Getting back into a post a day…
The Man from Earth (click the link to watch it on Amazon – yes, it is an affiliate link) was thought provoking and interesting. The premise is that John, a history professor, is leaving after 10 years and won’t tell anyone where he is going. So, his coworkers stop by his place as he is moving everything out to send him off.
During this time, John decides to tell them that he is 14,000 years old. That he hunted mammoths, that he has walked the earth and was there before the sea separated England from the rest of Europe. That he met a number of people.
We will start with no spoilers:
This movie was thought provoking and the amount of research that went into it to make the ideas logical is a bit mind blowing. The man behind this is Jerome Bixby, one of the best writers from Star Trek and also an author “in league with Ray Bradbury” – quite the claim. But this movie… it really was amazing. If you are a sensitive Christian, you definitely should not watch this movie. However, if you can fall into thought provoking discussions, this is a wonderful movie for you. There is no action, everything takes place in John’s home. No flashbacks, nothing like that. It reminds me a lot of 12 Angry Men and movies of that style where it is the dialogue, not the action, that carries the movie.
ALRIGHT, SPOILERS
This isn’t a movie that I stumbled upon. This was a movie that was brought up in response to Replicas, which is a movie that deals with a lot of ethical questions.
I, for one, am so happy that my friend shows me this. From the idea of who Jesus is, and a very honest look at his teachings versus other teachings, not to mention a look at what it could honestly take to be immortal and what it could take to… want to keep living.
Man from Earth took a very honest and different look to old memories. Without the context at the time, how our brains record things is very different. While we might be able to look back with full clarity at what was happening, often things are fuzzy. And, when things change, your memory isn’t the most reliable. John doesn’t honestly know how old he is, because that wasn’t something that he thought about until he was much older and past the point of honestly knowing his age. Just as the where and who he comes from are mostly a mystery. Oh, he knows a little, but not a lot.
And either calling him crazy or forcing him to admit he was lying? That felt a little low, but the final twist at the end made sense with the set up that the audience had been given.
This would be a great movie for analysis in a movie class. Or English class, really. Overall a joy, and I am super excited to watch the next movie that was made!
