In 1963 Walter Tevis wrote a tight, highly-original novel entitled The Man Who Fell to Earth. Thirteen years later it would be made into a creepy, somewhat indulgent vehicle for David Bowie. It is slated to be remade this year or next, but I don’t know the whys or hows or whens. But suffice it to say, it will be remade badly. Why? Because Hollywood today rarely grasps the essence of the source material, by choice or by chance.
The book fascinated me; it was all I could think about for three or four days. Intense, gripping, unique, well-written, an extremely interesting protagonist – or possibly an antagonist – what more could a jaded reader ask for? I’ll tell you right now – this book gets my highest grade. It’s been sitting on my SF shelf for almost two years now; I can’t believe I’ve looked at it time and time again and said, “Eh, maybe later,” a dozen or so times. It’s being kept, and will be reread in a year or two. It’s one of those books where I metaphorically slap my head and say, “LE, this is the type of book you need to write.”
Thomas Jerome Newton is more than just an undocumented worker. He is more than an illegal alien. In fact, our protagonist actually is an alien, a being from a world called Anthea, which may or may not be the planet we call Mars. Despite profound intelligence surpassing ours, the races of Anthea have destroyed their planet through devastating nuclear wars. Currently, there are only 300 of Thomas’ fellow beings left, suffering through a horrible drought. They spend what remains of their dwindling resources to train and educate Newton on the ways of Earth, and then send him on a one-way trip to our planet.
He crash lands in the Kentucky wilderness and spends the night vomiting in a field because of his nerves. A year later he is one of the wealthiest men on Earth. How does he accomplish this? By trading in his advanced knowledge, first through patents and the legalities around them, then through his entrepreneurial acumen. With the aid of a lawyer and a chemist, Newton creates and manages World Enterprises Corp, which has its hand in everything from photo film to nuclear engineering processes. He amasses great wealth rapidly, and immediately turns to the great work which will save his suffering people.
However, he also draws the scrutinizing eye of the United States government.
What is Thomas’ master plan? To build a ship, a ship capable of traveling the vast expanse between Earth and Anthea, to bring his remaining people back to our world. Surreptitiously, of course. Infiltrating the highest ranks of our world’s governments, the benevolent guiding hands of the Antheans will steer our planet through the inevitable nuclear wars that they themselves could not manage to avoid on theirs.
The complete and total existential loneliness and alienation of this stranger in a strange land very, very quickly takes its toll. Before long Thomas finds companionship in a frivolous uneducated woman named Betty Joe. She teaches him how to drink, and before long the Anthean uses alcohol to self-medicate his fears and depressions away and then becomes very, very careless.
There follow some very unpleasant scenes involving, let’s just say, interrogation rooms, medical tests, and an X-ray machine which has very nasty effects on Newton’s eyes. Ultimately a broken man, Thomas gives up on his people, eventually sending them a poignant message (or perhaps a defiant middle finger, it’s rather vague) in a very unique way, sidestepping any governmental interference.
I’ve given much thought as to whether I prefer the book to the movie. I haven’t seen the movie in a long time, but I did see it and do remember it vividly. Most times in situations like these I go for the book over the movie, though there have been rare times where I’ve preferred the visual experience over the cerebral one. Not here, though. The movie is excellent for what it tried to do, but I think the presence of David Bowie overshadows the story, as well as the gratuitous sex and alcohol abuse (though Newton is a real lush in the book, there is no sex). However, the scenes which take place on Anthea, showing the drought conditions and the suffering of Newton’s family, do tug at the heart very effectively. But the book just does everything right, in my opinion, and that really goes a long way. If I give the novel an A+, the movie gets a solid B, maybe a B+. I’ll have to re-rent it again, maybe in a year or so. Perhaps it would be a good experiment to read the book then immediately watch the movie and do a comparison. [LE duly notes this project on his Microsoft Outlook calendar.]
The book fascinated me; it was all I could think about for three or four days. Intense, gripping, unique, well-written, an extremely interesting protagonist – or possibly an antagonist – what more could a jaded reader ask for? I’ll tell you right now – this book gets my highest grade. It’s been sitting on my SF shelf for almost two years now; I can’t believe I’ve looked at it time and time again and said, “Eh, maybe later,” a dozen or so times. It’s being kept, and will be reread in a year or two. It’s one of those books where I metaphorically slap my head and say, “LE, this is the type of book you need to write.”
Thomas Jerome Newton is more than just an undocumented worker. He is more than an illegal alien. In fact, our protagonist actually is an alien, a being from a world called Anthea, which may or may not be the planet we call Mars. Despite profound intelligence surpassing ours, the races of Anthea have destroyed their planet through devastating nuclear wars. Currently, there are only 300 of Thomas’ fellow beings left, suffering through a horrible drought. They spend what remains of their dwindling resources to train and educate Newton on the ways of Earth, and then send him on a one-way trip to our planet.
He crash lands in the Kentucky wilderness and spends the night vomiting in a field because of his nerves. A year later he is one of the wealthiest men on Earth. How does he accomplish this? By trading in his advanced knowledge, first through patents and the legalities around them, then through his entrepreneurial acumen. With the aid of a lawyer and a chemist, Newton creates and manages World Enterprises Corp, which has its hand in everything from photo film to nuclear engineering processes. He amasses great wealth rapidly, and immediately turns to the great work which will save his suffering people.
However, he also draws the scrutinizing eye of the United States government.
What is Thomas’ master plan? To build a ship, a ship capable of traveling the vast expanse between Earth and Anthea, to bring his remaining people back to our world. Surreptitiously, of course. Infiltrating the highest ranks of our world’s governments, the benevolent guiding hands of the Antheans will steer our planet through the inevitable nuclear wars that they themselves could not manage to avoid on theirs.
The complete and total existential loneliness and alienation of this stranger in a strange land very, very quickly takes its toll. Before long Thomas finds companionship in a frivolous uneducated woman named Betty Joe. She teaches him how to drink, and before long the Anthean uses alcohol to self-medicate his fears and depressions away and then becomes very, very careless.
There follow some very unpleasant scenes involving, let’s just say, interrogation rooms, medical tests, and an X-ray machine which has very nasty effects on Newton’s eyes. Ultimately a broken man, Thomas gives up on his people, eventually sending them a poignant message (or perhaps a defiant middle finger, it’s rather vague) in a very unique way, sidestepping any governmental interference.
I’ve given much thought as to whether I prefer the book to the movie. I haven’t seen the movie in a long time, but I did see it and do remember it vividly. Most times in situations like these I go for the book over the movie, though there have been rare times where I’ve preferred the visual experience over the cerebral one. Not here, though. The movie is excellent for what it tried to do, but I think the presence of David Bowie overshadows the story, as well as the gratuitous sex and alcohol abuse (though Newton is a real lush in the book, there is no sex). However, the scenes which take place on Anthea, showing the drought conditions and the suffering of Newton’s family, do tug at the heart very effectively. But the book just does everything right, in my opinion, and that really goes a long way. If I give the novel an A+, the movie gets a solid B, maybe a B+. I’ll have to re-rent it again, maybe in a year or so. Perhaps it would be a good experiment to read the book then immediately watch the movie and do a comparison. [LE duly notes this project on his Microsoft Outlook calendar.]
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