The Man From Earth (2007)

Iconoclast

Iconoclast

Jedi Master
_http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0756683/

i stumbled across this movie recently - a low budget 'sci-fi of the mind' type film. none of the actors were known to me.
without spoiling too much - the set-up is this:

a college professor is packing up his things because he is moving. his colleagues throw him a surprise goodbye-party. during the ensuing chat, he admits to being a 14.000 year-old human.

this film has no special effects, no violence, no sex.
it's all dialogue as the professors try to come to terms with the revealed information.
i was very pleasantly surprised how well the film held my attention. the story is really good, with a couple of twists.
most interesting were the various reactions of the characters to the extreme challenge to their various belief-systems.

if you're looking for something thought-provoking without the usual big-budget studio movie drawbacks, give this one a try.

(i rate it 8/10)
 
This film is also discussed here - http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=10838.msg85402#msg85402
 
The Man from Earth

To cut a long story:

The movie begins with Professor John Oldman packing his belongings onto his truck preparing to move to a new home. His colleagues show up to give him an unexpected farewell party. Everyone wants to know what is the reason for his departure. John poses the question, "What if a man, from the Upper Paleolithic survived until the present day?" They assume that John is working on a science fiction story and play along with the discussion. As the film progresses, John slowly reveals that he is the "caveman" under discussion when he mentions that he was given a chance to sail with Christopher Columbus in the 15th century. The revelation starts off with John's recollection of the terrain of prehistoric Earth and John's origins, which happens to be roughly 14,000 years ago. John reveals that he was once Jacques Borne, a friend of Van Gogh's, and he is now "moving on" since some people have noticed his lack of aging.
As they take a break from the discussion, Art who is concerned about John's sanity telephones another friend, Dr. Will Gruber (Richard Riehle), an elderly psychologist, explaining the odd situation and asks him to come over right away. In the meantime, Sandy confesses to John that she loves him, but John tells her they can never be together because of his immortality. John resumes his story by stating that he was once a Sumerian for 2000 years, then a Babylonian under Hammurabi, and finally a disciple of Gautama Buddha. Dr. Gruber arrives, at which point Dan mentions that John's tale is as impossible to be disproved as it is to be verified, a response to the many attempts to poke holes in John's story by his colleagues. The discussion takes a turn into the biological and physical condition of John and the topic of death. Gruber propels the discussion deeper into the topic of death and tension rises as Gruber interrogates John on that subject. The tension culminates with Gruber pointing a gun at John. After the drama ends with the departure of Gruber, Harry reveals that Gruber's wife has passed away the day before and the profession of John's immortality had hit Gruber very hard. Art and Edith are upset with John's story, while Harry, Dan, Sandy, and Linda appear to be more sympathetic.

John also mentions that he is not a follower of a particular religion, and he doesn't believe in an omnipotent God. John's audience is shocked when he reveals how he survived the crucifixion when he was Jesus by "blocking the pain", a technique he learned in India. He explains the origin of the Resurrection, Moses, and other events and people in the Bible. Tempers and emotions rise as Edith pressures John to recant his story, which offends her deep-rooted faith in the Bible. Dr. Gruber returns to the scene and apologizes to John for his "infantile behavior". As John continues to pack his belongings onto the truck, his colleagues begin to talk about the possibility of John being mentally ill or high on drugs.

The discussions of John being Jesus, Christianity, and the Bible continue and Edith, unable to take John's tale anymore, breaks down crying. Emotions in the room run high. Gruber takes charge of the situation and sternly demands that John end his "high tale" and give closure to the story; he threatens John with the possibility of locking him up for observation. John apologizes to everyone and, as he doesn't want to further upset any of his friends, he tells them that all he just told them is just a story.
Click to expand...

_http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0756683/

I think that the main point of this movie was to show how it can become hard for some people to accept something that is against their believe system or does not fit into their reality. In order to protect their world, which is convenient for them to live in, some of them are ready blindly to defend (no mater what what the cost is) what they have been thought through various stages of their life.
 
Vulcan59 said:
Post merged. :)
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Hmm.. before to create a new topic I did use search function with the input of the name of the movie and this topic did not appear on the search result page. At least on the first page. When one puts exact phrase into search field he expects to see exact matches, if any, at the top of the results list. However, it didn't work this time. I guess it might be that this topic hadn't been properly indexed.
Thanks for merging these together :)
Atomas
 
Atomas said:
When one puts exact phrase into search field he expects to see exact matches, if any, at the top of the results list.
Click to expand...

If you want to search for exact phrases, you should put quotations around the phrase otherwise it will just search for each word's iteration on the forum. Without quotes, your exact phrase is just a jumble of words.
 
I just did a search for this film as I felt the need to mention it.

It's been a little while since I watched it, but I remember it being done really well. Plan on re-watching at some point. If you enjoy being able to be fully engrossed in dialogue, almost like you are "part" of the discussions, you'll probably get a kick out of this film. Like has already been mentioned, there's no action, SFX etc - just straight up decent dialogue which explores the main characters identity/history, with his friends covering different perspectives and feeding into the yarn with disbelief (science based, Christian viewpoint, etc.).
 
I actually did recognize most of the actors (I must watch too many movies!) but I loved this movie.

Spoiler alert!

It was well written and thought provoking, and in fact inspired some ideas in some of my own writing. For example the scene where they can't believe that he doesn't know where he was born...how would you? I would certainly recognize Mt. Begbie where I was born easily, but how much of that is the sight of the mountain and how much of that is because I've seen the iconic photograph of it for 40 years? So if there was no photography, what are the odds that with that kind of lifespan that you would one day run across that one particular view of a mountain that might trigger that memory?

It's mind boggling to say the least.

I'd give it 4 1/2 stars out of five.
 
The movie was mentioned in a fb post I stumbled upon some days ago.
It's a gem, I think.
Enjoying my first evening off, 6 nights of working with an insanity level of gigantic proportions behind, the movie provided just the right medicine.

 
There was also a sequel in 2018: The Man from Earth: Holocene.

I can't remember anything about it except I am pretty sure I enjoyed watching it.
 
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