'Before there was Star Wars ... before there was Close Encounters ...
there was The Man Who Fell To Earth.'
Earthbound is the first book-length exploration of a true classic
of twentieth-century science-fiction cinema, shot under the heavy,
ethereal skies of New Mexico by the legendary British director Nicolas
Roeg and starring David Bowie in a role he seemed born for as an
extraterrestrial named Thomas Newton who comes to Earth in search of
water. Based on a novel by the highly regarded American writer Walter
Tevis, this dreamy, distressing, and visionary film resonates even more
strongly in the twenty-first century than it did on its original release
during the year of the US Bicentennial.
Drawing on extensive research and exclusive first-hand interviews with
members of the cast and crew, Earthbound begins with a look at Tevis's
1963 novel before moving into a detailed analysis of a film described by
its director as 'a sci-fi film without a lot of sci-fi tools' and
starring a group of actors--Bowie, Buck Henry, Candy Clark, Rip
Torn--later described by one of them (Henry) as 'not a cast but a dinner
party.' It also seeks to uncover the mysteries surrounding Bowie's
rejected soundtrack to the film (elements of which later ended up his
groundbreaking 1977 album Low) and closes with a look at his return to
the themes and characters of The Man Who Fell To Earth in one of his
final works, the acclaimed musical production Lazarus.
