The Man From Earth

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Time has arrived again to start off a review with a joke that consorts nicely with the subject matter of the very flick we will cheerfully take apart, just to reassemble.

Buddha decides to check on Mother Earth's surface, just to see how things are going, how people are behaving. He decides to disguise himself as an extremely poor man, as he intends to find out how others would react towards an individual who is evidently in need of serious compassion and a helping hand.

Buddha thinks, and finds himself in an alley, disguised as intended, and he notices a homeless man, heating cans of beans on a barrel that was set on fire. Buddha approaches the man, greets him and asks if he could have some of the beans. "Sure thing, man! One should share if one is free to do so. Here!" Buddha is pleased with all that, yet grows curious when he notices a can of beer beside the man. He asks if he would share his beer with him, as well. "Sure thing, man! One should share if one is free to do so. Here!" Buddha is pleased with all that, indeed. He is to thank for all he got and go on when the man reveals a long, rocket-like cigarette from out of nowhere. "Don't go man, take a shot of this. The hottest stuff you ever had!" Still curious, Buddha lets the man light up the cigarette and takes a deep sip from it. Buddha is pleased, Buddha is quite pleased, indeed. He concludes that the man is so extremely helpful and of evident goodwill that he decides to reveal the Truth. "Now you listen to me." - Buddha says. "I am Buddha." The man winks. "Told ya. Hottest stuff ever."

Jerome Bixby's story, The Man From Earth examines a situation quite similar to the one we had our hopefully enjoyable joke about, even better: it's film adaptation comes up as a stable effort summoning old fashioned, though absolutely decent television culture, and the acceptable acting levels are presenting the very nice mindgame Bixby came up with via strong devotion to the thoughtful, inventive subject matter.

Director Richard Schenkman had the chance to take control over a quite solid, colorful microcommunity of old fashioned - not a blame factor - TV actors AND a room, whom all seem to have a good time playing in this flick, even better, we do have a good time watching them. Imagine you have a dear friend who chooses to move away from the environment you two met and developed a close personal relation in. Imagine that when you ask about the causes of your friend's departure, she/he starts to account quite radical assumptions, softly, then more and more deliberately hinting that she/he has not just an eventful past, but, in fact, was around since times immemorial. Seen civilizations and cultures come and go, seen continents wonder around and solidify unto their current shapes, and now it is time to move on, as your friend truly can't bear watching beloved ones age and die beside.

Psychotic stuff, yes? In this, the friends of John Oldman - David Lee Smith - keenly agree upon at the early periods of the film, as the man in question offers statements quite similar to the ones we outlined before, and even claims modest, though determined factuality to them. A massively, it is even safe to say that entirely dialog oriented mindgame then unfolds, as the friends of Oldman all agree to play the game he invited them to play, yet it remains a question filled with ever increasing suspense and a focally puzzling dilemma if Oldman's fearfully coherent and logical explanations hide actual facts or the most dazzling lies ever spoken. Credit goes both for the directional choices and all the actors, as they are very diverse, sane personalities with extremely different temper and attitude, making up enough of decent arguments and mind challenges to fill the program time in without particular periods of hollowness.



The movie was released straight to the DVD market, not scheduled for theatrical presentations. It is quite understandable. When you finished watching the movie, be sure to offer yourself the mindgame of how effective of a theatrical trailer you could come up with to this flick. That would be quite Za Killa Traila, I assure you.

Sneak peak 1:
"Are you LYING to us, John?"
"What do YOU think?"

Sneak peak 2:
"John! You ARE lying to us!"
"You THINK?"

We shall not elaborate on whether the claims of Oldman are based on historical experiences or masterfully developed lies, though fortunately quite interesting paths to touch the seemingly right, proper, ultimate answer will be noticed and taken by the audience of the focal character. Let us conclude our observations of the story by telling that The Man From Earth does decent of a job in it's conclusion period, too. No need to fear of a blatantly cheap twistaraound.

With a living room, a sofa, a fireplace, a window and a couple of actors to take part in it, seems quite safe to assume that the flick would have no chance to render a defendable theatrical experience on the eye candy part, yet the fabric of the buildup is suited wonderfully well to be a theater presentation. I refer to the ones given by real 3D people on - stages. I am not aware if Bixby or the creative team behind the adaptation thought about this before, but it could be a very decent science-fiction play for sure.

In this here form of a film adaptation, Bixby's work still reveals itself as a thought experiment - copyright by Albert Einstein - that has chance to develop itself in a very natural way, thanks for it's logic and it's sane, yet of course quite ambitious starting assumption. Also, though a commonplace ambition it is, - probably would not pose humongous of a challenge to find people willing to live millions of years for - Bixby correctly noticed that little if any time yet were devoted to construct the hypothetical past-life of a character possessing those yearned traits naturally, not to mention the mere intellectual and spiritual reaction for such a hypothetical being on modern human's part, whom Bixby cleverly collides his fiction with. All these resulting in a quite decent TV experience and a highly defendable thought experiment of sober, yet not particularly explored fiction directions. Check this out and be a cautious judge of Oldman's story yourself when the movie is developing. Well, in case there is such a thing as a cautious judge.



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