Premise: An alien comes to Earth in search of water to bring back to his home planet and finds it difficult to leave Earth.
Casting is everything for this movie. In 1976, who better to play an alien being trying to understand Earth than Ziggy Stardust himself? I'm not sure how many movies David Bowie was right for, but sometimes the role just finds the right person. I'm not even sure if Bowie is actually that great in this movie. He does overact in places, and the style of the film is so self-consciously odd that it masks any performance deficiencies. But Bowie is so visually perfect in the role that it makes up for it. Bowie carries himself like an alien studying the world, especially in this era.
The easy comparison I can make to this is Under the Skin with Scarlett Johansson, which no doubt was inspired by The Man Who Fell to Earth. Both take a similar observer's perspective with detours into the surreal. The Man Who Fell to Earth is protracted and grander. Bowie's Thomas Jerome Newton is on Earth for decades and creates a major corporation. Johansson in Under the Skin keeps a low profile in a Scottish town and only lasts a couple weeks. I prefer the unrelenting grimness of Jonathan Glazer's vision in Under the Skin to Nicholas Roeg's trippy journey in The Man Who Fell to Earth, but both are pretty good. Besides, The Man Who Fell to Earth gave me Rip Thorn playing a womanizer, which is something I previously couldn't imagine.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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