DVD review
Directed by: Nicolas Roeg
Starring: David Bowie, Rip Torn, Candy Clark, Buck Henry

Thomas Jerome Newton (David Bowie) is an enigma; a reclusive oddball character who has built one of the planet’s greatest business empires… But where did he come from?

Would Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth have been possible without the otherworldly presence of David Bowie? This non-actor performer is at the centre of the film, and Bowie was, in the mid-1970s, so unearthly anyway that playing the alien Newton, corrupted by earthly influence, seemed to come to him naturally. Imagine Roeg’s first choice, the 6’9” writer/filmmaker/ doctor and non-actor Michael Crichton, in the starring role!

Though we don’t discover this until halfway through the film, Newton is on Earth using his advanced technology patents to fund a space programme intended to bring relief to his dying planet. It’s a film that demands attention, otherwise its non-linear narrative is likely to confuse. This depth makes it ideal for re-viewing. It’s packed with astounding images and moments, like when Newton briefly sees a pioneer family in the past from his car, but they also see him…

Everyone in the film ages except for Newton. Much of the information about what’s going on is visual, rather than in expositional dialogue. Roeg shows, he doesn’t tell; and even then, he doesn’t show everything. It’s up to the viewer to make connections.

The film is well presented in a sharp, widescreen transfer, and the two discs come with some essential extras. There’s a Nic Roeg commentary (unavailable at press time) and a 25-minute 2002 documentary, Watching the Alien, featuring most of the significant, almost all-British crew members, plus Roeg and an unchanged, still beautiful Candy Clark. The only omission is the “cracked actor” Bowie himself. Roeg talks of his movie as “a strange film”, featuring fractured film grammar.

There’s also a French-sourced 15-minute interview (from a 26-minute version on the Region 1 Criterion disc) with screenwriter Paul Mayersberg, in which he discusses his “associative screenplay” and the influences of Cocteau and Franju on his “poetry of the alien.” Finally, among the main extras, is a new 30-minute, interesting but somewhat rambling, interview with Roeg himself. Brian J Robb

VERDICT: 9/10
A good package of DVD extras supports a wonderful film that rewards repeat viewing.