Re: for all mankind, another crappy mooee from 1989

On Fri, 15 Dec 2006 21:18:42 GMT, Alan Jones <alanvj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Fri, 15 Dec 2006 03:01:57 -0600, OM
<om@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Thu, 14 Dec 2006 23:27:18 GMT, Alan Jones <alanvj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

You're probably right. I'll try and watch that movie again, when I
have time.

...The movie and the book both need to be read so you can get the main
message that Walter Tevis was trying to get across.

I suspect so, but I rarely read a novel after I've seen the movie.

....This one I recommend. It's actually fairly entertaining, and Tevis
really hit the nail on the head about how the gummint would treat a
true alien who was posing as human with a hidden agenda.

The movie does reveal that Newton made the record album for his wife,
believing that it would broadcast on earth radio stations and received
by his wife.

....Right. I went back and watched that one this afternoon, and he does
state that it got some airplay for that reason.

Little, if anything, is said in the movie about Newton's
government, or his mission. He is simply trying to save his family,
and he knows that Earth has water and perhaps enough advancement to be
of some help.

....The book is clearer. Anthea is dying, and the only chance is to get
the Antheans to Earth. However, Anthea's resources are shot, so they
have to get Humanity up enough to their level so we can build more
ships to bring them here. In the movie, the viewer is left wondering
whether that's the goal, or if Newton is intending to take water back
to his unnamed home "just down the road".

The movie tries to be a mystery where the viewer slowly
figures out what it is all about as it progresses. However, it fails
in that regard. It is more like a fish out of water story, except
that Newton is too well adjusted and in control.

THe film was essentially a cinematic orgy of artistic scenes poorly
integrated together.

....Nicholas Roeg, natch.

David Bowie was perfectly cast, and he delivered. However most of his
acting is passive, and Mary Lou (Candy Clark) seems to deliver more
acting and dialog.

....And that, IIRC, was the last time I recall Clark having a role of
note until she played that waitress in the 1988 "Blob" remake.

Indeed, you could look at it as the Mary Lou Story: How I fell in love with a married space
alien.

....Yes, but then you wouldn't have had "Starman" :-)

I was also surprised that they did not work in an actual David
Bowie musical performance scene.

....Roeg wanted one, or at least a cameo scene. Bowie declined, but did
do the never-released soundtrack. On a side note, I've heard there's a
fan-reworked version out there somewhere, where the soundtrack save
for Bowie's cover of "Hello, Mary Lou!" was completely replaced with
Bowie's other works. "Space Oddity" being the opening theme, "Ashes to
Ashes" being the closer, and others like "Sound and Vision", "Heroes"
and "Life on Mars" being worked in as well. Never have been able to
find that one.

I never saw this in a theater. I would have been studying to learn
how to design spacecraft, or earning the money to do so. I did
eventually rent a VHS edition. I found it so bad that I fast
forwarded through some sections. I was particularly put off by the
gay sex scenes, and even the straight scenes had little to do with the
story. I'm not sure what version I actually viewed on VHS. The
version above, claims to be about a 20 minute longer original version,
and it lacks the gay scenes.

....I saw it on HBO for the first time in late '78, about three years
after the film left the theaters. The only "gay" scenes that I recall
weren't even involving sex per se - they were between Farnsworth and
his partner having a drink in the stereo room. I'll have to do some
digging, but I don't recall any other "gay" scenes than those. But
then again, think about it - this was 1975 when this came out. Had
there been any scenes of anyone doing the bumbutter sambo, not only
would it have gotten an X rating, Buck Henry's career would have been
shot temporarily, resulting in his hosting SNL at least four extra
times :-)

This is not one of my favorite movies, and I'm not inclined to
research and differentiate the difference versions. I do get the
sense that it could be edited, perhaps with some off camera narration
added, to make a vastly better movie. The basic premise is good, and
I think most aerospace engineering students fantasize about earning a
gazzillion bucks and starting their own space program.

....And especially if being given those bucks also came with the
guarantee that you'd be doing something you not only wanted to do, but
was probably drastically different and more rewarding than what you
were being forced to do in your current job. Tell me what engineer
worth his slide rule would turn down a job to help design a new
spacecraft in order to continue working on F/A or Ergo for a Dremel
Moto-Tool.

On the earlier nit, based on the movie, It would seem that just as in
reality, some of the public supported Newton's space flight, and
others did not. Even some of his trusted friends turned on him. It
is true that the "government" shut him down, but it seemed to be more
at the whim of few "loose cannons" (possibly implying J. Edgar Hoover
would so such a thing).

....This was more "black ops" than the Efraim Zimbalist types.

It is also unbelievable that the government would examine Newton in a
lab, and later just release him into the public.

....Actually, under the circumstances, it made a lot of sense. Here's
how you need to view what happened: Newton had sprung out of nowhere,
bringing with him at least nine basic patents - mostly related to
electronics, photography, metalurgy and chemistry, IIRC - that turned
the entire core of the entertainment and media delivery system inside
out, upside down, improved a hundredfold, simplified by at least half,
and all at an implied cheaper cost to consumers. This in turn made him
one of - if not *the* - richest men in the world almost overnight. It
made him popular to a superstar level, and while he was somewhat of a
recluse from people he didn't allow himself to become a myth. You knew
he was there, even if you couldn't touch him per se.

In other words, David Bowie being Bill Gates, but with better fashion
sense and the ability to sing *and* play the sax.

....Ok, so the feds start looking into this guy because they're
naturally paranoid about anyone getting this much power that quickly.
Rest assured that the whole ball got rolling in two directions: 1)
those who were forced out of business - read: Eastman Kodak, for one -
got their representatives looking into whether Newton was violating
the Sherman Anti-Trust act with any of his actions, while 2) some
weenie paper-pusher at the IRS discovered that Newton didn't exist.
While all this was simmering, Newton starts his space program, which
gets the DOD and probably NASA involved, and quite probably ever
Spookshow Organization as well.

Of course, we can't forget those x-ray photos, which no doubt got
leaked.

....Newton's fame is growing, especially since during all this it's
clear that nobody's been able to find any clay under those ankles.
Which is why when the Feds en masse decide to move, they stage what's
more of a kidnapping than an arrest, and all in the middle of a public
unveiling of Newton's brand-new spaceship. They take him back to a
lab, run him through all kinds of tests to see whether he's an alien
or an Alien, and somewhere along the line he's injured. Word gets out,
and the press starts tearing the gummint a new *** the size of
which hadn't been seen since Nixon was in office.

....So here's the US Government and all its public and private agencies
with the biggest egg on their face since the Pentagon Papers. They've
taken what the entire world perceives as being an innocent, highly
successful, well-respected businessman whose only crime *might* have
been that he was not a legal US citizen residing w/o a visa in the US,
incarcerated him w/o benefit of trial or legal council, and during the
incarceration managed to cause him some degree of bodily harm. Had
this been some Joe Punchclock, they could have simply picked him up at
home, figured out who/what he was, and probably just disposed of him
with nobody the wiser. But with a megastar such as what Newton had
become?

....So, the only thing for the feds to do was what they did in the book
and the movie: sweep the question of whether he's an alien or an Alien
under the carpet permanently - with blowing up his rocket being the
carpet - grant him special citizenship dispensation, apologize for
what happened to him, acknowledge that his fortune was destroyed by a
government fuckup and grant him one hell of a pension for the rest of
his natural life to compensate, and let him go about his merry way.
The alternatives would have had far more negative repercussions,
because it would have either forced the feds to admit they kill
"innocent citizens" they don't trust, or admit that Newton was a
Little Green Man from Alpha Centauri and that life exists on other
planets. Neither one is acceptable even today, hence the decision that
was made.

....Think about it this way: Newton's plans to save his people are
foiled. The ship he arrived in was a one-way ship, the one he was
building is now destroyed, the companies he built to fund all this are
either gone or O&O'd by someone else, and his fortunes were
neurtralized by the Feds pulling their dirty tricks. Add to this - and
let's just talk the movie here - he's stuck in a human disguise he can
never remove thanks to those lab tests. For all practical purposes,
he's now just another human. Without money - and lots of it - he isn't
much of a threat on a global scale. If he were, he wouldn't have gone
through all the motions of building his finances from scratch; he'd
have just nuked us from space and let his people take over what was
left. He's broke, busted and disgusted, but since he's still viewed by
the public - read: taxpayers - in high regard and esteem, the Feds
have to do some damage control to save their collective asses. So they
take damn good care of him and basically let him retire in public,
with the unspoken implication being that he'll simply be retired for
the rest of his natural life. Newton realizes this, accepts it, but it
obviously doesn't prevent his breakdown.

It was nominated for a Hugo drama award, but
was not beaten by another movie, rather it was withheld.

....And the Hugo committee got lambasted for that one, too, IIRC.


OM
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