Man From Earth (2007)

While clearly a no-budget film (shot almost entirely in a single room), this is nonetheless a remarkable bit of storytelling and offers a gripping, involving tale. John Oldman, decides its time to leave his life as a college professor. Wanting to take his leave with minimum fuss, his colleagues decide otherwise and arrive at his box filled residence with food and drink for an impromptu farewell, ensuring a room ripe with stereotypes for the story to play off of. Against his own better judgment, John decides to reveal his "real" self to his friends, and comes forth with the news he is an ageless, 14,000 year old Cro -Magnon. The recounting of his journey through the history of humankind is mesmerizing, and proves to be a tale with implications for all in his company provoking reactions from fascination to outrage, violence and disbelief to emotionally shattered.

Wisely playing this all with great understatement, Davlid Lee Smith delivers a gently powerful performance as history's most emotionally guarded man letting down his guard for the first time to reveal the truth about who is really is. The excellent ensemble cast (despite a moment or two of some hamfisted acting, a hurdle unavoidable in any screenplay relying entirely on human language) lend a realistic believability to John's colleagues.

An enormous relief from all the over-budgeted Hollywood costume and explosion dramas, this sensational little movie actually gets one to ponder some of the great questions as well as coming up with some provcative thought. Richard Schenkman is to be commended for (with minimal money) putting together an absolutely wonderful and entirely engaging movie.

John Oldman (David Lee Smith) has been a history professor for ten years and is now preparing to move away from the school he's dedicated a decade to. The reasons are initially his own until a group of his fellow friends and professors come by to say goodbye and he drops a bombshell on them; he claims to be a caveman who's lived eons and eons, witnessing historical events and even being part of that history that we thought we knew.

The group of professors that come by to send him off are a complex group: a religious studies professor, another that's an English prof, a psych prof, and a few others that round out a pretty decent world view.

Initially all of John's fellow colleagues challenge him, but his arguments are solid and disturbing. But is John for real? Or does he need psychotropic medications?

The thing about THE MAN FROM EARTH is that it's a stage-play put into film form. The entire movie is pure character exposition and dialogue with no action, flashbacks, or other techniques most movie-goers have become accustomed to. And this is both a strength and a weakness. The strength comes from the strong scripting of the dialogue that keeps the viewer interested and wondering how it will all pan out. The weakness is that it makes for incredibly slow pacing. Thankfully the The Man From Earth is only 87 minutes long, not stretching out its length and thus causing great yawns from the watchers.

The other strength within the movie is the acting. All of the characters were believable and the actors and actresses played their parts very well (being frustrated or angry or sad or scared, etc.). But the filming was tough to watch. Too many times the shots looked grainy or underexposed, giving it a B-movie feel; that was unfortunate.

Even so, this is an interesting treatise on humanity and how we might deal with the unexplainable should a friend thrust a near impossible quandary upon us.

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Wow I am blown away. I never though an entire movie revolving around a single conversation could have me so engrossed. No stunts, no special effects, no action, under a dozen actors/actresses sitting in a living room... and yet I'm sitting slack jawed watching the story unfold.

The movie is one for the brain ... challenges your mind, opens you to possibilities you never considered before. Of course, it could not be true, and I'm sure there are some holes I did not notice, but for the most part, the entire story fell together very well. Superb! I wish there were more movies like this.

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There is no, well very little, action or romance here. The movie is essentially and intellectual exploration of what it would be like for someone who lived for 14,000 years. Don't let that read as boring, because it is not at all.

What would it really be like to live for 14,000 years? Would you learn a bunch of languages and forget them after you haven't used them for a hundred or so years? Would you be able to identify yourself as a Cro-Magnon man after the phrase has been coined?

John is a college professor who has decided to quit his job and gathers up his friends at his cabin for a going away party. Over some nice Scotch he reveals a captivating story of a live that has lasted 140 centuries.

Do they believe him? Is he lying? Is he crazy? Is it some weird thought experiment? Or, is he telling the truth?

What is his take on the Christ and Buddha? On man? The environment?

I really enjoyed watching this thought-provoking movie. It's got an independent flavor, but is very accessible.

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The Man from Earth is one of my all-time favorite sci-fi films. I discovered it two or three years ago on file-sharing networks and very I'm glad I did. Without the p2p community, this wonderful low-budget indie film (made for $200,000) would probably never have received wide distribution, a fact publicly acknowledged by the film's producer, Eric Wilkinson.

The Man from Earth isn't for everyone. It's a humanistic story centered around dialog, not one focused on technology and action sequences. It isn't glamorous and it isn't flashy. There are no big stars in it. No warp drives, lanky blue aliens, or fancy computer graphics. Nothing happens in it at all, really. Just a bunch of ordinary people sitting in a room talking. If this isn't your idea of fun, then you won't like this movie. But, if you give it a chance, you might find it as intriguing as I did.

Because the entirety of the film takes place inside the small room of a cabin in the woods, some people may find it a bit slow. I didn't. I was captivated by the story and didn't feel a lag at all during the 85 minute runtime, a testament to the brilliant writing and strength of the acting. All that's happening is friends and colleagues of Professor John Oldman dropping by to wish him well as he prepares to depart and the discussion that ensues after he tells them he is 14,000 years old. He never ages, perpetually frozen in appearance as a man in his late thirties. Initially incredulous, as they talk, they begin to ponder "what if".

This film explores the possibility of such a never-aging man with believability and wit, touching on the nature of humanity, spiritual/religious belief, and friendship. I especially enjoyed seeing Tony Todd (Dan, the anthropologist), who I'll always remember as Candyman.

The Man from Earth is good old-fashioned, thought-provoking sci-fi of a bygone era, like that of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, or Ray Bradbury, from a time when the genre was driven by ideas and intricate story details rather than technology. If you're looking for old school sci-fi, definitely have a look at this film.

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