Today I would like to review a film that I discovered very recently and almost by chance, but which immediately won me over and has become if not my favorite film of all time, at least among the top three of all time. I discovered it almost by chance, on one of the after-work outings with my friends/colleagues from university, where once in a while, instead of talking about the usual things, we decided to test ourselves and try to discuss a very interesting topic: immortality. The discussion was based on this principle: if one day you should wake up and discover (in some unspecified way) that you are immortal, while the rest of the people (at least the ones you know) are not, what would you do? How would you live your life with this knowledge? based on this assumption, we tried to figure out what the consequences of immortality might be, and different kinds of ideas came up, some conflicting of course. The key points that we agreed on were that immortality, especially if you are the only one with this characteristic, leads to forced loneliness, because sooner or later the people you are attached to will die in front of you, and also staying too long with the same people can cause problems, because sooner or later they will realise that something is wrong... they grow old while you don't... Another common discourse was that of the quest for knowledge and power, divided here however on the ultimate goals... try to make the world a better place or subjugate it to your will? the discussion went on for a long time, and at one point one of my friends asked me if I had ever seen 'Man from Earth'... I had never heard of the film, so I asked him what the plot was, but he just told me that it was closely related to our topic of conversation and to definitely watch it.

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Intrigued, I came home that evening and decided to take a look at it. I did a bit of research first, and found out that it was a film with a very small budget, about 200,000 dollars, and that it was all shot in a room where the actors were talking to each other (a bit like 12 Angry Men, another film I absolutely adored and of which I will do a review in the near future).

We find ourselves at a university professor's modest chalet's living room, where it is instantly clear what is going on: he is leaving for an unspecified location without explaining it to his colleagues, who have come to greet him and inquire about it on this particular occasion. After everyone has settled in the home, Professor John Oldman—who is actually the main character—is persuaded to explain the circumstances surrounding his sudden departure. However, his interlocutors will not be pleased with his response. In fact, he asserts that he is a Man of Cromagnon, an extinct species that has somehow endured for 14,000 years to the present. You'll undoubtedly comprehend the other professors' shock.

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The plot's beauty resides in the different attempts to refute John's claims as well as the revelations he makes about the history he personally experienced and the knowledge he attained across all scientific disciplines. As the sun sets and an intimate environment is established by a lit fireplace with Beethoven playing in the background, the narration gradually pulls the characters and the audience toward an increasingly compelling and believable finale.

A movie where there is only talk and no action at all can mislead a lot of people... but "Man from Earth" is the complete opposite of boring... I don't remember many movies that kept me that way attached to the screen and focused on not missing a single word of the wonderful conversations that our protagonists exchange with each other. The wonderful thing about this film is that it manages to make an utterly absurd thesis, gradually more and more credible both among the protagonists themselves and among the spectators.

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Many of the dialogues are permeated with philosophy, religion, esotericism, history, and science, and this made me love this film so much that I wanted to see it again a few days later to be able to grasp all the references and quotes fully.

The only observation (which however is absolutely not a criticism) is on the ending of the film, which I personally would have left vaguer... but I don't want to give you spoilers in any way so I won't say anything else, except to advise you to absolutely watch this masterpiece

Conclusion

Never (and I mean never) boring, it is a tremendous low-budget production that is able to captivate and arouse the interest of the viewer simply due to excellent character acting and very intelligent dialogue that, despite its absurdity and impossibility, doesn't make a crease and convinces more and more. I recommend (although I would almost force it 😂) to watch this film and let me know what you think

Rating

My personal vote is:

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10/10

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