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Jerome Bixby's Man From Earth
01/07/2008 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
Region 2 DVD: pub: Anchor Bay ABD473G. 87 minute film with extras including two audio commentaries. Price: £14.99 (UK). Stars: John Billingsley, Ellen Crawford, William Katt, Annika Peterson, Richard Riehle, David Lee Smith, Alexis Thorpe and Tony Todd. Buy Man From Earth in the USA - or Buy Man From Earth in the UK  check out website: www.anchorbay.co.uk
To a lot of younger folk, the name 'Jerome Bixby' might not mean much but I'm sure you've come across his work and even lauded it. Apart from being a superb SF short story writer from which Rod Serling wrote the screenplay of his 'It's A Good Life' for the original 'Twilight Zone' and was later a prime ingredient in the film of the same name, Bixby's own TV and film credits also began to grow and are most memorable.
He wrote several episodes for the original 'Star Trek', the most notable with the biggest repercussions for all the Treks that followed being 'Mirror, Mirror'. There was also the matter of the screenplays for the film 'Fantastic Voyage' and 'It! Came From Outer Space'.
'Man From Earth' was Bixby's last screenplay completed shortly before he died in 1998. He wanted to write a character driven piece that didn't rely on special effects and still be Science Fiction. Watching this film, I think he would have been happy that he'd succeeded.
John Oldman (actor David Lee Smith) is preparing to pull up anchor and leave the university he's been teaching at for a number of years at the first hint of gossip that he hasn't aged a day since he arrived there. A number of his colleagues visit him as he finishes packing to give him an impromptu going-away party.
A couple things in his belongings intrigue them. An unknown painting by Van Gogh which he claims to be a fake. An ancient stone tool from the distant past. Oldman eventually confides in them that he's much much older than he looks. Somewhere in the region of 140 centuries and is an immortal Cro-Magnum Man.
Of course, there is some disbelief in this to the point of calling him crazy. Even Oldman knows little about his own past and his interest in early history is often looking for signs of his own passing until the past couple millennia when mankind developed civilisation. Some of his colleagues think he's seriously insane or having them on. T
he theology professor becomes seriously upset after he explains about Jesus and how things were distorted as to what he was doing at the time - it's a shame no one cottoned on to the belief of the Wandering Jew here by the way, so Oldman holds his hands up to having them all on. There's a couple plot twists at the end which I'm not going to disclose cos you need to see and be surprised by them for yourselves.
Don't expect any flashbacks or anything of that nature. 'Man From Earth' is very much a low budget movie totally dependent on the cast to pull it off with dialogue. It's also won a couple awards so this is a shared feeling. In the extras, it's noted that three of the cast, Billingsley, Riehle and Todd, are ex-Star Trek performers. The others also have credible acting backgrounds as well. They need it. To keep your attention for 87 minutes and do it well makes for an incredible effort that deserves to succeed and you to spend some money owning.
Bixby makes a convincing case for a man who regularly changes his identity and moves on and the people he's met over the centuries and tried every permutation along the way. Even his name occasionally blatantly admits to his origins although he always keeps the Christian name 'John'. The rationales are built well and I wonder had he lived would Bixby have released the story as a small novel.
The extras fill you in with a lot of the background. There are two audio commentaries. The first is with Bixby's son, Emerson, with SF scholar Gary Westfahl giving the lowdown of the story, things that needed to be remedied and production. The second is with director Richard Sckenkman and actor John Billingsley which ends up being less a commentary and more a look at the filming profession. As this also includes Billingsley's time on 'Enterprise' this should attract any of you who are 'Star Trek' fans. Billingsley also seems to favour doing future commentaries in the nude so you're suitably warned.
There's more than enough in this DVD to enjoy and savour. It might be low budget but it has decent filming values and will certainly have you thinking as to how you should question anyone claiming to be immortal.
GF Willmetts
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