Movie Review - The man fron Earth

The man from Earth:
The title of the movie, and for that matter the sites on the internet, might suggest that the movie is another sci fi tale embedded with awe striking special effect and jaw dropping action sequences. The movie, however, is an insight into various into various aspects of human existence. For the audience who has watched the movie without any prior prejudices and who loves a good script/story, this movie is just too excellently written to be forgotten. It begins with a man asking a question ‘what if a man from Upper Paleolithic survived until the present day’, and the story begins to unfurl as the characters come to join in, rather getting involved in the story of that 14,000 year old man. The story is fabulously written by Jerome Bixby, who conceived the idea of the story in 1960’s but the story eventually came to its shape in his death bed 40 years later. Kudos to the director, Richard Schnekman, to achieve the task of keeping all the elements of the script intact and stark, the way they were supposed to be skipping the temptation for any visual effects which could have easily been introduced in the garb of flashbacks. And he does it keeping the audience absorbed in the story. ‘Blockbuster audience’ might get bored but for the audience who enjoy some serious intellectual work, it’s a masterpiece.
The movie is about a professor resigning his post and leaving his house suddenly without telling his friends and colleagues know of it. His colleagues however plan a small farewell get together for him and assemble just as he is moving his luggage. On questioned why he is leaving all of a sudden, he starts with the story of a 14,000 year old person who has survived from Paleolithic age to the present era. As the story continues, his colleagues comprising of anthropologist, biologist, Christian literalist, historian and psychiatrist keep on questioning him to know more and more about the man. The story turns out to be of the professor and the debate blankets all these fields and talk about the possibility of such a thing happening. Their conversations include historical events, theology and existence of God, physical possibility of regeneration of cells so that a man can stay vernal forever, conditions of immortality and many other topics. For an audience who likes the story and the ‘action’ which in can bring intellectually and not necessarily physically, this is going to be great movie. This is a movie where the script writer rules and the role of a director is just to ensure that he doesn’t ruin the intention with which the story has been written. Both the tasks are done with great excellence. For the audience who loved ‘Before sunrise’, ’Before sunset’, ‘Adaptation’ etc (read movies with good script) this movie is going to be a joyride.

My Rating: 9.25/10.00