Tuesday, September 18, 2012

"The Man Who Fell To Earth" - Talking Heads - 'Once In A Lifetime'



Last night, they showed "The Man Who Fell To Earth" on TV. Strangely enough, I had never seen it before. I started watching it well after it started, and never really understood it, but mostly I was just completely startled to see Albuquerque and New Mexico! Apparently much of it was filmed in New Mexico:
Filming began on 6 July 1975. The film was primarily shot in New Mexico, with additional filming locations in Albuquerque, White Sands, Artesia and Fenton Lake.

...New Mexico was chosen primarily because it had recently passed new labor laws which allowed the producers to import an all-British crew. But ultimately these changes were used by Nicolas Roeg for more interpretive and artistic purposes; the use of local sand dunes to depict Newton's home world was very useful.
The movie had an outsized effect on popular culture.
  • The film was used as one of the key elements of the novel VALIS by Philip K. Dick, with David Bowie appearing in the novel as "Mother Goose" and the film represented by the titular film "VALIS", although plot elements were changed dramatically, so that the film became something very different in Dick's novel. The novel also incorporates a - fictional - incident in which Dick visits David Bowie and Brian Eno, who turn out to be harbouring a small child who may be the messiah.
  • The music video to Guns N' Roses's 1987 "Welcome to the Jungle" was partially based on The Man Who Fell to Earth.[20]
  • The music video to Scott Weiland's 1998 song "Barbarella" uses themes from The Man Who Fell to Earth.[21]
  • The music video to Marilyn Manson's 1998 song "The Dope Show" uses themes from The Man Who Fell to Earth.
  • The film is referenced both lyrically and visually in the video for the song "E=MC2" by the British band Big Audio Dynamite.[22]
  • In 2001, David Bowie starred in an XM Radio commercial where he fell through the roof of a motel. Upon standing, he looks up and states "I'll never get used to that." [23]
  • Dr. Manhattan’s apartment and Ozymandias' Antarctic retreat in the 2009 film Watchmen were mainly based on the set of The Man Who Fell to Earth.[24]
  • The 2009 song "ATX" by Alberta Cross is based on David Bowie's character in The Man Who Fell to Earth.[25]
  • The television series Fringe features a recurring character who uses the alias Thomas Jerome Newton. The series had previously used a character named David Robert Jones, which is David Bowie's real name.[26]
  • In Bret Easton Ellis's 2010 novel Imperial Bedrooms, the main character mentions that he is involved with writing the script for a remake of The Man Who Fell to Earth.[27]
  • A movie poster for The Man Who Fell to Earth can be seen in the 2011 film Green Lantern.
Interestingly, the video accompaniment of 'Once In A Lifetime' by the Talking Heads is a perfect fit, and may well belong on this list!

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