The Man Who Fell to Earth

Towards the end of the movie, Newton walks through a long, saloon-like room while the camera pans back.

A lamp at the upper right part of the screen moves, probably touched by the camera crew.

When Newton opens the cabinet mirror in the bathroom we can briefly see the reflection of a crew member.

During the first sex scene between Nathan Bryce and his student, her bra keeps changing from partially off to on to completely off to on again.

When Newton lifts up the cookies in the desperate moment before the transformation, there were only twelve cookies on the plate, then, when they were shuffling in the air, it's easily possible to count at least sixteen of it.

Newton only touches the plate once and there's only one plate of cookies, but when they were in the air, we can see two completely different lifting moments.

When Newton is in the shed watching a television set on a pile of fire wood the analog input dial is clearly set to "LINE" and not "TV.

" This reveals the content being displayed is a recording controlled by the filmmakers and not broadcast television.

During the last scene, as Newton talks to Bryce, the crew can be seen reflected in Newton's sunglasses.

David Bowie, though at the height of his mid-70s "glam" fame at the time when this unusual picture was made, gives a restrained and dignified performance in this classic sci-fi film directed by Nicolas Roeg from the novel by Walter Tevis. First time viewers like myself should not expect to hear any Bowie music, but rather an odd assortment of music gathered together by John Phillips (of "Mammas and Pappas" fame).

Favorite Movie Quote - "You know, Tommy, you're a freak. I don't mean that unkindly.

I have recently seen the director's cut of this film on a large screen in a private cinema in London. It has never been released to the public and it contains 20 minutes of footage which was cut from the released version.

Roeg's imagery has never been more abruptly disconcerting than in The Man Who Fell to Earth. See how the camera flies erratically over the mountains, through clouds and then suddenly exploding into a lake, and how Bowie's profile straggles over the first hilltop like an alien finding his first bearings and adjusting to the new environment.

I first saw this film in the late 70's and haven't been able to decide to this day whether it is the noodlings of a rather Sixth-Form mentality or a genuine work of art. The story - such as it is - concerns 'Thomas Newton' (Bowie), who appears from nowhere (he's actually from a distant planet) and presents himself to a corporate lawyer with several ground-breaking ideas for new products, all of which earn a massive amount of money for Newton's new company.

While I consider myself a fan of director Nicolas Roeg - his WALKABOUT and DON'T LOOK NOW are two of my favourite films - and a fan of David Bowie's music, I didn't think much of THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH at all. I don't mind arty films to a degree, but when a film becomes too abstract I tend to lose interest.

Its not what I expected, I can see why some people like it but its just not for me.I like when things are explained, why he knows what he knows as soon as he comes to Earth, how does he do things, I want to see it from alien perspecitve as that I why I was looking at this movie, but this is not it, and because of it, for me, it is boring, I don't like time jumps as solution to now show you some things because they don't know how to write it or show it, so they leave it to you to imagine it, I don't like that and because of all these things, this movie is just not that good in my opinion.

Pop music star David Bowie made a creditable starring debut here as "Thomas Jerome Newton", an enigmatic stranger who arrives on our planet. Over time, he builds a successful corporation with his cutting-edge patents, but his true goal in amassing this fortune will not be made clear until well into the story.

What a strangely wonderful movie this was... or maybe a wonderfully strange one.