Half a Century Ago, a Mysterious Sci-Fi Film Sparked a Rock Star’s Reinvention

(SeaPRwire) –   David Bowie always possessed an otherworldly aura, even during periods when he wasn’t spending nights with synthesizers and subsisting on green peppers and milk. When he was engaged in such habits, the combination of his slender limbs, pale complexion, and one eye permanently widened from a childhood injury — he did not have heterochromia, despite common myth — appeared utterly alien. This made the shape-shifting rock icon the perfect choice to star in one of the 1970s’ most mysterious science fiction movies.

The Man Who Fell to Earth — which fits the melody of Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World” perfectly — originates from a 1962 Walter Tevis novel. Tevis also authored the source material for The Hustler and The Queen’s Gambit. This connection is clear early in Nicolas Roeg’s adaptation, which meticulously follows the novel’s plot while withholding the characters’ inner thoughts and drives. Consequently, the film can seem to be concealing things from the viewer, a feeling that is both aggravating and fitting for the narrative.

Bowie plays Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien who assumes the unlikely guise of a delicate Englishman adrift in the New Mexico desert, a region known for Roswell and atomic testing. In the opening, Thomas pawns what he says is his wedding ring. It is later revealed to be one of many gold rings on a chain in his pocket, which he sells individually until he has a stack of cash. This strangeness extends to his encounter with attorney Oliver Farnsworth (Buck Henry), who reviews documents Thomas provides, along with the money, during a late-night meeting at his home.

Roeg and screenwriter Paul Mayersberg quickly skip ahead several years, showing Farnsworth as the head of a vast corporation and Thomas as the secluded inventor whose patents generate immense wealth for all involved. This serves primarily as backstory, setting the stage for Roeg’s true focus: a peculiar character portrait of an alien who is first rescued, then ruined, by human beings and their vices.

Initially, his bond with Mary-Lou (Candy Clark) — who, though much shorter, manages to carry the polite, gaunt Thomas to his room after he faints in her hotel lobby — gives Thomas a purpose. She notes his skinniness and introduces him to the enjoyment of food; she flirts and introduces him to sexual pleasure. While selecting a future home together, she remarks on their lovely day; he looks at her, contemplating. So this is a “lovely day.” More harmfully, she also introduces him to alcohol, a substance that ultimately devastates both their lives.

The film features other characters and subplots, such as Rip Torn as a scientist and ex-professor who uncovers Thomas’s secret soon after they meet. However, Roeg is primarily captivated by imagery, focusing on Bowie’s physique and capturing his reactions to new sensations and feelings. The star’s unnatural look, accentuated by his two-toned hair and pallor, does much of the acting; a scene where Thomas reveals his true form to Mary-Lou requires only some latex and reptilian contact lenses. But Bowie also projects a sense of detachment, as if he is removed and unable to connect with others. In reality, this can be a byproduct of fame; in the film, the alienation has an extraterrestrial cause.

A longstanding opinion holds that Bowie, in a fragile state and often under the influence of cocaine, was not truly performing in Roeg’s film. He was merely being his own nervous, peculiar self. Bowie cultivated this story himself, telling Rolling Stone in 1983 that “just being me was perfectly adequate for the role. I wasn’t of this earth at that particular time.” While the mid-’70s were indeed a difficult era for the musician — he retired Ziggy Stardust in 1973 and later described being in a “fugue state” — his practice of adopting and shedding stage personas arguably trained him not just for acting, but for this particular role.

Bowie was initially slated to score The Man Who Fell to Earth, but the task ultimately fell to John Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas. (It was, again, a turbulent time for Bowie.) A year later, however, his explorations yielded something exceptional. In 1976, Bowie returned with the album Low, which infused electronic and ambient elements into his glam-rock style. As the first part of his “Berlin Trilogy,” it marked the start of an immensely creative and influential chapter. And what image did he choose for the album cover, symbolizing his artistic rebirth? A still from The Man Who Fell to Earth.

The Man Who Fell to Earth is currently streaming free on PlutoTV.