Jerome Bixby’s The Man From Earth (2007) is a great sci-fi movie. I know fans of low-budget fan-produced Trek sometimes visit this blog, and this movie is something that they owe it to themselves to check out. The few people who have watched The Man From Earth at my recommendation have always come back to share their thoughts…it’s the kind of film that last under two hours but starts a conversation that lasts three. It’s a great movie.
The Man From Earth introduces us to John Oldman (David Lee Smith), a college professor who is turning down tenure after 10 years to move on, move away. When John skips the goodbye party his fellow professors have arranged for him, a few of them decide to drop in on him at home. After all, who turns down tenure?
They find John packed and waiting for some movers, and of course they break out a bottle and settle in to wait. Before long, they are having an impromptu goodbye party.
Then something incredible happens…John turns to his fellow scholars and tells them he has been walking the Earth for 14,000 years and he has to leave because after 10 years people will start to notice that he never ages. They ask him if he’s serious, and John says we have some time to spare (waiting for the movers) so let’s just have fun with it…prove me wrong.
What if a man from the Upper Paleolithic had survived until the present day?“
The film goes down some interesting angles on whether or not a ‘caveman’ could pass among us today and what sort of knowledge might he have accumulated during 140 centuries of walking the Earth.
The Man From Earth has developed a sort of cult following over the few years since it’s release and racked up quite a number of awards. Though it is a low budget film the production value is very good; there are even a few familiar faces among the co-stars, a few faces you’ve probably seen before.
The movie is almost entirely dialog, and it all take place in one location. This is sci-fi for the thinking person, not for the masses. It doesn’t have a large budget, a boatload of CGI, explosions, or robots. The Man From Earth is that rare film that relies on storytelling and characters, it’s the story that makes you go wow, all without a single vampire or zombie in sight.
Writer Jerome Bixby might be a familiar name to fans of Star Trek. He wrote four episodes of the original Star Trek series: Mirror, Mirror, Day of the Dove, Requiem for Methuselah, and By Any Other Name. He also wrote an episode of The Twilight Zone. The concept for the movie was written about that same time (1960’s), but was not finished until Bixby was on his deathbed, making this story his final work.
Director Richard Schenkman adapted The Man From Earth into a play in 2012, so if you see the title at the local playhouse, I would suggest you check it out.
While writing this post, I found the entire movie available at Vimeo (above). It is also available on Netflix streaming and on DVD.
