The Man Who Fell to Earth

Any movie that falls into the classification of a cult classic becomes suggestive of the times when it was first released. With all of the hype that this film receives you would think that it would have stood the test of time rather well, but unfortunately the story is so dated that the futuristic science that takes place in the tale seems really lame. Its very clear from the opening shots that this is a complete vehicle for David Bowie to launch into an acting career and from beginning to end the character that he plays works into the persona that he was granting out to the public through his music and concert appearances.
A stranger appears out of the blue and begins a high-tech company that advances technology by decades, but the truth behind the company, and the man, is a mission to save a dying alien planet. Considering that this film was shot in the mid-70s, before the Star Wars craze began, its more of an art film than a sci-fi movie. The best part of this film comes when Bowie sheds his human disguise and you see him in his alien form, its interesting to see the transformation done as a costume change, and what he does with his eyes will send shivers down your spine. Even with all of the edited footage replaced from the 1976 American release, this is a slow and cumbersome film to sit through, there are times that even Bowie breaking out in song would have been an improvement.
This film had been on my list of classics to see for a very long time but now after seeing it I'm a little disappointed. Even though there were a few parts that were pretty good in the way of sci-fi, unfortunately the story takes to long to get to them and with all that time spent the viewer is gets lost very easily in the story. I wonder how many people would really watch this film more than once, the story isn't gripping enough to keep anyone's attention for very long, there is barely any action and the science fiction parts of the story are so diluted that you could barely call this a sci-fi film.