Customer Reviews

Jerome Bixby's The Man from Earth

5 star:		(130)
4 star:		(40)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

John Oldman (David Lee Smith) has been a history professor for ten years and is now preparing to move away from the school he's dedicated a decade to. The reasons are initially his own until a group of his fellow friends and professors come by to say goodbye and he drops a bombshell on them; he claims to be a caveman who's lived eons and eons, witnessing historical events and even being part of that history that we thought we knew.

The group of professors that come by to send him off are a complex group: a religious studies professor, another that's an English prof, a psych prof, and a few others that round out a pretty decent world view.

Initially all of John's fellow colleagues challenge him, but his arguments are solid and disturbing. But is John for real? Or does he need psychotropic medications?

The thing about THE MAN FROM EARTH is that it's a stage-play put into film form. The entire movie is pure character exposition and dialogue with no action, flashbacks, or other techniques most movie-goers have become accustomed to. And this is both a strength and a weakness. The strength comes from the strong scripting of the dialogue that keeps the viewer interested and wondering how it will all pan out. The weakness is that it makes for incredibly slow pacing. Thankfully the The Man From Earth is only 87 minutes long, not stretching out its length and thus causing great yawns from the watchers.

The other strength within the movie is the acting. All of the characters were believable and the actors and actresses played their parts very well (being frustrated or angry or sad or scared, etc.). But the filming was tough to watch. Too many times the shots looked grainy or underexposed, giving it a B-movie feel; that was unfortunate.

Even so, this is an interesting treatise on humanity and how we might deal with the unexplainable should a friend thrust a near impossible quandary upon us.

While clearly a no-budget film (shot almost entirely in a single room), this is nonetheless a remarkable bit of storytelling and offers a gripping, involving tale. John Oldman, decides its time to leave his life as a college professor. Wanting to take his leave with minimum fuss, his colleagues decide otherwise and arrive at his box filled residence with food and drink for an impromptu farewell, ensuring a room ripe with stereotypes for the story to play off of. Against his own better judgment, John decides to reveal his "real" self to his friends, and comes forth with the news he is an ageless, 14,000 year old Cro -Magnon. The recounting of his journey through the history of humankind is mesmerizing, and proves to be a tale with implications for all in his company provoking reactions from fascination to outrage, violence and disbelief to emotionally shattered.


Wisely playing this all with great understatement, Davlid Lee Smith delivers a gently powerful performance as history's most emotionally guarded man letting down his guard for the first time to reveal the truth about who is really is. The excellent ensemble cast (despite a moment or two of some hamfisted acting, a hurdle unavoidable in any screenplay relying entirely on human language) lend a realistic believability to John's colleagues.

An enormous relief from all the over-budgeted Hollywood costume and explosion dramas, this sensational little movie actually gets one to ponder some of the great questions as well as coming up with some provcative thought. Richard Schenkman is to be commended for (with minimal money) putting together an absolutely wonderful and entirely engaging movie.

Wow I am blown away. I never though an entire movie revolving around a single conversation could have me so engrossed. No stunts, no special effects, no action, under a dozen actors/actresses sitting in a living room... and yet I'm sitting slack jawed watching the story unfold.

The movie is one for the brain ... challenges your mind, opens you to possibilities you never considered before. Of course, it could not be true, and I'm sure there are some holes I did not notice, but for the most part, the entire story fell together very well. Superb! I wish there were more movies like this.

Professor John Oldman (David Lee Smith) is packing, as it is time for him to move on. All his friends and co-scientists from the university come to see him off. They have an afternoon and a bottle to kill so John poses a question. Base of a few trinkets found in John is packing possessions. The portcullises what if he were actually a cave man that survived to this day. As his friends are grilling him, he feeds off their input to weave a tail that sucks us in as viewers.

The whole movie takes place in a small room of a simple house. However, it is anything but a simple tale.
A little added plus was having `Moonlight Sonata" (Beethoven, 7th Symphony, 2nd Movement) in the background until someone tells John to turn it off.

This was the last work from Screenwriter Jerome Bixby.

I saw the Blu-ray DVD however it is a very poor transfer it is vary grainy and I am sure it was not for art's sake.
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After watching the Blu-Ray for a few times, I was curious to find out why the standard DVD costs almost twice as much.

I played them back to back in the same player and they are exactly the same on the main feature on a 46" screen. There is not even the hint of better resolution or sound.

The standard DVD comes with some coming attractions but lets you know that you can go directly to the main menu if you like

There is an audio setup Dolby Surround 5.1 or 2.0. Two different voice-over commentaries.

Star Trek: Jerome Bixby's Sci Fi Legacy
On the Set
The Story of the Story

The Man from Earth is one of my all-time favorite sci-fi films. I discovered it two or three years ago on file-sharing networks and very I'm glad I did. Without the p2p community, this wonderful low-budget indie film (made for $200,000) would probably never have received wide distribution, a fact publicly acknowledged by the film's producer, Eric Wilkinson.

The Man from Earth isn't for everyone. It's a humanistic story centered around dialog, not one focused on technology and action sequences. It isn't glamorous and it isn't flashy. There are no big stars in it. No warp drives, lanky blue aliens, or fancy computer graphics. Nothing happens in it at all, really. Just a bunch of ordinary people sitting in a room talking. If this isn't your idea of fun, then you won't like this movie. But, if you give it a chance, you might find it as intriguing as I did.

Because the entirety of the film takes place inside the small room of a cabin in the woods, some people may find it a bit slow. I didn't. I was captivated by the story and didn't feel a lag at all during the 85 minute runtime, a testament to the brilliant writing and strength of the acting. All that's happening is friends and colleagues of Professor John Oldman dropping by to wish him well as he prepares to depart and the discussion that ensues after he tells them he is 14,000 years old. He never ages, perpetually frozen in appearance as a man in his late thirties. Initially incredulous, as they talk, they begin to ponder "what if".

This film explores the possibility of such a never-aging man with believability and wit, touching on the nature of humanity, spiritual/religious belief, and friendship. I especially enjoyed seeing Tony Todd (Dan, the anthropologist), who I'll always remember as Candyman.

The Man from Earth is good old-fashioned, thought-provoking sci-fi of a bygone era, like that of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, or Ray Bradbury, from a time when the genre was driven by ideas and intricate story details rather than technology. If you're looking for old school sci-fi, definitely have a look at this film.

No action, no adventure ... but great story all taking place in 1 room mostly! Interesting theory.

As an atheist living in a Christian-dominated world, it's somewhat refreshing to see a movie where the main character is also an atheist.

John Oldman (the main character) is approximately 14,000 years old and has seen so much of mankind's history unfold firsthand that it would make a historian drool. John relates the story of his past to a small group of his friends. They include a biologist, a college professor, a historian, an anthropologist, an archaeologist and a psychiatrist. Because this is such an educated group of professionals I object to them referring to John as a "caveman". With their advanced levels of education it would make more sense that they would refer to him as a "Neolithic man", a "Cro-Magnon" or perhaps simply an "ancient" or "immortal".

Calling John a "caveman" is the sort of intellectually lazy thing I would expect from a high school dropout. Not a college professor or an anthropologist. I understand that many Christians have been offended by this movie as the main character refers to the stories in the Bible as "myths" and he even claims that the myth of Jesus rising from the dead was inspired by him when he faked his own death 2,000 years ago and his followers caught him sneaking out of his own tomb.

TOO BAD! Christians have dominated America for decades! And most movies, TV shows, political campaigns and mass marketing campaigns were geared towards pleasing them! It's only fair that every now and then a movie director will come out with something geared towards pleasing my people! All in all, this movie is cerebral and thought provoking. It has no action scenes, nudity or special effects, however it does make you think and every now and again it's good to exercise your brain.

I have seen this movie twice now and it ranks as one of *the* best movies I have seen in 2007.

Whilst it is listed as a sci-fi movie, it could easily fall into a number of genres, so don't be put off by the category.

The storyline is quite unique, the acting was at times a little wooden, but this did not adversely detract from the unfolding of the tale woven by the lead character "John Oldman".

I'm truly surprised by the people who gave it 1 star - it is a thinking persons movie - there's no fight scenes; no cars blowing up; no long distance chases - the prime location for the filming is within the loungeroom of a house and while it's a little slow to start out, it picks up pace quite quickly.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

I found this little gem on a rack in a local video rental this past Monday. I watched it that night, not expecting much. Wednesday, I watched it again, this time with a friend. Friday, I bought it from Amazon.

The script has the distinction of being the final work -- completed on his deathbed -- of renowned SF author and screenwriter Jerome Bixby (Star Trek's "Mirror, Mirror," Twilight Zone's "It's a *Good* Life"), but it embodies an idea he'd been working on since the sixties. Those years of rumination made for a script of stunning depth and humanity.

Now, nearly a decade after its completion, Bixby's last script has been brought to the screen by his son Emerson and producer/director Richard Schenkman. It is obviously a labor of love, and a work that will repay close and careful consideration.

If you're looking for "Transformers II" or other bloated SciFi extravaganzas -- keep on looking. If, on the other hand, you're looking for a film that will make you *think*, SF fan or not, then this is the one to get!

Bill DeSmedt
author of "Singularity"
http://www.singularitythebook.com

Great story by Jerome Bixby, and great acting by David Lee Smith.

The story makes you ask what if you had to live through the ages--and never age past thirtyfive--what would it be like?

We always wonder what the purpose of life is...this story makes you ask what's the purpose of death?