The Man From Earth
Wanted to share my thoughts on a movie I’ve just seen (All Hail Netflix Streaming!) called The Man From Earth, a sci-fi film written by Jerome Bixby. probably best known for his tele-plays for Star Trek and The Twilight Zone. I was slightly skeptical of the movie being worth my time — hadn’t ever heard of it, or anything about it. And the premise seemed just plain odd: “… John Oldman, a college professor … reveals to his colleagues that he’s actually a centuries-old caveman.” But I figured, what the hay.. and dove in.
What I was presented with was about 80 minutes of ‘what ifs’ that really got me thinking both positively and critically about what could happen to the mind if you were forced, for no real reason that’s explained, to live for 14,000 years. Certainly there’d be just an amazing amount of knowledge to be gained, but what of the knowledge lost? Could the human mind really survive as much input as he’d have received without going insane?
There are some ‘ah ha’ moments in the movie, none of which I want to ruin for anyone who seeks it out, but I will say that I enjoyed the way the concept of religion was handled — I’ve heard the arguments before re: Buddha and Jesus, and this spin on that old theory is, at least, entertaining. It’s philosophy-lite, but worth the watch.