If Bowie was going to play anyone/thing it would have to be an alien right? That's why we're uncovering Nicolas Roeg's THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH!
Like Schwarzenegger after him, he just needed to find the role he was born to play. Following the career track of Nicholas Roeg, we come to one of his seminal films, THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH.
It's a head-scratcher and we say that with an understanding of Roeg's work being a little disjointed and a heavy use of visual metaphors and match cutting BUT... It would have been nice to get a better through-line in the story. But no one hates this movie at OTB HQ, certainly not when Rip Torn is tearing through this sexy sci-fi circus like a Professor Lothario!
Laura: Well, hello there. Welcome to On the BiTTE the podcast that uncovers full frontal male nudity in cinema. My name is Laura, and I'm joined by my co host, Ryan Pure Beefeater I am dehydrated from watching this film.
Ryan: Um, yeah, no, um, there's not enough water on the planet for me to feel hydrated again after watching that, uh, violent amount of alcohol consumption. It's. Yeah, it's rough.
Laura: You're gonna need a large bottle of coconut water after watching the 1970 419 76 science fiction fantasy drama, the man who fell to earth.
Ryan: Yeah, this movie, uh, movie time, I think.
Laura: Uh, I actually started with a drink when we first put on this film. And then I stopped and I actually got water. I was like, I'm very thirsty.
Ryan: Yeah, it's, um. Well, I don't know, I think there's, like, some of his films you like. I don't know if it's maybe indicative of the man who fell to earth. Like, the story, um, maybe the book.
Laura: Um.
Ryan: You know, it is the way that it is, but, uh. Yeah, I don't know. Let's unravel, uh, this strange, enigmatic thing that we watched.
Laura: Yes. So this film stars David Bowie, Riptorn, Candy, Clark, Buck Henry, Bernie Casey, and it is directed by Nicholas Roeg. And, yeah, I'm gonna drop this synopsis that we pulled from letterbox. It's long. Tuck in. Are you ready?
Ryan: Oh, dear.
Laura: Alright.
Ryan: It's never a good sign when it's long. Cause, like, if you have a long synopsis, that basically means that you weren't able to truncate your story well enough.
Laura: It's five long sentences.
Ryan: Right. Okay.
Laura: Okay. Thomas Jerome Newton is an alien who has come to earth in search of water to save his home planet. Aided by lawyer Oliver Farnsworth, Thomas uses his knowledge of advanced technology to create profitable inventions while developing a method to transport water. Thomas meets Mary Lou, a quiet hotel clerk. Quiet. That's hilarious. Okay. Sorry.
Ryan: Yeah, she's far from quiet.
Laura: I gotta drop back in. A, uh, quiet hotel clerk and begins to fall in love with her. Just as he is ready to leave Earth, Thomas is intercepted by the us government and his entire plan is threatened. The tagline is power, space, time and a visitor. You know, actually, that it did kind of help me understand. Cause I actually had to read what the hell was going on because I got confused. I didn't know who was who. I didn't know what the plan was. I wasn't sure who was in control. I was confused by this film.
Ryan: Yeah. Um, I think when you hear the synopsis and then, you know, we watch the movie. Also, I've seen the movie before.
Laura: Um, first timer.
Ryan: I'm familiar with the story. Um, yeah, it is a bit of a. Ah. It's kind of indicative of Nicholas Roeg's work, though. Like, I feel like this is part and parcel of what he makes. So if, you know, I wouldn't say this is maybe, like, his best example, because certainly he may don't look now and walkabouts very pretty. Um, but you can't really argue that don't look now is not a great movie. But you understand that from start to finish. There's no question there.
Laura: The other films he's made, I've understood this one looks and feels like a lot of drugs were involved.
Ryan: Yeah. Which is true, potentially. Potentially. But I think, yeah, I mean, it's. I do feel like there's a level of it that's kind of. It's indicative of his. And his style overall.
Laura: It looks awesome.
Ryan: Does look awesome. It does look really cool. But I do. Yeah. I do agree with you in certain aspects where you're like, it could be a little clearer, or at least the through line could be a little clearer. Um, but, yeah, I mean, we can talk about Nicholas Roeg. So, Nicholas Jack Rogue. Uh, he's a CBE. He's also part of the british, uh, uh, society of Cinematographers. Uh, he's an english director and cinematographer.
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Ryan: Um, he made his debut 23 years after entering the film industry. Um, there's a kind of little bit here that kind of pertains to his style. I don't know how useful it is, but he's known for having. You know, his films are known for having scenes and images from the plot presented in a disarranged fashion out of chronicle order and casual order, kind of forcing the viewer to arrange the story themselves, which I think is true. I would say he's more. He's more a master of montage and of juxtaposition. And I think there's almost. It's almost guaranteed if there's a sex scene, it's going to be juxtaposed with something relatively, quite innocuous happening at the same time. And that happens at least four, five, maybe six times over the course of the man who fell to earth.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: Um, but, you know, he makes it last longer.
Laura: You know, he likes to. He likes to make that 16, really? He likes it. Draw it out a bit.
Ryan: I do like how? Because I think because he's. He's worked with. He's worked with, like, uh, David lean and stuff like that. So there are. He's maybe taken, uh, uh, some little nods from him where there's. There's some crazy match cuts that this man's been able to. To create. Like, I mean, if you. If you study Nicholas Roeg's films, you'll notice how cuts match and how he blends images together, um, within a montage. Now, does it necessarily mean that it has to make sense? No, I guess it's some kind of visual metaphor or some kind of visual significance that you'll be able to take from it. But that's kind of patent parcel of, uh, Nicholas Roeg's work, I would say. And unfortunately, he did pass away in 2018 from dementia, which is a shame.
Laura: Yeah. That's awful.
Ryan: Yes.
Laura: The worst.
Ryan: Yeah. So here's a selection of some of his films. This isn't everything because there's a bunch of shorts, there's some tv, there's some documentaries, all sorts of things. Also, he has quite a vast cinematographer, uh, filmography, uh, as well. But we kind of begin in 1970 with performance. Uh, uh, after that, we have walkabout in 71, who he was also the dop for. Don't, uh, look now, from, uh, 73. Uh, the man who fell to earth came in 76. Bad timing came in 1980, Eureka in 1983, insignificance, 1985. That's a. That's a really weird movie. It's got Albert Einstein and Marilyn Monroe and all sorts of people in that movie. Uh, cast away from 1986, Arya from 1987, track 29. You'd like that movie. He's got Gary Oldman in it. I've seen it, uh, from 1988, the Witches, 1990, which she's quite well known for. Cold Heaven from 91, two deaths from 95, and a film called Puffball from 2007. And like I said before, he has shorts, television and, uh, a bunch of films as a cinematographer. He was also the second unit photography for Lawrence of Arabia and doctor Zhivago.
Laura: Wow.
Ryan: So there you go.
Laura: Do you remember the day? I feel like I was watching bad timing, and you came home while I was watching it, and I was so upset.
Ryan: Is that the art Garfunkel movie? It is, yeah. I was wondering if you would remember. Yeah, it's fucking horrible.
Laura: Oh, my God.
Ryan: He's terrifying in that film. And it's like. Yeah, he's meant to be like a sex. Like a sexual interest in that movie.
Laura: The most disgusting man, isn't it? Not full of rape, but there is a. There is a rape and it is.
Ryan: Yeah. I think you're also awful. I think you're also expected to think art Garfunkel's attractive in that movie as well. And it's quite a tall order.
Laura: I'm sure he works for some. I wouldn't order it.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Personally, especially not after that. Cause I'll remember that if that was.
Ryan: On the menu, I'd, uh, turn the page.
Laura: He gives from that film that same feeling, and it persists forever, that I got from Bill Pullman in that Ellen DeGeneres movie, Mister wrong. I don't know. I've never forgotten that movie. But Bill Pullman puts Ellen DeGeneres in the trunk of a car and kidnaps her. And I just never. I could never look at Bill Pullman the same because it was such an amazing performance that it really grossed me out forever.
Ryan: Yeah. I mean, that whole synopsis of that movie just kind of grossed me out in general.
Laura: That, uh, just sounds like bad timing or Mister wrong.
Ryan: Uh, mister wrong. It sounds like one of the most unappealing things that's ever existed.
Laura: It's not, but
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Laura: it's pretty. I just. I don't. I don't want to talk about it. I don't know why I brought it up. I'm sorry.
Ryan: Okay.
Laura: Well, I hate that movie.
Ryan: If you're. Yeah. If you're saying things like, yeah, then it must be fucking abysmal. I'm sure it must be one of the worst fucking things.
Laura: Uh, maybe I shouldn't say that. I'm sure that it's fine. Okay. How about I just say I personally don't care for it. I'm not saying it's a bad film. I shouldn't say that.
Ryan: Someone's gonna find us on the Internet, and he's gonna be like, I'm just.
Laura: Saying I don't care for Mister wrong.
Ryan: Okay.
Laura: Bad timing I actually liked, but still, it really upset me.
Ryan: Still. Yeah.
Laura: But we are talking about the man who fell to earth. My first viewing. Really quite something. This film is based on the 1963 novel with the same name written, uh, by Walter Tevis, who also wrote the hustler, the color of money, and the queen's Gambit. All of which, as you might imagine, were adapted to the screen.
Ryan: Yes, they all were. Obviously, the queen gambit was a little bit later, but much later.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: Everyone knows about Paul Newman's portrayal, so.
Laura: Yeah. So Paramount had bought the rights to the novel, and Paramount distributed. Don't, uh, look now. Which was Nicholas Roeg's previous film.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: And right now, or at least in 2022, uh, there is a television continuation takes place 45 years after the events of man who fell to earth, and it stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Naomi Harris. That is on television.
Ryan: Okay. Yeah, yeah. I saw some reviews of that show, and it kind of follows the same, I guess, stylistic framework that the movie does.
Laura: So they have archival footage in the show from the film as well.
Ryan: That's interesting. Yeah. Because I'm wondering, is he. He's playing the David Bowie character. Is he?
Laura: Or don't know.
Ryan: Uh. Okay, let's not ask.
Laura: I didn't go that deep.
Ryan: Questions.
Laura: I know that I like Chiwetel Ejiofor, so, yeah, I would watch it.
Ryan: Okay.
Laura: I just haven't. Cause I'm kind of a little bit sick of these television shows that are, you know, adaptations or continuations or reboots or whatever, you know, of these really great films that we don't need these things.
Ryan: I guess not.
Laura: Fatal attraction. They did. And there was. There's another one, Jake Gyllenhaal, come. That's out. Um. What was that one?
Ryan: Oh, right. Yeah. It's not like, under suspicion. It's, um. I know exactly what you mean. It's very much, uh, that sexy beast. Yeah, sexy beast.
Laura: You know, I'm tired.
Ryan: Hmm. Yeah, no, it doesn't. Yeah, well, sexy beast sounded terrible. It was like a prequel to sexy beast. Um, yeah, no, I'm okay.
Laura: Yeah, exactly.
Ryan: I think it's like prejudice or something. Something prejudiced.
Laura: Presumed innocent.
Ryan: Presumed innocent.
Laura: I didn't even look that up. It came to my brain.
Ryan: Yeah. Okay.
Laura: I had to close my eyes, I saw Jake, and then I remember it.
Ryan: Sounds like one of those sexy thrillers from back in the day.
Laura: Uh, my favorite.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Well, that's why I watched that fatal attraction show with Joshua Jackson.
Ryan: Uh, and it's trash.
Laura: Boring.
Ryan: Yeah, it's straight trash.
Laura: Fatal attraction is one of my favorite films. And that. It's not necessary.
Ryan: No, it's not necessary. You are correct.
Laura: It's a bummer. So before Bowie was cast in the lead for the man who fell to earth, rogue actually considered Michael Crichton. He'd never acted before, but he goes, oh, he's got a look. He has a look. That didn't work out. He also considered Peter O'Toole, but he ended up casting Bowie after seeing the documentary cracked actor from 1975.
Ryan: Yeah, that makes sense.
Laura: And Bowie, have you seen that doc? I haven't.
Ryan: Yeah, it's quite short. I think it's a BBC doc. It's only 40 minutes or something.
Laura: I meant to watch it. It's on my watch list. I will. I'll get.
Ryan: It's interesting. Yeah, it's interesting. It goes through, like, his writing process, and I think it was, uh, wonder what album he was working on then. I don't know if it was like, young Americans or something. Well, you can track, uh, his evolution as a pop star, as a musician, uh, through the way that he looks. So I think he was. Maybe he might have been past, uh, his Aladdin scene phase at that point.
Laura: Right. Well, he was meant to do the soundtrack for this film, but there was contractual issues that got in the way.
Ryan: That's disappointing.
Laura: But, you know, he ended up revisiting all that stuff later on, you know, music kind of inspired by
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Laura: the film.
Ryan: Yeah. Because there's obvious, um, like, direct ties in the movie, which show, because he releases an album at the very end of the film. Um, the visitor. The visitor, which. Yeah. Which I'm like, okay, it would make sense because I will say, like, maybe one of the drawbacks to the movie, and I think kind of dates the film a little bit, is the music. I don't think the music selections are particularly great.
Laura: Some of the music cues are very funny, though.
Ryan: I don't know if they're meant to be. That's the thing, really.
Laura: Yeah, I laughed every time.
Ryan: They're very much. They're.
Laura: Yeah, they're the ones I'm talking about. Jarring, I would say, is when, you know, you're. You're looking at somebody, the music swells and it gets really, really loud, and then someone goes, hey, can you turn that down? It happened more than once, and I thought it was very funny. It seemed. It seemed like it was on purpose.
Ryan: It's a weird fourth wall breaking sort of thing. Um, which I think is fine. I'm. Me, personally to the choice in the music. I'm kind of. I'm slightly over it, um, by a certain point, or at least it's certainly not eliciting the sort of feelings I feel like I should be feeling during the course of the film.
Laura: So it certainly could have been elevated by a Bowie score, for sure.
Ryan: Yeah, it would have tied it together a little bit. It feels a little disjointed, and I think the music doesn't help. That's the issue. Yeah, it's a little bit too, kind of haphazardly kind of put together in that suggestion. So that's all I would kind of say on that.
Laura: Uh, yeah, well, the film was shot mainly in New Mexico with a small, mostly british crew and the screenwriter, Paul Meyersberg. Said that New Mexico as a location was heaven sent. He said there are more sightings of UFO's over its deserts than in the rest of the world. You really got the feeling that you were on a planet floating in space. They shot near Alamogordo and white sands near where they tested the atomic bomb.
Ryan: Yeah, that's what they do over there. That's what they did.
Laura: And speaking, I mentioned the drug use earlier. So Bowie said in a 1983 interview for Rolling Stone that he was absolutely wrecked on cocaine when they shot the film.
Ryan: Okay.
Laura: So much so that he didn't feel like he needed to act and that he, quote, wasn't of this earthen at that particular time.
Ryan: So I will say to his credit, he has a very kind of floaty, otherworldly nature to his performance in the film. Yes, it's probably due to drugs separating his soul from his body, but I will say because, you know, this is the seventies, put it this way. A lot of very good films came out of the seventies, but also the seventies is known for, certainly in the US, um, is known for its levels of excess, at least from the. Direct, from the creators director's side of things. Um, the amount of alcohol and drugs that was being used on set to create some of the films that were being made at that time.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: So it's not uncalled for. Do I think it elevates his performance though? I think. I don't know. Like, to me that's just Bowie. I think that was just Bowie's time. Um, you know, this was a very interesting time for him, and I think he comes, he comes more into his own as an actor, um, when the eighties swings around, you know, we have merry Christmas, Mister Lawrence, and then we have, you know, labyrinth and a whole swathe of different things that kind of come about. So for me, like, I like his performance in the man who fell to earth. Um, but you can kind of tell that this is one of his first acting roles, I feel like. But I think he just has an otherworldly presence in the film, which I think suits this well. Um, it's kind of like why they cast, uh, Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator or as Conan the barbarian. Like those first couple of roles for him. He was like. He was born to play those roles.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: But he's just like. He's such a physical presence. The same way that I think Bowie doesn't have to do an awful lot in this movie. He's kind of just present the way he is.
Laura: You know, you didn't mention Hercules in New York. I wonder why you didn't mention that. Yeah, I wasn't born to play Hercules.
Ryan: And I wonder why, too, that you'd even bother bringing
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Ryan: it up.
Laura: Because I can.
Ryan: I mean, just because you can doesn't mean that you should.
Laura: Well, I will.
Ryan: Well, you just did.
Laura: Thank you.
Ryan: Yes. And, uh, it was. It was not important.
Laura: It, um, felt good to me. So David Bowie was doing about ten Hercules, 10 grams of cocaine a day.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Uh, he also said, I'm not done talking about cocaine. He also said that my state of mind was quite fractured and fragmented, but I didn't really have much emotive force going for me, so it was quite easy for me to not relate too well with those around me.
Ryan: Right. Yeah.
Laura: He also brought with him to New Mexico his entire personal library that consisted of 400 books. He said that he was dead scared of leaving them in New York because I was knocking around with some pretty dodgy people and didn't want any of them nicking my books. Too many dealers running in and out of my place. What?
Ryan: And they had what he had expensive books.
Laura: He just didn't want anyone taking his books.
Ryan: It's pretty fucked up.
Laura: Too many drug dealers had access to his place in New York. And he goes, these are important to me. Don't take my shit.
Ryan: Yeah, I mean, that's fine.
Laura: I mean, he's paranoid. He's on 10 grams of cocaine a day. He's pretty paranoid.
Ryan: I do love the idea of a drug dealer ripping you off by taking your copy of fucking Canterbury tales or something.
Laura: You can imagine that he was probably not thinking particularly straight at the time.
Ryan: Yeah, he was probably paranoid, you know, just a bit. Yeah, maybe just a tiny amount. Just a little bit.
Laura: So the production was apparently quite rough. A lot of things went wrong.
Ryan: You don't say.
Laura: And it was a lot of things that weren't within their control. So cameras were getting jammed for no reason, constantly. And there was a scene that they filmed on an aztec burial ground where the hell's angels showed up.
Ryan: Oh, fuck.
Laura: And interrupted the scene. And then there was another time where Bowie drank contaminated milk and was sick for two days.
Ryan: Oh, fuck. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, it does sound like it's kind of slightly cursed. Like, that's not. That doesn't seem like it's any of their fault. I mean, the hell's angels showing up?
Laura: It's like, yeah, what are you gonna do?
Ryan: Yeah, they're ready to stomp some fucking heads, you know, like, here we go. But, yeah, um. Okay. Yeah, I mean, that stuff's interesting.
Laura: Thank you.
Ryan: That's interesting.
Laura: Thank you very much. And so, uh, I was researching, and I was trying to figure out what part they're talking about here. So let me just tell you what happened. So Tony Raymond, the cinematographer, said he didn't like the prop blood that they were using for the film, and I assume it's maybe the nipple scene. I think that's the. I'm trying to think that's the only scene that is bloody. Um, the nipple cutting.
Ryan: Well, when he's going up in the elevator, and he starts the hemorrhage from his. Okay, that's from his nose and stuff. He bleeds more there than he does in the surgery scene. Yeah.
Laura: Okay. Um, so that might be the scene. So he didn't like the prop blood, so he asked someone to go to the butcher's and grab pig's blood. But Bowie refused to use pig's blood. But he said he had no problem with human blood. So there was a nurse on set who ended up taking some of the cinematographer's blood to use for the scene.
Ryan: Right. I mean, that's a compromise. I mean, at least. At least there's a compromise there.
Laura: He said later on, he said this in an interview, and he goes, the things that we were allowed to do back then, they would never let us do now.
Ryan: No, that's like, beyond. That's like one of bloodletting.
Laura: Bloodletting.
Ryan: The cinematographer? Yeah, well, it's like, it's not only that. Like, he taught him m a fucking lesson as well. You know, he's just like, he's like, look, if you want to use different blood, then get your arm out. Like, we're gonna, we're gonna do this motherfucker. Um, yeah, because when it comes to. When it comes to, like, it just. It depends on what looks good on the film, really. And certainly I would, you know, I would also say that, like, this is the seventies. This is where blood in films is very red. Like, it's incredibly red. It's almost paint, like, so, yeah, I can kind of, I can understand that. Like, it kind of, you know, it just looks like a, ah. Like a lot of paint
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Ryan: blood in 1970s movies, because, like, don't look now. It's got a ton of blood in it, um, at certain points, but it's like, it's also characterized by the fact that there's that red coat that kind of characterizes the little girl in the movie too. So everything is this kind of vibrant red. To be honest, if you never told me that I wouldn't have known. I wouldn't have had any inkling whatsoever. Like, that's fake blood. It just kind of goes to show that, you know, they were getting away with doing certain things, but it's just kind of. It's kind of useless.
Laura: Yeah, what's the point?
Ryan: Yeah, it doesn't really matter because, of.
Laura: Course, you're not looking at the blood coming out of David Bowie's nose and go, wow, that looks like human blood.
Ryan: That looks like the blood from the cinematographer.
Laura: You don't think about it.
Ryan: You don't think about it.
Laura: Why would you? It's weird.
Ryan: It's completely superfluous to the. To what's happening. Like, as long as it looks okay, then that's fine.
Laura: The things, uh, you do for art.
Ryan: Yeah, I guess so. I guess so. Until you realize that, like, it's not worth anything. It's just like, okay. It's like, yeah, it's like, yeah, this was not worth any of the time I put into it.
Laura: I want to say I appreciate his sacrifice, but I. It. It's fine.
Ryan: Yeah. Not to be like a dick to you, Tony, but it's not worth it. It wasn't worth it. It doesn't translate well, so I'm sorry.
Laura: Wow. Okay. Those are all the main bits of trivia I have.
Ryan: Ooh, does that mean there's more trivia?
Laura: Let me look. No, that's it.
Ryan: Shit. You broke.
Laura: Let's just wrap it up.
Ryan: Okay?
Laura: Let's just turn it off.
Ryan: Yeah, we're done.
Laura: We don't need to talk about any penis.
Ryan: Well, here's the thing. We didn't even get to talk about a, uh, young Riptorn. That was something, wasn't it?
Laura: God.
Ryan: Oh, fucking Christ.
Laura: There are four separate penis scenes in this film, two of which very much surprised me. Yeah, two I knew about, which are David Bowie, but. But the other two are different people. One of them is rip torn.
Ryan: One of them is riptorn. Yeah, I. You dodge a wrench, you could dodge a ball.
Laura: Yeah, you could dodge a wrench. You can't dodge this dick.
Ryan: I like the taste.
Laura: Gross.
Ryan: Yeah. Cause he drinks his own fucking urine.
Laura: Is that the only quotes we have from Riptorne are from dodgeball? We don't have anything from men in black. And I'm sure he's done. I mean, those are good films.
Ryan: They're good films. I mean, he's been. He's had an entire career, God bless his soul, um, because he's now passed away.
Laura: It's nice to see Riptorin every time we shoot aliens on the men in black.
Ryan: Yeah. Well, I never thought, I never thought, I never thought. I couldn't remember if he was in this or not, but, uh, yeah, I mean, we bring in. We bring ripped torn into this straight away. Cause that's the first. That was the first scene, and you had a massive surprise look on your face. Well, so did I, to be fair.
Laura: I go, you have to rewind that immediately because I didn't know that. I. I was not expect. I was. I'm flabbergasted still. The fact that I saw the tip of Riptoran's penis today, there's a lot in the.
Ryan: There's a lot of sex in this movie. A lot of, like, fun sex, though. Like. But it's.
Laura: It's. I feel as though it's quite a bit of just rolling around.
Ryan: That's kind of not, uh, really any. There's no sex. There's no pounding. There's no bumping and grinding. No, it's just a lot of rolling around.
Laura: Yeah. Yeah.
Ryan: Yeah. I don't know. Maybe that's what they. That's what these 18 year olds did in the seventies.
Laura: Ew.
Ryan: With all these older man.
Laura: So. All right, so let's just. This penis scene, the rip torn penis scene is 29 minutes and 25 seconds into this. Rip torn's real name is Elmore rule torn Junior. Just so you know. His real name.
Ryan: Yeah. I mean, real life. Yeah. It made more sense to truncate it just to rip torn. Yeah, because that just makes more sense. Um, yeah, that's a mouthful.
Laura: He's a professor, correct? His character.
Ryan: He's a scientist, a professor. He's working at somewhere. And they're just like, yeah, maybe you should quit because you're not going to get anywhere other than being a teacher. And he's hounding. Yeah, he's hounding we, I guess, like w productions, if we call it, which is obviously, uh, the alien David Bowie's company
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Ryan: that he's using basically to funnel muddy to, um, basically create the space program that will get him home. Basically.
Laura: Um, with the water.
Ryan: With the water. He wants to get back to his family. I think that's the most important thing. Um, his strange anthropomorphic family.
Laura: Androgynous, I guess you mean not anthropomorphic.
Ryan: Yeah, whatever. Yes. That's exactly what I said. I'll, uh, just.
Laura: I'll just totally.
Ryan: I'll just say it again.
Laura: And they're not strange. They are. Um. You did it again.
Ryan: No, I didn't.
Laura: Androgynous.
Ryan: Oh, his androgynous family.
Laura: My God.
Ryan: Yeah, that's fine.
Laura: How do they procreate, I wonder? Because they're.
Ryan: Well, you saw how they procreate. They get all soppy.
Laura: Oh, is that. Was that the sex scene?
Ryan: Yeah, that's with his wife. That's how aliens.
Laura: Yeah, that's creamy. The spinning and the cream.
Ryan: Yeah. What did I refer to, uh, as it was? I gave it some. I called it, um, wet semeny dreams.
Laura: I wrote come bath.
Ryan: Yeah. I don't know.
Laura: Come bath.
Ryan: Yeah. It's not really a bath, though, is it, Laura?
Laura: No, they come slathering.
Ryan: Basically, they're hugging and rubbing each other as they secrete fluids from their. From their skins.
Laura: Wow. I really need to think more constructively and creatively when I'm watching a film and not just go, wow, that looks creamy. Because you watched it and you go, oh, no, that was them making, um, love.
Ryan: Yeah, because.
Laura: And I was like, huh? What's that?
Ryan: Well, again, I was doing the Nick rogue thing where I'm just like, well, he's intercutting it with him as an alien trying to have sex with, uh, Mary Lou.
Laura: Yes.
Ryan: In the bed. And she's like, I can't do this. You know? And it's.
Laura: Yeah, we're jumping all over the place.
Ryan: We are.
Laura: We're meant to be talking about.
Ryan: We're jumping around as much as the film did.
Laura: There you go.
Ryan: Yeah. So it's perfectly fine. No, let's say for this penis scene, riptorn, who's young, um, is lying in the bed with a girl. And this is also kind of like a weird moment because it's like this scene repeats. So the way that I suggest it.
Laura: Wild is I was very confused again during that scene with the sex scene with riptorn and all the girls.
Ryan: Yeah, no, it was him and two other ladies. But it's like it repeats because the same lines of dialogue are used. But it's to illustrate the fact that this man's a bit of a philanderer and he's having sex with his students. So the students are saying things like, you're not at all like my father, while they're lying in bed, like, naked. Like, that's 100% the thing you want to hear, um, when you're trying to get your Mac daddy on.
Laura: Well, what's even more concerning is the first girl who said, you're not at all like, my father was holding his penis in her hand up to her mouth.
Ryan: You did? Yeah.
Laura: And was almost using it as a microphone while saying, wow, you're not at all like my father.
Ryan: She goes, hello.
Laura: Why, hello, daddy. Why would she say that while staring at his wiener?
Ryan: Some people have their own little kinks. You can't be going in there. Someone might have a daddy complex. And they're just like, I like having sex with Riptorn. And Riptorn's like, I like to f.
Laura: Well, those are the girls that have sex with someone like Riptoran. Some people that have daddy issues.
Ryan: I guess, to be fair. He's doing all right, though. Like, he did all right during the course of this film. Like, he's, he's, he's bumping and grooving with all sorts of young ladies over the course of this movie is kind of crazy.
Laura: No, because as soon as he gets space job, he he's done. He goes, I lost the taste for 18 year olds. That's what he said. I lost the taste for 18 year olds. How foul.
Ryan: I mean, eventually we all do.
Laura: Yeah. When.
Ryan: Ew. Uh, when we're 19.
Laura: Yeah. When you.
Ryan: When you're like, I can't. I can't relate to you anymore.
Laura: Not when you're 45. And you go, wow, it's weird. I've.
Ryan: He's not 40. I've grown out of Laura. This is the seventies. It wasn't 45. It was probably 29. It's all gonna be Jesus Christ. Um, but, yeah, no, she uses, uh, his dick like a little microphone. Um.
Laura: Deary me, dearie me.
Ryan: It was a moment. It was pretty. I mean, I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty funny.
Laura: It was pretty funny.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: And there was just a lot of tussling and riptorin's butt and young ladies and tumbling about. Yeah, a little bit of.
Ryan: Ah, yeah. But you can't have a sex scene in the Nicholas
00:35:00
Ryan: Roeg movie without it intercutting into something else.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: You know, because, I mean, maybe one of the best sex scenes ever is in don't look now where it's them having sex, but then it's intercut with them getting dressed, which I think is genius. But the stuff in here, though, is, you know, it's not so much. I feel like he's maybe playing that card a little bit too much in this one. Um, because obviously, in don't look now, it's very successful in this one, he's like, I'll just do it another seven times and see if I can get away with it.
Laura: Yeah. There's scenes later in the movie where it works a little bit better. In the man who fell to earth.
Ryan: Yeah, yeah.
Laura: Like I said, like with the comeback.
Ryan: Yeah, with the comeback. This spinning and the swiveling and the jumping and the moistening.
Laura: Wish I could have found out what they used for that. Don't know.
Ryan: Who knows? Cottage cheese. Yeah, who knows?
Laura: Certainly not.
Ryan: But here's the thing. We know we're in the future because someone's playing cards with Sci-Fi cards. And you know how cards are Sci-Fi.
Laura: Cards when they're circular.
Ryan: Circular playing cards, ladies and gentlemen. Circular playing cards. Like coasters. He's playing solitaire with circular playing cards.
Laura: One of the most ridiculous things in the film.
Ryan: It's madness. Doesn't make any goddamn sense.
Laura: Stupid.
Ryan: Oh, it's stupid.
Laura: We need Sci-Fi playing cards, stat. Oh, we got silver ones. We got ones that are round. Um, go with the round one.
Ryan: I would have gone with the silver. Silver sounds actually quite. Well, silver is immediately futuristic. You gotta think about, like, we've come out of the seventies and we're. No, sorry. We've gone out of the sixties. And the sixties idea of the future was very. Was kind of silvery. Yeah, it was a little silvery. Certainly with barbarella, moonraker and Logan's, uh, run. I'd be like, it's a little. It's a little shimmery. So maybe by the time we get into the seventies, it's like aliens are real people, guys. They wear, like, raincoats in the Nevada desert and they're, you know, they're just with us.
Laura: Or even if the cards were clear.
Ryan: Because they're see through cards.
Laura: Yeah. You know, and you have the symbols on them.
Ryan: That's not bad.
Laura: Thank you. I'm coming up with these off the top of my head. Well, the alien family. Bowie's alien family has their, what they call a tv, but it's just a, like, uh, a translucent bit of card.
Ryan: It's what we refer to as, uh, a tablet nowadays.
Laura: That's it. There you go.
Ryan: Yeah, it's a tablet.
Laura: Space tablet.
Ryan: Space tablet.
Laura: Space tv.
Ryan: Yeah. IPad.
Laura: Yes.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: But it's not.
Ryan: Yes.
Laura: The whole thing is.
Ryan: It's just a piece of translucent plastic.
Laura: It's Google Glass.
Ryan: Yeah. Just like Google Glass.
Laura: There you go. Great. Google Glass. And you know how you can tell the passage of time in this film? Hairstyles.
Ryan: Hairstyles, mustaches. Yeah.
Laura: The person that doesn't change is our beautiful Bowie.
Ryan: Bowie is timeless, immortal, ageless. He doesn't change.
Laura: Pure beauty.
Ryan: And everyone just starts to get a little bit older as time goes on. Yeah, time. I wouldn't say time is like, it's not timey wimey, but certainly there is a sense of, yeah, we are going for a very, very, very long time. I did like the addition of Jim Lovell because he's in the space sequence, um, when they're at the launch pad.
Laura: Do you think everyone knows who that is?
Ryan: I mean, if you don't know who Jim Lovell is, um, you might as well just switch the podcast off now. No, you need to read about your space history because who is he? Jim Lovell? He, uh, was, uh, one of the NASA astronauts who was on Apollo 13 and was able to get, was able to get the, get the craft back and get themselves back to. Back to earth. Jim loves Tom Hanks. Yeah. Also, I think he. I don't know if he. Did he go to the moon before? I don't know if he was on Apollo eleven. He might have been.
Laura: I don't know. Do you not know your space history? Do you not know the complete history of Jim Lovell?
Ryan: Touche.
Laura: There you go.
Ryan: Touche. Look at her, guys. Look at her. Let's see how far this podcast goes now. Um, but, yeah, let's get to the next scene.
Laura: Okay, this next scene is in the new new Mexico house.
Ryan: Yes.
Laura: 58 minutes and 52 seconds. This one's a quickie. This one's a quickie. This is just a little.
Ryan: Yeah, this is the first boy. This is the first boy one.
Laura: Um, this isn't
00:40:00
Laura: the, as you were saying, how all the sex scenes have to be a montage. This is the sex and telescope montage.
Ryan: It was all rolling and tussling for the most part. Like, there's. The only one that gets kind of different is the one that we'll talk about last. But, um, yeah, the general premise persists. There's also, I mean, there's big shots of, like, vaginas and stuff as well. In this movie. There's sustained shots to the point where I'd be like, the balance ends up being a little bit off, but you're just kind of, again, presented with a, uh, Bush and you're just like, okay, why am I looking at this?
Laura: That's interesting, because I was thinking about that towards the end of the film, because I thought we did see quite a lot of female nudity and markedly more. But also. But this film still surprised me. I should probably save this for the end, but it still surprised me, the amount of full frontal male nudity in this film. Yeah, all around male nudity.
Ryan: There's quite a bit, certainly for the seventies. It's very brave.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: Um, yeah, it's very brave.
Laura: Or four different scenes with three different actors. That is. That's incredibly rare. And I'm trying to think of another film that's done that. You know, m. I'll think about it. I'm sure there's. I'm sure there's. I mean, other than, oh, gosh, there's movies that we've done that have a lot of different penises in it, but.
Ryan: Yeah, yeah, there's dull differences, like, stranger.
Laura: By the lake and stuff, but that's different. Like, that's more modern. This is.
Ryan: It's very different.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: Yeah, it's very different. This is kind of. Yeah, this is kind of still in the vein of, like, trying to play itself safe as well. I mean, you are presented with, like, full vaginas and stuff as well at points, like, just the way that is business as usual for Nicholas Roe. Gets a lot of rolling around and a lot of, like, fast cutting and jump cutting and stuff like that. Like, what you get out of the sex scenes is nothing too dissimilar from what you've seen with these other films as well. So.
Laura: Yeah. Um, they're decorating the house. They're looking in the telescope.
Ryan: She loves herself a telescope.
Laura: I like that scene. Yeah, I like that. Because she says to him, oh, you're such a nice man. And he goes, oh, no, I'm not.
Ryan: No, I like that because he's not a man. That's right, wink.
Laura: That's right. She doesn't know that, though.
Ryan: Uh, yet. Didn't you find it weird when ript horn was kind of just like, well, thank Christ you're not lithuanian.
Laura: He said that?
Ryan: Yeah. He says, you're not lithuanian, are you? And he's like, no, I'm from England. And he's like, got some weird bias towards Lithuania.
Laura: For whatever reason, Lithuanian was a weird jump. Cause he's obviously english.
Ryan: Well, Lithuania is, like, a weird place to have some kind of level of prejudice about as well.
Laura: Kind of just, I thought of it more as, let me think of somewhere where I wouldn't normally meet somebody. You know, I wouldn't normally meet someone from Lithuania here in the New Mexico desert, you know, I thought maybe he thought that Lithuania was just so foreign to him because David Bowie's so weird. He goes, what's the weirdest place I can think of off the top of my head? Lithuania.
Ryan: I would start to doubt my new hire at that point, though. Like, if he thought Lithuania was like a planet yeah, well, I'd be like, he's a scientist. I'd be like, well, he's like, I know I'm not a scientist, but I also am starting to realize that maybe you're a bit of a fucking idiot. You don't know. Yeah. Which I thought was kind of funny.
Laura: The weird length that riptorn goes to to discern that Bowie is not of this earth was very weird.
Ryan: Yeah, it's, um. Um.
Laura: I hear you're also into photography.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Oh, no, I'm into energy.
Ryan: I would also be kind of like, you know, where like, here's the thing, like, boy's character is wanting to divulge his secret because he doesn't. He, you know, he keeps on saying through the course of the film is that he's not secretive, he's just private. But I do think there's a perverted sense about him where it's just like, well, I wish I could be fully accepted for who I am, so I will reveal myself. And then effectively what happens is by revealing himself, that's effectively his undoing. Um, because again, it's playing on the sense of human nature and that what we fear we seek to destroy and in the hopes of trying to understand it more and all these sorts of things. It's very kind of, uh,
00:45:00
Ryan: it's very kind of upsetting, I guess, in that regard.
Laura: Yeah. The sense of the other. And he. Yeah, he wants to be accepted. But I feel though, as though he. He feels that he's losing himself, you know, after a while.
Ryan: Yeah, he's diving. Yeah, he's diving deeper and deeper, like into, like, ah, an emotional abyss because he's nothing. He's not emotional. Like, as a creature. He is emotionless, I guess, which I feel like is counter productive to like his. His, um. Um. Like his plight, which is to get home to his family, which obviously that he loves. But for the most part, he is very cold and emotionless throughout the course of the film or certainly the way that he views people around him. He's quite cold and quite, you know, and quite emotionless through the course of the film.
Laura: So Mary Lud tends to get that out of him. But she also is a horrible influence where he really just wants to drink water and all she wants to do is drink gin.
Ryan: And he substitutes water for gin. Just big old bottles of beef eater gin, which to me is like, you know what that reminds me of?
Laura: Just straight gin.
Ryan: You know what this reminds me of? And maybe the UK people like who, like Vic, uh, and Bob would be the sweaty fox. They had a character called the sweaty fox who was, for all intents and purposes, was a very smelly fox who just loved Ginna. Like, just wouldn't stop drinking gin.
Laura: It was weird to me when I, the first time I went to Scotland when I was visiting, and I would drink whiskey. You know, whiskey is my, is my drink of choice. But everyone there drinks gin.
Ryan: I don't like gin. I've never liked gin.
Laura: Yeah, I don't like it either. Maybe if someone made me a nice mixed drink with gin, I would have it.
Ryan: But I just feel I've had slow gin before. Slow gin is okay, but then it's kind of, it's like masked by, you know, the berries and the taste of it and stuff like that. It's kind of slightly different.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: I feel like I was going to get a better reaction out of you about the sweaty fox. I'm going to show you some videos.
Laura: Yeah. I'm unfamiliar.
Ryan: Yeah, it's funny, the sort of crap you like. You'll find it hilarious.
Laura: Oh, cool.
Ryan: Um, yeah, but then this kind of gets us in towards complete different. Segway has nothing to do. It's like if he was diving into a pool of gin, except this is just a normal pool.
Laura: Yeah. Okay. I wrote notes about government covered montage, and I wrote about people getting tossed out of windows and how Mary Lou pisses herself.
Ryan: Yeah. As you do.
Laura: Okay.
Ryan: Um, like this next scene, this next dick scene is another very, ah, surprising one. There is basically only three or four, like, uh, overcranked shots in the movie. Like slow mo shots of this level of slow mo.
Laura: Um, so this one is an hour, 43 minutes and about 40 seconds is this one. And, yeah, it was a weird, interconnected shot where it was someone falling out of a window. Right.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: To someone diving in a pool. It was awesome.
Ryan: Yeah, it's kind of like there's a lot of. The lawyer gets chucked out of a window. And I love the fact.
Laura: Oh, my God, I love the fact that wasn't funny. That was hilarious.
Ryan: Well, I love the fact that, like, they throw them once and it just cracks the window and they're like shit. And they pick them up and they just, they do it again. And they're wearing those gold helmets as well. So there's a lot. Yeah, there's a lot of weird shit. And then, yeah, the second time they're able to, like, get him out of the window. But, yeah, there's, like, him falling out of the window. There's the weights and stuff. They get thrown out of the window.
Laura: Oh, his lover gets thrown out the window?
Ryan: Yeah. And then it's the. It's the tumbling and stuff. And then you see one of the government boys dives into his pool, and then he swims up to his woman. This is all one shot. He swims up to his woman, and he picks the woman up from the bottom of the pool and lifts her out of the pool while he is in the pool, which I was just like, okay. And then without us even realizing it, because I was blown away by the fact that he was able to do that, he also gets up and out of the pool, and then he's kind of, like, hugging her and kissing her. And then you kind of see it from the side.
Laura: Yeah. I thought maybe it was some sort of reverse shot, but it wasn't.
Ryan: I thought it was as well, but.
Laura: It'S not, because I go, how
00:50:00
Laura: could.
Ryan: He dives out of the water backwards?
Laura: Yeah, because it was one shot. So I go, you can't do that. Right. It had to be.
Ryan: It physically doesn't make any sense. But I think it was because we were so blown away by the fact that he just lifted her, uh, out, uh, of the pool. While he was in the pool. Standing just right onto the pool, though. Like, his arms, like, like, his arms went like. Like fucking mister fantastic. Like, stretched out, uh, like Mister Armstrong just, like, pushed her out of the pool. Like, they just lifted her up. Very. Yeah, very kind of. It feels odd, but, uh, yeah, you do see a bit of the brief shaft in there, and it's there. That's the thing. Like, like, for the stuff that, like, it makes sense in the scenes that are there because the majority of them are sex scenes. But the thing is, is, like, if you're nate, if the character is naked, more than likely you're gonna be seeing all of their bits and bobs. So there is that element. I would say that kind of counts for this film.
Laura: Absolutely.
Ryan: You know, there's no shying away from the fact if they're taking their clothes off, you're probably gonna see a lot, like, a lot of stuff.
Laura: Yeah. If you've got your own pool in the backyard, you're diving in naked. Sometimes, maybe.
Ryan: But then you better make sure that pool's clean. Otherwise, um, you got some sort of worm organism drilling its way into your house.
Laura: What are you talking about?
Ryan: That, uh, happens. I heard that in stories.
Laura: But if you're wearing a swimsuit in a dirty pool, it doesn't matter.
Ryan: You know, there's organisms out there that um. Um, their soul. Their soul purpose. And, like, they are big as well. They will drill a hole into the end of your dick, and they will feed off of you and, uh. Like a parasite. And they will stay there like Robert.
Laura: F. Kennedy in his brain, maybe.
Ryan: I mean, I don't know if he had it on his dick.
Laura: Maybe that's where it came from. Then it wiggled all the way up.
Ryan: To his brain, maybe. That's. That's a. That's a weird story, uh, in and itself, actually. I don't know why we're bringing it up on the podcast, but anyway.
Laura: Well, you're talking about penis worms for some reason.
Ryan: Well, yeah, they're penis bugs, and they attach themselves to your. To their member.
Laura: I'm pretty sure that. Enough chlorine, you'll be fine. And that pool looked pristine.
Ryan: Yeah, I hope so.
Laura: That guy is clean as a whistle.
Ryan: Government clean.
Laura: He's government clean. And I was really blown away by that whole thing. I did a little squeal when I saw that butt. I'm like, whoa, we got another one.
Ryan: It's all. Yeah, I mean, it's all in one shot as well. Just, I think the fact that. I'm more blown away by the fact he just lifted her off the pool and then just put her on the side of the pool. And I was just like, wow. I was like, look at him go.
Laura: So strong.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Uh, should we just jump into the last one?
Ryan: I think so. Because I'm. I mean, we can't. We can't explain the film.
Laura: No. There's so much that happens. There's a lot of. There's a lot of stuff that I don't quite understand with.
Ryan: Well, uh, I think I'll correct myself. I refuse to explain this film.
Laura: Yeah, that's fair.
Ryan: Yeah. So here comes the last one now.
Laura: Alien experiments.
Ryan: Do you remember what happened in the scene with the telescope? Basically, this is kind of an extension of that, except it's kind of wild and crazy and boy has a gun.
Laura: Ah. Uh, 1 hour, 58 minutes and about 25 seconds. But the whole scene. Oh, uh. Uh, how do I say. This might be one of the craziest scenes I've seen in a film.
Ryan: Gun sex play.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: Yeah. And it's like, well, it is a loaded gun, but, like, here's my thing, is that it's got blanks in it.
Laura: So it's like, you can't shoot a gun with a blank in it. Point blank in someone's face.
Ryan: No, it'll actually. It'll actually hurt you. Yeah, it'll probably cause you some damage. Um, it does, yeah, it will. It will hurt you. But, you know, they are quite clever. It cuts to. It cuts to, like, a, uh. It's like a superimposition of, like, the gun flash and stuff on black that. That they show you.
Laura: So lots of jin. So, so very much Jin.
Ryan: Stinky Jin.
Laura: And, you know, you've got regular m young Bowie and Mary Lou, who's gotten quite a bit older, and. But she's still ready to go to.
Ryan: Pound town, and, well, she's madly in love with him. There is that, uh, like, she is madly in love with the guy. This is. Yeah, this is probably the most prominent scene other than, say, the Riptoran one, which is just kind of a fucking. Your mind
00:55:00
Ryan: is blown when that happens.
Laura: Yeah. That.
Ryan: With this, it's like, there's no question as to, like, what's going on. It's like two naked people having an awful lot of fun, and with a gun.
Laura: Um, he's putting the gun in spots, and the gun's going off, and I. It's almost a strobe thing going, and.
Ryan: It'S a bit manic.
Laura: There's a lot of.
Ryan: There's a lot of mania going on. Um, but, yeah, it's kind of. It's one of those scenes as well. Like, we're not doing it any justice. It's kind of. It's something. It's something that you need to watch for yourself.
Laura: This is quite an infamous scene. When I was doing the research on it, I remember reading a lot about the gun scene before I had watched the movie, so I didn't want to go too deep before I actually watched it. And then when I did, I go, holy mackerel. Yeah, I get it now. I get why that is quite infamous. I'm sure everyone's seen it already, and you know what we're talking about.
Ryan: Well, yeah, you should have. If not, then you have to stop this and go watch it right now.
Laura: Or at the end. So, I mean, yeah, you might stop now. Just. Just come with us to the end.
Ryan: Come with us to the end.
Laura: Come on.
Ryan: Come to the end.
Laura: Take my hand.
Ryan: Take my hand. We're gonna jump out of the window.
Laura: We're gonna jump into the pool.
Ryan: We're gonna jump into the pool.
Laura: Naked window. Throw someone out a window.
Ryan: Shuck a fucker out the window.
Laura: It did make me laugh at the very end when Marilu was shopping with Riptorin, and she was like, you know what? I'd like to try this for a change. And grabs a bottle of Tanqueray instead of a bottle of beefeater.
Ryan: Oh, fuck.
Laura: I go, oh, gross. Yeah, let me just try this other thing 60 years later.
Ryan: You know what's funny, though, is that not so much time passed for her, but she obviously doubled her age just by the way she looked cause of her fucking drinking habit.
Laura: They did her so dirty.
Ryan: They did.
Laura: With her makeup, with her prosthetics. She looked rough as hell. Yeah, she looked rough as hell. They even did battered leather. Yeah, even her I. When. When they're in the gun scene, her butt and stuff. They did stuff to her butt where it just looked.
Ryan: They did stuff to make her look sexy.
Laura: And Ript horn looked great. He looked great.
Ryan: He did. Yeah, there was a great job with his. Well, you know, men age more gracefully than women do.
Laura: Yikes. All right. All right. Yeah, cool. So this is an interesting one. I've gone back and forth with my ratings for visibility and context, so I'm gonna let you go first.
Ryan: I'm just gonna give it, uh, a three and a half. I don't think it's that great.
Laura: I know.
Ryan: I also don't think it's bad. Yeah, we've done far worse on this podcast, but this is also like, at least to me, this was one of the big ones. It doesn't feel like a big one now. Cause we've actually covered ones that are slightly more extensive than this. But, uh, yeah, I would say that this maybe gets a three and a half contextually, like, it works. I mean, you might not feel, you know, particularly comfortable looking at some of it, but at least it's there with a little bit of a light hearted tone. And obviously it kind of turns to straight mania by the time you get near the end with the gun scene and stuff like that. So, you know, at least then, I think, and I pointed out before, is that at least when there are people who are naked and you're gonna see their bits and bobs. So there is that. It's not like they shy away from it, but there's obviously. There's also obviously aspects of it where, you know, it is the seventies. I think it's brave for the seventies, but at the same time, they're still trying to play it safe. And that makes sense to me.
Laura: Yeah, yeah. I was trying to go between a three and a half and a four. Uh, but we don't really do quarters, so I'm going to stick with three and a half because we've done better. But good lord, towards the end with that manic gun scene. There's a lot of nudity. A lot, lot more than I was expecting, considering how minimal it is in the rest of the film. There's frequent scenes, but that you don't see very much. But at the end you do a lot. Um, but it is kind of sporadic. And it is within a scene that is a lot of strobes. So it's not a blink and you miss it. You will see it. That is for sure. And there's quite a bit of it. Yeah, three and a half is pretty good. And, uh, how about the film, Ryan?
Ryan: Um, well, I've seen the film before. I probably liked it a little bit more when I was younger. Now that we're getting into this, I gave the film a
01:00:00
Ryan: three and a half. I think there's some good stuff in it. And I think certainly a lot of Nicholas Rogue stuff's a little bit. It's inspirational. It's influential to me. Um, but for me, the man who fell to earth falls a tiny bit short for certain aspects of the storytelling. And just some of the things that it does to the point where it's like, the film's way too long. I think that was the issue I had with it when I told you that we were going to do it for the episode. It's just like. It's like two and a half hours. It pretty much is two and a half hours. And it's a little bit. It does end up being. Feeling a little bit disjointed. And certainly the soundtrack, I don't think is particularly great. But there are some interesting things in it, you know, so it has some value, at least to me. And there's some nice looking stuff in it. But at the same time, I think, uh, it doesn't tick all of my boxes. Certainly the story is just a little bit too disjointed for my taste.
Laura: I gave the film a three. And I think that there is a very big possibility that at some point down the line, I might end up giving this a four and a half. I feel like that this film has the potential to jump up quite a bit. Right now. I'm a little bit taken aback. I was confused. I had to read about what the hell was going on. Who are these people? Is he kidnapped? I don't know. Is he gonna go home? What's happening? He's. Now he's a drunkard, and he's drinking real, real huge volumes of gin. And that made me sad. So I didn't come away from this feeling great. Uh, it's beautiful. And I will definitely watch it again. So, I don't know, watch my letterboxd. Maybe you'll see if I change my mind at some point. But right now it's a three. But I could see it jumping up quite a bit because there's a lot to like, and it is very, very nice to look at.
Ryan: Yeah, I do think it's a, uh, it's a. It's a. It's one of those strong contenders for, like, a love it or hate it sort of film. I think people who love it absolutely adore it, and they'll. They'll. They'll cry from the rooftops of how much they adore it, but then people who fucking hate it will tell you how much they hate it and how much of a fucking piece of shit it is. Like, I think it has that quality to it.
Laura: But then why are we right in the middle?
Ryan: I mean, I also think it's. I also, uh. I also think it's good, though. That's the thing. I don't think three and a half is bad. We're not in the middle because it's two and a half for you. I think you're just maybe a little bit confused by it, and I think you need to be in it. Uh, you have to be in a very specific frame of mind to, like, be into this. I feel like you're watching it for the first time all the way through. This is work. I don't think the man who fell to earth is one of those films that we can, on a first viewing, be like. That is definitively the answer for this film. You probably need to watch it a couple of other times.
Laura: Yeah, I'm not shutting it down. Like I said, I think it has potential to be. To be a, uh, favorite at some point. Not an all time top five or anything, but it has the potential to go up quite a bit.
Ryan: No, but, like, yeah, I think there's still a love it or hate it kind of feeling about this movie, and I don't hate it. I'm certainly not camp.
Laura: Um, I could watch Bowie. You know, he was fun to watch, and he was really interesting, and his hair was great.
Ryan: Yeah, I will say the coloring on his hair is pretty. Pretty, uh, excellent. So. Yeah.
Laura: Well, thank you for that, uh, thank you for that conversation. Right.
Ryan: Wow. You couldn't have made that anymore. Yeah.
Laura: Um. Per ardua ad astra to you.
Ryan: Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Laura: Coming to you from world enterprises. I have been Laura.
Ryan: I have been pure beefier.
Laura: Do not drink gin and watch this movie you're not gonna like.
Ryan: If you're gonna drink gin, what the fuck? Is it beefy? Or you fucking poor cunt? Like, go find yourself something else.
Laura: Ugh. Just have a scotch in water or just drink water.
Ryan: Just drink water.
Laura: Stay hydrated, everybody.
Ryan: Have yourself a ribena.
01:04:38