Rating: 
Summary: Great movie for speculative fiction fans
Review: I have not sen this movie on DVD yet, (I just found out it had been relased and am going to buyu it) but it was in fairly high rotation at out local "Art" theater when I was in High School" and a good rental in subsequent years.The film has the other worldly qualities of many european sci fi books (and some American speculative fiction).
This is low tech fun. (Watch "Farenheight 451" for a similar feel.)
Bowie is great as the alien. He plays the part much the way he plays the various stage personas in his music career. (He is definitely playing a different character here than he does in: "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" for example, which suggests that he might be able to act) "Slow paced, but odd" might be a good description. If you like that kind of thing, then see it.
This is not a traditional "Hollywood" Sci fi movie with lots of lasers and explosions. The hero is not a traditional hero. Howard Hughes is probably the most similar real person the this main character. If that interests you, then good. If not, then stay away. As far as Bowie music tie-ins all you get is the covers of two albums somewhere in the film. 1.) The picture of Bowie on the cover of "Low" is taken from the same era. 2.) The cover of "Station to Station" shows Bowie walking into the space ship he builds in the film (though I've never noticed that exact shot in the movie).
Rating: 
Summary: Up all night
Review: This movies speaks on a higher level. As if from the aliens
perspective. Our reality is a fast paced, confusing, over
stimulated existance. We all, as humans, strive to achieve a
goal in our life span and get pulled down by the earth (children
job, bills, debt) eventually, or die first. Only a few people
have been priviledged enough to experience true freedom on this planet. Up until I saw this movie I thought Bowie was one of those people.
Rating:
Summary: A Pointillistic Take on novel
Review: First: 1. Fans of the novel may not like the film. It takes a rather fragmented approach to the source material. But, for me, satisfying. It is a FILM ADAPTATION. 2. Bowie fans: no. He does not sing. There was no bootleg soundtrack. Most of the music Bowie wrote for this film wound up as Side 2 of "Low". MWFTE is effectively scored with top-notch music by Stomu Yamash'ta, and others. 3. Slackers brewing with envy at anything smacking of complexity or earnest pretension will probably hate it. The editing is purposefully oblique and strains towards seducing the viewer into an alien state of consiousness where time-skips and visual associations abound. Viewers who need all their dots connected for them, will probably find it 'artsy-fartsy' and/or boring. If you like other Roeg films early in his career, you will love it. If you find Roeg 'pretentious', well, go watch something else. 4. MWFTE holds up pretty well 25 years hence. The photography will look hip again in about three years. I still enjoy the musical selections a lot and wish a soundtrack had been released. 5. It's a rather simple story at heart: A man comes to this world and is seduced and betrayed by self-interested, fear-based humans. He understands all along how shallow and spineless most of them are - that they will likely betray and or crucify him despite all their sentiments - but he tries valiantly to get back to his celestial 'home'. In the end, they succeed in freezing their distorted lenses onto his eyes, and he gets stuck in a chat room staring at his navel (basically).
Rating: 
Summary: Artsy-Fartsy
Review: I must say that I love David Bowie. But this movie is just not worth buying or even watching. It's good if you like Artsy-Farsty movies that just don't make sense.
Rating:
Summary: Almost a Disaster
Review: David Bowie is one of my two or three favourite solo artists and I'd been wanting to watch this move for a long time. When I began watching it, it seemed very interesting but after a few minutes it felt like the movie was going to be a disaster. Thankfully, about half way through it suddenly picked up and I found the rest of the movie very entertaining, albeit in a bizarre way. Its a very arty film but still pretty accessible. Unfortunately there is no David Bowie music in it but the plot is interesting nad Bowie gives a fair performance.It also has some great lines in it like: "You know the thing about television is that it doesn't really tell you anything."
In a nutshell, the movie is about an alien who lands on earth on a mission and the difficulty he encounters. The ending is great. I never expected it.
This is one of those movies where you see things happen early on but don't understand their significance. Later, when more is revealed, then you get it. That may be one of the reasons I didn't like the earlier scenes as much as the later ones.
Finally, I have heard that bootlegs of a lost soundtrack for this album are available if you know where to look for them. I'm still searching.
Rating: 
Summary: mixed reactions...
Review: This is certainly not a film for all tastes. If you like science fiction or David Bowie, go for it. But I can't say how it might affect you. My viewing experience was not pure, it was already influenced by a number of factors. What is it about? Well, it's about an alien from a faraway planet who travels to earth. Resources on his home planet are depleted and the planet has turned into something resembling the Sahara desert. TJ Newton is sent to Earth on a mission to find a way to save his planet and its remaining inhabitants. Directed by Nicholas Roeg, the film is strange, arresting, lugubrious, moody, at times annoying, unnerving, and convoluted. David Bowie was perfect for the role of the alien, T.J. Newton. His slender (rather, emaciated at the time), boney, bird-like appearance already made him look otherworldly. Though the book by Walter Tevis is stronger and more moving (it's a fairly short book- definitely worth the read, even more so than seeing the film), the film- despite all its arty direction, is reasonably faithful to the story. I've seen about 30 minutes of Walkabout, and I think the director sets the same, eerie mood. The cinematography- the colors and the natural settings (in the desert and the forests)- was ok. It adequately reflected the sense of isolation felt by Newton himself. Yet, the movie does a very poor job of explaining Newton's purpose, which should have been brought to attention at the beginning. I can imagine a viewer who hasn't read the book become rather frustrated as to what's happening. And it's too long. Some of the scenes are just useless. The sound quality isn't very good either. So why see it? There are some very poignant, effective moments. In effect, it's a story of a stranger coming to a strange land and the intense loneliness and isolation he feels. Would earthlings really treat TJ Newton the way those in this film did? It's ultimately a film about emotional connections and detachment. This film I think has a different impact for me, because I saw it conjunction with a number of things- namely, the Walter Tevis book (Tevis also wrote a book called The Hustler, which was turned into a film starring Paul Newman if I'm not mistaken) and David Bowie. There was uncanny parallel (no doubt why they chose him) b.w Newton and Bowie, his former persona Ziggy Stardust, and b/w the film and his own life at the time. It's an interesting film, but I'd read the book first before considering seeing it. Sorry, this is a kind of vague recommendation, isn't it? I think perhaps a less pretentious and well...normal style (whatever that means) of filmmaking would have worked just fine. In fact the more I think about it, I'd just read the book.
Rating:
Summary: Not loving the Alien
Review: It seems that on a technologically advanced planet in another solar system, having a drought means all the buildings disappear and you're left with nothing for miles around except a mud hut. Then despite having less resources than an Ethopian desert dweller, you suddenly get in your low tech, driven-by-sail mud hut and trundle off to build a sophisticated spaceship which will then blast off to another planet. Or maybe you post your body via the 'transference of energy' as mentioned later in the film. In which case, why not take your family and aunty Flo with you? Yes, folks, we're back in the land of bonehead film making.
At various points throughout this 'startling' opus, David Bowie continually stops to raise his nose and give a protracted sniff. The audience is aware of a similar smell throughout the duration of this pretentious stinker directed by Nicolas Roeg, a man forever failing to interest us in his pictures despite the head start of unusual subject matter. Bowie constantly gurns, most risibly before whacking some cookies off an oven plate in what passes for him as a petulant sulk. The funniest moment occurs when Bowie screams "get out of my mind, all of you" to a wall of television sets. Look, just get out of the chair and pull the plug, son. The title of the picture says you're 'The Man Who Fell To Earth'. It didn't mention anything about breaking your legs as well. I guess it was meant to be 'way existential' or something.
Elsewhere there is a great deal of nookie going on. Strangely, couples have a tendency to start rolling on the floor and screaming 'till their lungs burst, and all this before they actually climb into bed and have sex. Don't ask me why, it's the Seventies.
Roeg obfuscates further with disappearing cars and an alien who talks in his sleep with someone whose standing clear the other side of a lake. A former cinematographer, his prime interest seems to be in producing a number of groovy images for a coffee table book rather than a coherent movie for the public.
Bowie, failing to make us love the alien in this particular instance, informs us (less than portentously, to be fair) that 'everything begins and ends in infinity'. Viewers unfortunate enough to encounter this laboured film will have no trouble getting to grips with this concept.
Rating:
Summary: The Evils of Alcohol...and the weaknesses of Man/AlienKind.
Review: Brilliant Science Fiction Flick revolving around the Struggles of a Being trying to better his world. Of course we discover that under it all, he's not much different than the average Earthling! Great "thinking" film.
Highly recommend this flick!
Rating:
Summary: The men who failed to un-earth ( the meaning of the novel)
Review: nicholas roeg ( director )and whoever the screenplay "writer" was blew this one. they turned one of the greatest novel of our time into a jumbled. dis-jointed, inaccurate and ultimately
dissapointing montage of confusing images and annoying sounds.
i can only hope a director and screenwriter who actually READ
this book and passed a test proving that they understood it will
attempt to get this one right sometime soon.
Rating:
Summary: a depressing masterpiece
Review: i've always found that solitude and loneliness are two of the best outlets for artistic expression. prime examples of this include, 'the metamorphosis,' by franz kafka, 'wish you were here,' by pink floyd, and this astounding film, 'the man who fell to earth.' the movie has a relatively simple plot. an alien comes to earth looking for water for his dying planet. he meet's a sensitive (yet boring and boozy), young woman who he has an affair with, but all the while, his heart is not on earth. it is on his home planet where his family is dying of thirst. at first, his mission stays on track. he starts a huge electronics corporation and begins building a machine that will be able to transport water into out space (nobody knows it's true purpose). however, he is soon corrupted by alcohol, meaningless sex, and television, and his mission starts to fall apart. on top of that, there are higher powers bent on destroying his mission and siezing the money he has made, and soon finds all those he thought were his friends desert him in his time of need. as he goes into an alcoholic daze, we realize that all of the characters are aging except for him, so presumably he has spent decades here on earth. it is at this point that his mission is completely lost, and he will never be able to return home. bowie's performance in this film is astounding. he assumes the role of an alien so perfectly, and he is simply so beautiful and androgynous. it's a wandering, isolated movie, not to be watched alone.
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