But it's safe to say that there's never been anything remotely like The Man Who Fell to Earth . Starring pop idol David Bowie and directed by Nicolas Roeg from a screenplay by Paul Mayersberg, this adaptation of Walter Tevis' novel of the same name is so unlike the sci-fi norm, that when it was first released back in 1976, its U.S. distributor cut twenty minutes from its running time, and tried to reassemble what was left into something resembling a more conventional story. In 1981, the complete uncut version was finally released. The Man Who Fell to Earth isn't about other-worldly powers, but rather, its concerns are decidedly earthbound. In no time at all, he becomes a multimillionaire.
Newton becomes highly reclusive.
We're never given any way of knowing for sure. There's never been any romance quite as oddly true as the unhappy one between Newton and Mary-Lou. People fall love every day of the week with people that they don't understand, but Newton and Mary-Lou are signal figures in dysfunctional romance. The scene where he watches a wall filled with simultaneously running televisions sets, rather than simply talk to her, is the most stunning evocation of alienation the movies have given us since Michelangelo Antonioni 's L'Avventura . Had they only been able to connect who knows what might have happened between them.