History Film / TheManWhoFellToEarth

* DownerEnding: ''Oh yes''. Thomas [[spoiler:slips into alcoholism, is captured by the government and experimented on for years, fails his planet, lets his family die, and loses the only thing he has left to love on Earth]]. The book goes one "better": [[spoiler: when Thomas's ordeal is revealed to the public, it starts America down a political path towards ''nuclear war''...something that -- had his plan succeeded -- would have been prevented]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The first person Thomas sees on Earth is an old, shabby wino. [[spoiler: At the end, Thomas is just a better-dressed version of him.]]

* SecondLove: [[spoiler: Nathan is this for Mary-Lou.]]

* TheStoic: In the film, Thomas is a quiet soul whose emotionlessness rarely cracks; when it does it is usually when he is frightened and/or in physical pain. He was more emotional in the book, particularly at the end.

* OldFlameFizzle: In the final act, [[spoiler: Nathan arranges for Mary-Lou to stay with Thomas in his prison suite, hoping it will give him some relief. But in the years since he was imprisoned, she's visibly aged and he hasn't, just another of the differences between them that caused trouble before. While they enjoy a wild sexual tryst together, they no longer ''love'' each other, so they break up]]. A justified, downplayed case.

* ActingForTwo: Candy Clark plays both Mary-Lou and the wife Thomas left behind. This isn't obvious because the latter is a RubberForeheadAlien who has no dialogue.
** Candy Clark also played Thomas himself in one scene with a hat pulled over her face when David Bowie was ill.

* PromotedToLoveInterest: In the book, Thomas has no Earthly lover. Mary-Lou is a younger, Promoted to Love Interest version of the book character Betty Jo, who is middle-aged when she meets him and nurses an unrequited crush on him as one of his few confidantes. Interestingly, her ultimate fate -- [[spoiler: marrying Nathan]] -- remains the same as in the book.

* ReclusiveArtist: Newton definitely counts - he rarely goes out in public and leaves the day to day operations of the company to Farnsworth. Justified as he wants to escape detection.
** "My life is not secret, but it is private."
* ReCut: The American theatrical release reordered scenes and cut about twenty minutes, but the current video releases are uncut.

* HumansAreBastards: Averted. [[spoiler: Thomas tells Nathan, when all is said and done, "We'd have probably done the same to you, if you'd come 'round our place."]]

A [[TheSeventies 1976]] [[ScienceFiction sci-fi]] film directed by Nicolas Roeg, based upon the novel of the same name by Walter Tevis. It stars the thin, other-worldly Music/DavidBowie as the thin, other-worldly Thomas Jerome Newton. It centers around an extraterrestrial who journeys to Earth after his planet experiences an intense drought, determined to find a way to ship water to it. As he amasses a fortune with a variety of high-tech inventions, intending to use the money to build a ship that will solve his planet's problem, he embarks upon a love affair with a simple girl named Mary-Lou, which is nice, [[TheMistress I guess]]. Thomas also ends up starting a love affair with television and alcohol, which is a lot less nice, I guess. To reveal any more would delve this into spoiler city. Let's simply say the ending is... sad.

* ReclusiveAritst: Newton definitely counts - he rarely goes out in public and leaves the day to day operations of the company to Farnsworth. Justified as he wants to escape detection.

* NewWaveScienceFiction: The book and movie both came directly out of the New Wave movement of the sixties and seventies.

* {{Zeerust}}: A lot of the alien tech Thomas brings to Earth pales next to what humans have now, and when that's combined with the film's UnintentionalPeriodPiece aspects...Tellingly, a stage musical version of the novel that was floated at the TurnOfTheMillennium would have taken place in an alternate 1980s/'90s.

* TheRemake: A 1987 MadeForTVMovie that credited both the novel and screenplay but made plenty of changes since it was intended to launch a RecycledTheSeries.

* {{Zeerust}}

* ActorAllusion: [[BrowsHeldHigh Oancitizen]] put it best (to the tune of [[Film/{{Labyrinth}} "Magic Dance"]]):

* {{Zeerust}}

* MindScrew: The film frequently indulges in surreal imagery.

[[caption-width-right:248:Who cares if I can't read the poster? This movie looks [[MemeticSexGod pretty]] {{d|istressedDude}}amn [[FetishFuel great]].]]

--> ''Now, [[DavidBowie Ziggy Stardust]] was an alien on Earth''\\

* MeaningfulName: '''Newton''', as RogerEbert noted in his 2011 review (when the film was given a reissue on the arthouse circuit), is "a name with a lot of gravity". Oliver '''Farnsworth''', the patent attorney Newton hires, shares a surname with Philo Farnsworth, who was (to quote Wikipedia) the "Inventor of the first electronic television".

* MetaCasting: Roeg sought Bowie for the role of Thomas after seeing the BBC documentary profile ''Cracked Actor'', which followed the singer on his 1974 U.S. tour, and realizing he had exactly the stranger-in-a-strange-land (namely, the U.S.!) quality the character needed.

* {{Zeerust}}.

* ActorAllusion: [[BrowsHeldHigh Oancitizen]] put it best (to the tune of "Magic Dance"):

''Nicholas Roag must have known 'bout this''\\

* WilliamShatner: Not in the film itself, but he provided the relatively-subdued-yet-weighty voiceover intro for the U.S. trailer.
-->"This is one of the most unusual films you will ever see. ''The Man Who Fell to Earth'' is a fantastic movie about power, space, time, love, and a visitor."

* NoNewFashionsInTheFuture: Despite the fact that the human characters grow much older, it's all Seventies clothes, technology, etc.
** Somewhat justified, given that there are brief snippets (such as are significant in this movie) revealing that the government thinks that Newton is dangerous precisely because he brings progress, and that they're looking for stasis. Though it's less likely that the government would care as much about fashion as technology...
** In the book, there are changes in fashion -- frilly shirts for men, 'off-the-breast' gowns for women -- but the world is very much that of its writing, 1963-64.

* NonhumanLoverReveal: Gender flipped and deconstructed. When Thomas reveals his true form to Mary-Lou -- long after they've consummated their relationship (their lovemaking, it should be noted, requires him to be in his human disguise) -- she is horrified and repulsed. Thus, their already-troubled relationship is further damaged. [[spoiler: They have a last tryst together during his captivity and break up afterward.]]

It has become a [[CultClassic cult favorite]] for featuring highly surreal, striking imagery, to say nothing of Bowie in his first starring role. Another thing this film is noted for is a few '''very''' gratuitous sex scenes. It's a somewhat slow, thoughtful piece, and YMMV on how well it works out.