Jerome Bixby’s The Man From Earth.
Director:Richard Schenkman
Writer: Jerome Bixby
Released: 13 November 2007
I was attracted to this movie because of Jerome Bixby’s name in the title. It seemed odd. Jerome Bixby is not exactly a household name, not even among your average science fiction fan. Jerome Bixby is best known in literary SF as the author of It’s a Good Life. The story was voted Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the 20 finest science fiction stories ever written. It appears in the anthology, Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Rod Serling adapted the story into the classic Twilight Zone episode of the same name.
Bixby wrote numerous short stories to the SF magazines of the 50s. He became the editor for the beloved SF pulp, Planet Stories. Bixby then contributed some very memorable stories and scripts to Hollywood. He wrote the pre-cursor to Alien called It! The Terror from Beyond Space in 1958. He co-wrote the story for the 1966 movie, Fantastic Voyage. He wrote four of the stories for the original Star Trek series including the classic Mirror, Mirror. Jerome Bixby may not be a household name, but he certainly has a rich science fiction pedigree.
The Man from Earth is a story that Bixby started in the early 1960s and was completed on his deathbed in April, 1998. This movie could have been called The Last Testament of Jerome Bixby. Ever watch a science fiction movie with no special effects? This may be one of those movies, or maybe it’s not science fiction at all.
This is a low budget movie and has makes no pretense of not being one. It’s shot at one location, a rustic ranch in California. The movie starts as an improvised farewell gathering for John Oldman. John is a professor at the local university. He’s moving on and saying farewell to his professional colleagues.
John decides to confess to something that he has never told anyone. That he is a Cro-Magnon Man and has lived for 14,000 years. As can be expected, his collegues don’t believe his claim, but begin to humor him, and John lets his story unfold. The tension of the story is whether John is telling the truth or not. His colleagues react with varied emotions as they hear John’s tale. If John’s tale is true this is a SF film. If he’s delusional this film is not. You’ll have to see the movie to know for sure.
Discussion turns to if John is/was any well-known historical figure. The answer is a revelation and drives the rest of the movie.
The movie is smartly written and well acted. The dialogue is lively and thought provoking. After watching the DVD extras, which are brief but interesting, I thought most of the casting was done at a Star Trek convention. The best-known actor to trekies is John Billingsley. Billingsley played Dr. Phlox on Enterprise. The direction is handled smartly and does not get in the way of the story.
The movie is not perfect. There is an incident of melodramatic coincidental irony that fell flat near the end of the movie. Overall the movie is engaging and highly recommended.
[note-the classic SF story "It's a Good Life" is now available in audio form from Wonder Audio.]
Had a fantasic time at the Confusion SF Con in Troy, MI. Got to interview and get a reading from writer, Jim C. Hines. Jim’s a good writer, reader and really nice guy.
