Dir. Nicolas Roeg · 1976 · 139 min · back in UK cinemas in 4K
An alien, Thomas Jerome Newton, crash-lands in New Mexico. His home planet is in drought and he is looking for a way to ship water back. That is the first act, and the rest is better left for the film to deliver. David Bowie plays Newton in what was his first starring role; Candy Clark is Mary-Lou, Buck Henry is Oliver Farnsworth and Rip Torn is Dr. Nathan Bryce. Paul Mayersberg adapted Walter Tevis's 1963 novel, Anthony B. Richmond shot it, and John Phillips coordinated the music with contributions from Stomu Yamash'ta.
The film reached UK screens in March 1976 and returns on 13 November in a 4K version, marking the 50th anniversary of that release. The distributor, StudioCanal, says the film was fully restored in 2015; Live for Film carries the announcement, and a five-disc 4K UHD collector's edition follows on 16 November. This review is a reading of published criticism, not an account of the new presentation.
The critical case for the film rests on Roeg's way of cutting and on Bowie's presence. Jason Wood, writing for Electric Sheep, calls it Roeg's most characteristic and rewarding work, says Bowie fully inhabits the alien role, and reads it as a sharp portrait of capitalism, corporate power and alienation, with its themes of watching and being watched looking prescient. Slant's reviewer likewise praises the fragmented opening, built from cuts and dissolves, as a way of conveying a visitor's disorientation, and finds Bowie gentle and otherworldly.
aggressively imperfect film, alternately beautiful, mystifying, and embarrassingSlant Magazine
This is where critics split, and it is not a small split. Roger Ebert found the plot full of logical gaps, thought Bowie's laconic performance bordered on catatonic, and felt the mix of the mundane and the metaphysical was often arbitrary. He still praised Candy Clark and the film's ambition, calling what is on screen "pieces of a vast, ambitious, complex conception". Slant also finds some experimental choices random, and says the film leaves vague things the novel explains. On release the verdicts were mixed: Gene Siskel was warmer than Ebert, and the film was a Golden Bear nominee in Berlin, with Bowie winning a Saturn Award for best actor, as Wikipedia's account of its reception sets out.
Nigel Andrews, of the Financial Times, is quoted by Electric Sheep as feeling it had too many ideas for one film. That is the worry in a sentence, and also the reason people keep going back.
Tick what applies. This is a mood meter, not a score.
StudioCanal lists a nationwide UK cinema re-release on 13 November and a collector's edition on disc on 16 November, per davidbowie.com. Availability varies by country, so check your local cinema listings. For a home copy, a 4K disc needs a 4K disc player, and a few suggestions are below.