Why do some people love the movie 'The Man from Earth' so much?
28 Answers
There is one thing that really, truly engages people, no matter if it is a big budget Hollywood film or a small independent one like The Man from Earth...
Concept.
An amazing concept (also known as an idea) engages an audience. If you engage an audience and deliver on that initial engagement, you build a larger audience thanks to word of mouth.
There is a reason why the other Quora favorite sci-fi independent film, Primer, managed to become such a cult success. The film tells the story of a couple average guys who accidentally discover time travel while working out of their garage. That's an engaging concept.
The Man from Earth. An impromptu goodbye party for Professor John Oldman becomes a mysterious interrogation after the retiring scholar reveals to his colleagues he never ages and has walked the earth for 14,000 years. That's an engaging concept.
Another engaging concept can be found in Christopher Nolan's Memento. A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife.
We're engaged by these concepts. They get our creative minds moving. Our imaginations. The concepts challenge us from an intellectual standpoint as well. They get us thinking.
Concept isn't enough though. The films have to deliver on that concept throughout the entire film, or at least most of it.
The Man from Earth (As well as the others mentioned) was successful in that respect. The casting is excellent, the dialogue is wonderful and insightful, the structure of the story, set within one location, is impressive as we watch the different reactions from John's colleagues when he tells them his secret. The story manages to keep the audience guessing, just like John's colleagues.
Is this just a game of wits? Is he pulling a prank? Has a lost his mind? Is he telling the truth?
It's an amazing film that I often come back to. It's available on Netflix Streaming for all to enjoy. The concept engages your brain and your imagination. And it does so in the very intimate setting of a rustic cabin. You feel like you're in that cabin with these characters, trying to ascertain what the hell is going on with our dear friend John Oldman.
Go Watch This Film. Turn the lights out. No interruptions. Invite some friends over to watch it with you. You'll then see why we love it so much. And if not, well, cinema is subjective so no worries.
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Concept.
An amazing concept (also known as an idea) engages an audience. If you engage an audience and deliver on that initial engagement, you build a larger audience thanks to word of mouth.
There is a reason why the other Quora favorite sci-fi independent film, Primer, managed to become such a cult success. The film tells the story of a couple average guys who accidentally discover time travel while working out of their garage. That's an engaging concept.
The Man from Earth. An impromptu goodbye party for Professor John Oldman becomes a mysterious interrogation after the retiring scholar reveals to his colleagues he never ages and has walked the earth for 14,000 years. That's an engaging concept.
Another engaging concept can be found in Christopher Nolan's Memento. A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife.
We're engaged by these concepts. They get our creative minds moving. Our imaginations. The concepts challenge us from an intellectual standpoint as well. They get us thinking.
Concept isn't enough though. The films have to deliver on that concept throughout the entire film, or at least most of it.
The Man from Earth (As well as the others mentioned) was successful in that respect. The casting is excellent, the dialogue is wonderful and insightful, the structure of the story, set within one location, is impressive as we watch the different reactions from John's colleagues when he tells them his secret. The story manages to keep the audience guessing, just like John's colleagues.
Is this just a game of wits? Is he pulling a prank? Has a lost his mind? Is he telling the truth?
It's an amazing film that I often come back to. It's available on Netflix Streaming for all to enjoy. The concept engages your brain and your imagination. And it does so in the very intimate setting of a rustic cabin. You feel like you're in that cabin with these characters, trying to ascertain what the hell is going on with our dear friend John Oldman.
Go Watch This Film. Turn the lights out. No interruptions. Invite some friends over to watch it with you. You'll then see why we love it so much. And if not, well, cinema is subjective so no worries.
Ujjwal Aryan,
Views
The Man from Earth (2007) to me is the only one of its kind that has been made. Years , perhaps decades would pass before another such movie hits our eyes.
The most salient part of the movie is that, it talks about life.
Usually movies talk about a small part of the gigantic canvas of life . Watching this movie is like holding the giant canvas of life itself and looking at the picture.
When we take a look at a nice painting, we do not (and we should not) form an opinion of it based on a small square inch of the canvas. The Man from Earth (2007) shows us the whole big canvas of life and demonstrates perfectly that how trifle and meaningless are our opinions and thoughts about life which we have not even seen. Life and reality are way bigger than the short term whims and turbulence which mark the undulations of life.
Through the immensely gripping conversation which forms the rubies and pearls of the movie, we are enlightened about some very basic essential facts we so usually choose to overlook
There are a couple more I can put over here, but I do not see the applicability. The Man from Earth (2007) is a tale of truth removing and setting aside all the flapdoodle.
Some poeple will call it an eye-opener. Some would call it a sacrilage. To me, The Man from Earth (2007) is a wonderful tale of truth and reality and all the illusions which we perceive as reality.
The most salient part of the movie is that, it talks about life.
Usually movies talk about a small part of the gigantic canvas of life . Watching this movie is like holding the giant canvas of life itself and looking at the picture.
When we take a look at a nice painting, we do not (and we should not) form an opinion of it based on a small square inch of the canvas. The Man from Earth (2007) shows us the whole big canvas of life and demonstrates perfectly that how trifle and meaningless are our opinions and thoughts about life which we have not even seen. Life and reality are way bigger than the short term whims and turbulence which mark the undulations of life.
Through the immensely gripping conversation which forms the rubies and pearls of the movie, we are enlightened about some very basic essential facts we so usually choose to overlook
- We are just the one. John Oldman has seen 14,000 years of evolution. He has seen cultures coming and going. Our very existance as human beings is what has remained constant.
- Being a philosopher or artist is no different from being a scientist. So whether our view of nature is artistic or scientific, we are speaking of the same innate truth but just in slightly different languages. Quoting from the movie :-
"Did you know Voltaire was the first to suggest that the universe was created by a gigantic explosion? And then Goethe was the first to suggest that spiral nebulae were swirling masses of stars. We now call them galaxies. It's kind of funny how often new concepts of science find their first tentative forms of expression in the arts."
- Thoughts are essential. Rest is just a flapdoodle. Check out the following two quotes :
"Believe in what He tried to teach without the rigmarole. Piety is not what the lessons bring to people, it's the mistakes they bring to the lessons."
"The mythical overlay is so enormous. And not good. The truth is so, so simple." - So many emotions we act out on, and attach ourselves to them are just mere impulses in the giant ocean of life , society and civilization. Quoting :
"What does a day, or a year or a century mean to you ? The birth death cycle ?
Johm Oldman : Turbulence. I meet someone. Learn their name, say a word, they're gone. Others come like waves, rise and fall. Ripples in a wheat field blown by wind"
There are a couple more I can put over here, but I do not see the applicability. The Man from Earth (2007) is a tale of truth removing and setting aside all the flapdoodle.
Some poeple will call it an eye-opener. Some would call it a sacrilage. To me, The Man from Earth (2007) is a wonderful tale of truth and reality and all the illusions which we perceive as reality.
Sandeep Bisht,
Views
The Man From Earth is entirely shot in just one location and is still considered as Sci-Fi movie. With just conversation between several professors, this movie has its moments that are capable of giving you hair-raising effects. While listening to the discussion of professors, you will delve deeper into an imaginary world. And after the movie ends, you will need time to give deep thoughts towards what you just saw.
A true artist desires his art to be viewed and appreciated globally in order to teach, rather than making money. For example, Richard Schenkman (director) Emerson Bixby (producer) – THE MAN FROM EARTH, personally thanked torrent websites for spreading this movie. Jerome Bixby started writing screenplay for this movie in the early 1960s and was completed on his death bed in April 1998.
It is undeniably one of the best movies of this decade, but certainly not for every moviegoer out there. I was so inspired by this movie that it made me design a minimal poster.
Lydia Lashley
Views
It's a jumping off point for whole new systems of ideas. It's an equivalent of sorts to something like superhero stories, but done so that it sounds almost plausible.
But, to be a bit more shallow, Alexis Thorpe is a pretty dreamy college student:
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Yup.
But, to be a bit more shallow, Alexis Thorpe is a pretty dreamy college student:
Yup.
Rachit Agarwal,
Views
It was during my semester exams, I was studying late night and felt hungry. Now we all have a friend we can rely on under these circumstances. Needless to say I went to him. He had a packet of pasta left and we decided to cook it. To pass the time till it was cooked he suggested to watch a movie.
The movie which he suggested was none other than the one in question here. We sat there watching the movie and it was so engaging that the night before my semester exams we completed it. since then i have watched it numerous times. Now let me tell you why we loved it.
The whole movie is just a simple idea. An idea which transition smoothly into one of the best sci-fi ever written. The conversation is so captivating that you wouldn't want to miss a word of what is being said. In one room this movie has analyzed the concept of biology, history, religion, anthropology, and best of all human emotions. It has tried to answer the basic question of what it is to be a human in a world divided by boundaries, religion, caste, colour and what not.
I would like to add some quotations from the movie to give you the feel of what was happening in the room.
Harry: "Edith, I was raised on the Torah, my wife on the Qu'Ran, my eldest son is an Atheist, my youngest is a scientologist, my daughter is studying Hinduism, I imagine there is room there for a holy war in my living room, but we practice live and let live".
John Oldman: "Piety is not what the lessons bring to people, it's the mistakes they bring to the lessons".
and my favorite
Dan: "Time... you can't see it, you can't hear it, you can't weigh it, you can't...measure it in a laboratory. It is a subjective sense of... becoming, what we... are, in stead of what we were a nanosecond ago, becoming what we will be in another nanosecond."
The movie is full of such insightful discussions. When you are watching this movie you are not just watching it you are living it. You feel like you are sitting in the same room and everything is happening around you. You feel the same chill when you discover the fact that John is 14000 years old. You want to get in on the discussion and you want to ask questions which you feel, are missing. But you can't, you just sit there as an invisible observer engulfing everything that is being said.
At the end you feel you are transported back to your own place and suddenly you don't belong there. You want to be in that room having the same discussions over and over again.
Now tell me, won't YOU love a movie which makes you want to live it?
The movie which he suggested was none other than the one in question here. We sat there watching the movie and it was so engaging that the night before my semester exams we completed it. since then i have watched it numerous times. Now let me tell you why we loved it.
The whole movie is just a simple idea. An idea which transition smoothly into one of the best sci-fi ever written. The conversation is so captivating that you wouldn't want to miss a word of what is being said. In one room this movie has analyzed the concept of biology, history, religion, anthropology, and best of all human emotions. It has tried to answer the basic question of what it is to be a human in a world divided by boundaries, religion, caste, colour and what not.
I would like to add some quotations from the movie to give you the feel of what was happening in the room.
Harry: "Edith, I was raised on the Torah, my wife on the Qu'Ran, my eldest son is an Atheist, my youngest is a scientologist, my daughter is studying Hinduism, I imagine there is room there for a holy war in my living room, but we practice live and let live".
John Oldman: "Piety is not what the lessons bring to people, it's the mistakes they bring to the lessons".
and my favorite
Dan: "Time... you can't see it, you can't hear it, you can't weigh it, you can't...measure it in a laboratory. It is a subjective sense of... becoming, what we... are, in stead of what we were a nanosecond ago, becoming what we will be in another nanosecond."
The movie is full of such insightful discussions. When you are watching this movie you are not just watching it you are living it. You feel like you are sitting in the same room and everything is happening around you. You feel the same chill when you discover the fact that John is 14000 years old. You want to get in on the discussion and you want to ask questions which you feel, are missing. But you can't, you just sit there as an invisible observer engulfing everything that is being said.
At the end you feel you are transported back to your own place and suddenly you don't belong there. You want to be in that room having the same discussions over and over again.
Now tell me, won't YOU love a movie which makes you want to live it?
