video bit rate: 31.99 Mbps

LPCM Audio English 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Dolby Digital Audio English 224 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 224 kbps / Dolby Surround

Subtitles: English SDH
Number of chapters: 23

#Audio Commentary
#Clark and Rip Torn (24m:51s)
#Interview with screenwriter (26m:15s)
#Audio interviews with costume designer and production designer
#Multiple stills galleries
#Behind the Scenes photos
#Production and publicity stills
#Posters Gallery from Roeg's films
#Trailers and TV spots

very very good product, because i purchased this dvd years ago, but this dvd had a much better lighting and clearer vision, it was so clear i ordered the blue ray version. thank you