Category: Movies

Missed Movies: The Man From Earth

If you enjoy intelligent science-fiction movies, you might want to check out The Man From Earth (2007) on DVD/Blu Ray.   I did not hear of the movie when it came out in 2007, so I’m guessing a lot of other people missed it too.  All you probably need to know is that Jerome Bixby, whose writings were used for episodes in the original The Twilight Zone and Star Trek series, is the screenwriter for The Man from Earth.  If you liked The Twilight Zone, you’ll most likely enjoy this thought-provoking movie that in many ways plays like an extended version of one of those shows.

Man from EarthThe movie begins with friends visiting a college professor (played by David Lee Smith) at his home in the country as he plans to move out-of-town.   As they sit in his home among the last boxes, they begin to inquire more into his background and why he is leaving.  It is not too much of a spoiler to tell you that he reveals that he has lived for centuries and has to move on before people realize he does not age.  The friends — who are experts in areas  such as biology, anthropology, psychology, and religion — question his claims.  What follows is a fascinating meditation on life, morality, and time.  Is he playing a joke, telling the truth, or is he mentally ill?

The movie is not perfect, so I suggest you go into it with modest expectations.  And if you prefer your sci-fi with high-octane action and special effects, you might want to skip this movie that has no special effects and limited action.  But if you like thought-provoking movies, you’ll probably enjoy watching this one on a rainy autumn day.  If it sounds interesting, I suggest you rent it immediately without learning more or even watching the trailer, which doesn’t capture the movie very well.  You can’t make conversation look fun in a minute.  If you want to see the trailer, though, it is here.  If you subscribe to Netflix, the movie is available for instant streaming.

One final tidbit:  Bixby thought up the idea for The Man From Earth in the 1960’s when he was doing his television work, and he completed the story on his death bed in 1998.  The story was circulated through the Internet and gained enough attention that it was eventually made into a movie.  I need to go call the Internet and thank them.

Jerome Bixby’s The Man from Earth on Amazon

Missed Movies is our series on very good movies that many people did not see when first released.

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    Is it Safe?: Torture American-Style

    In the movie Marathon Man, there’s a famous sequence where the Nazi war criminal (played by Laurence Olivier) uses dental tools on Dustin Hoffman’s mouth to torture him into answering the code question “Is it safe?”  I remember the movie from my youth, as well as movies like The Deer Hunter, which shows America’s enemies using torture techniques on American prisoners of war — played by Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and John Savage.  In The Deer Hunter, the captors force the three Americans to play Russian Roulette and punish the soldiers by putting them in an underwater cage full of live rats and dead bodies.

    Watching these movies as a kid, these torture techniques were things that our enemies did.  Americans do not torture.  If we adopt the techniques of the bad guys, then there is no longer a difference between us and them.

    Torture has been in the news lately because of the release of former Pres. George W. Bush’s book, Decision Points.  In it, he describes how when the CIA asked him whether he would support waterboarding Khalid Sheik Mohammad, he responded, “Damn right!”  Former Vice-President Cheney has stated he is a “big supporter” of waterboarding.

    Waterboarding is torture in violation of international law.  But what about when government officials feel the country is in danger and it is necessary?

    Pres. Obama has been criticized for his failure to investigate and prosecute the Americans who used torture techniques.  I understand his aversion to opening up a partisan fight.  Some claim, though, that the failure to pursue the perpetrators leaves a precedent for future presidents that torture techniques will be tolerated.

    There’s an old joke about a man who goes to a woman and asks, “Will you sleep with me for a million dollars?”

    The woman thinks for a few minutes, and responds, “Sure.”

    Then the man asks, “Will you sleep with me for ten dollars?”

    The woman says, “Certainly not!  What kind of woman do you think I am?”

    The man responds, “We’ve already established that.  Now we’re just negotiating on a price.”

    The joke reminds me of our attitudes about torture.  You’re either for it or against it, and then it’s just negotiating when to use it.  Nobody advocates torture for jaywalking.  If you’re for it, it’s for the extreme situations.  So you can’t rid yourself of the responsibility by saying “I only advocate it for certain situations.”  You’re pro-torture or anti-torture.  That part is simple.

    Unfortunately, the line about what my country does and tolerates is not as simple as I believed when I was a kid watching movies.

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