Science Fiction can do a lot of things -- telling complex stories about the human condition or contemplating the great mysteries of the universe. It can also be a straightforward and fun experience, telling human stories against the bombastic adventures of Star Wars, Star Trek, and Guardians of the Galaxy. But The Man Who Fell to Earth is a very different kind of sci-fi, one inherently rooted in the human condition and the flaws we invite onto ourselves.
In this way, The Man Who Fell to Earth -- which now has a SteelBook UHD4K/Blu-Ray re-release courtesy of Best Buy -- stands out from the rest of the genre it inhabits. A tragedy about a brilliant man whose growing humanity only dooms him further, The Man Who Fell to Earth focuses on an alien who learns how to be human -- and in a subversion of that trope's typical development, it's not necessarily a good thing. David Bowie's performance as Newton becomes a somber warning of humanity's effect on others and becomes a particularly tragic sci-fi as a result.
The Man Who Fell to Earth Is a Human Tragedy With Sci-Fi Concepts
Introduced to audiences walking the streets of a small desolate town, Thomas Newton Howard spends the opening act of The Man Who Fell to Earth as a cipher. He's quiet, detached and brilliant -- with an apparent lack of any real drive to meet other people and forge bonds with them. It's not initially apparent to audiences what Newton's true nature is, but he's secretly an alien sent to Earth on a mission to recover natural resources. While on Earth though, he forges an unlikely bond with a woman, Mary-Lou, who introduces him to spirituality, sex and vices. Initially, Howard embraces these things and finds happiness, a human element breaking through his initially colder attitude. But the discovery of his true identity leads his business partner to betray him, Mary-Lou to abandon him, and the human government he'd quietly worked with to capture him.
The film's real tragedy comes in the third act, as Newton is reunited with Mary-Lou -- who has aged in a way the alien Howard can't. Increasingly bitter, she and Newton try to replicate their earlier happiness but find that it's become a hollow sense of lost love. He eventually escapes the captivity of the government but finds himself adrift in the world. He's rich and easily able to maintain his vices -- leading him to further indulge in his hedonism while releasing a message for his race under the guise of a music album. But his mission is a failure, his love squandered, and his heart broken. While he'd been detached from humanity before, his heartbreaking experience as part of it leaves him in an even more tragic and isolated state.
Becoming Human Is the True Tragedy of The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Man Who Fell to Earth is far from the first tragic or bittersweet sci-fi, but the ultimate themes of the film give it an additional somber element that helps it stand out from its peers. Many stories in the genre delve into the idea of an alien being introduced to humanity and changing as a result -- a thematic arc featured in everything from feel-good family films like Lilo & Stitch to haunting horror stories like Under the Skin. It's not even an alien concept to Bowie himself, who'd reached new heights of fame just years later with his stage persona of the alien rock god, Ziggy Stardust. But Newton's change highlights the tragic potential of human influence on an alien visitor, as the escapades of regular humans prove to be all too consuming for Howard. His happy days with Mary-Lou help slow down his plans, and his co-worker's curiosity about him gets Newton experimented on for years.
Even being reunited with the people he loved isn't treated as a moral triumph or minor victory. Rather, it's an ultimately bitter reunion for two people who'd once been in love but have lost that connection. It's a very human story for Newton, who loses everything he cared for at the cost of exposing himself to humanity and embracing it. His hedonistic ways result in a film that ends with him wondering aloud what became of Mary-Lou, even as their prior meetings had revealed her to be a far sadder woman. It's a sci-fi tragedy not about inevitable fate or unknowable questions, but about how the highs and lows of living can break even the greatest of minds. We're capable of escaping Earth but are weighed down by an emptiness we can never fill. It's a tragic tale; one that stands out in the sci-fi genre for its somber exploration of a very human tragedy.
The Man Who Fell to Earth's SteelBook UHD4K/Blu-Ray re-rerelease is now available from Best Buy.