The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976)
Bowie’s first major screen role, as an extraterrestrial tourist lost in the alien weirdness of America is rich in autobiographical echoes.
Director Nicolas Roeg was a perfect fit for Bowie: both were visionary English mavericks who enjoyed a fertile imperial phase of creative originality and critical acclaim across the 1970s, each bringing avant-garde methods into the mainstream.
Bowie arrived for the New Mexico shoot during a period of heavy cocaine use, and reportedly struggled to keep his promise to Roeg not to use drugs on set. “I was stoned out of my mind from beginning to end,” he later claimed.
Even if true, he still gives a radiant and magnetic star turn as Thomas Jerome Newton, a homesick alien trying to save his native planet from disaster, only to be sidelined by malign foes and earthly temptations. Bowie downplayed the film’s space-travel angle, preferring to read the fable-like plot in more mythic terms. He told Creem magazine that Newton represents “man in his pure form who’s corrupted or brought down by the corruption around him. But it’s never definitely said where he comes from, and it really doesn’t matter. I mean, he could come from under the sea, or another dimension, or anywhere. The important thing is what happens between the people. It’s a very sad, tender love story
