The Earthling
Tags: tragedy

Plot synopsis:
Patrick Foley (Holden) is dying of cancer and decides to return to the outback where he was born. He has stopped taking his medicine and is at peace with his decision to die alone in the woods. On his journey, he notices a family camping. From a neighbouring peak, Foley watches as Shawn (Schroder), a 10-year-old boy, begins collecting firewood. The father attempts to move the camper away from the edge. Unfortunately, the camper rolls off the cliff and crashes to the bottom of the cliff with Shawn's parents inside. Shawn climbs down from the cliff finding the camper crushed upside down and realizes his parents are dead. Foley has an ethical dilemma: take the stranded ten-year-old back to civilization, and lose his own wish to die where he was born, or continue his personal mission and let the boy die alone in the wilderness. He decides to take the boy with him, and teaches him along the way how to survive in the wilderness. A strong bond grows between the two, and when Foley finally dies, Shawn is equipped to travel out of the outback alone.

Review: And William Holden, far from being one to "add to" a list of modern man-and-boy bonding stories, in this 1980 film virtually founded the category.I've seen this excellent film three times -- always on late-nite TV.
Why on earth hasn't it received wider public acclaim??!At 62 (this was his next-to-last film), Holden looks like he really is terminally ill.
The cockles of his heart never are warmed to the kid (that we can see, anyway).He's bone-weary, making his painful way to the ruins of his long-deserted family home to die, But this squalling, spoiled, self-centered kid is stranded.
And on the way, he tries to teach the boy how to survive in the wilderness -- for the child will soon be utterly alone -- and reach civilization.How and what he teaches him is fascinating -- both practical and subtle.
Through life is is hard, and we face death at the end, the struggle to survive is also deeply satisfying.Holden's character Patrick Foley passes these concepts onto the boy played by Schroeder.
I like thought-provoking and heart-touching movies, this film aims right at my emotional core and gets me in the breadbasket.It's not a family film in the Disney sense, but it's a true family film in the spiritual sense.
Sometimes the happy ending teaches that life is hard, suffering has a cause and an end, and within us lies the answer to the cessation of suffering: We can endure and find happiness, so long as we remember to find love.Holden's performance was right-on, playing the embittered but compassionate mentor to Shroeder's traumatized child.
I don't know about Family film, but I truly loved this movie.
I was 14 years old when I first saw this movie and I found it to be very telling.
This story tries to shatter that image, and in my opinion, does a wonderful job at it while telling a tale that if focused on correctly can be a great inspiration to a young person today..
While this wasn't William Holden's last film (S.O.B) was, it makes for a terrific and appropriate swan song.
Schroder's performance is great but William Holden's show the skills of a consumate master.
In the tradition of great outdoor films like "Jeremiah Johnson" and "The Edge", this is an emotional film about human survival and love.
Great performances by both actors, wonderful cinematography, and a really tight script make this improbably story believable.
Australia's outback has never looked as beautiful and rugged as in this 1980 film directed by Peter Conlinson.
Little does Shawn know that Foley has observed the accident, but he wants to stay away from the young boy.
The long trek both take makes a man out of Shawn, as we realize he will be all right and will live to a productive life.The surprise of the movie is William Holden, an actor at the end of his career.
Rick Shroder, then a young child actor makes a valuable contribution holding his own against the more experienced Mr. Holden.
"The Earthling" is a film that should be seen by young people, as they can learn how to face the reality that Shawn went through in his quest for survival a beautiful land that presented so many challenges to overcome..
An very good movie for William Holden, one of his last..
Little Ricky Schroder is excellent at a young age and counters William Holden's maturity for an interesting balance of young and old.
I liked this movie for the outdoor scenery and the beautiful backwoods areas of Australia.
Marvelously moving film for acting, scenery, plot line & music..
An excellent film displaying acting talents not previously apparent for Mr. Holden.
Empathy but not sympathy for a boy whose parents are taken from him, as were those of Mr. Holden's character.
Superb acting ability shown by young Ricky Schroeder beyond his years.
A moving story of impending death and of passing the torch of survival to the boy.
We get to watch the whining little boy who doesn't want to be splashed with cold water change into the tough survivor who makes Foley catch his own fish at the point of a knife.
I have seen this film several times and would heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoys drama, human interaction, nature at her best and the soaring voice of Maureen McGovern also at her best.
The film shows a boy (Rick), that is over protected by the parents.
Holden sees all the tragedy, but he has a few time (who has enough?)to show him how to survive, live and be good.
A dying man finds love and compassion in his final days as he treks to his birth place accompanied by a spoiled whining child orphaned in a freak accident in the outback.
It is also the penultimate film of the great William Holden, and he's quite enjoyable to watch as a hugely insensitive, selfish and hard-to-please old man.In a story that mirrors the real-life illness of Collinson, an old American returns to his boyhood home in the Australian outback.
En route, he happens upon a young boy whose family have been killed in a horrific camper van accident.
Initially annoyed to be lumbered with the boy (Schroeder), the old man eventually teaches him the art of survival in the wilderness and actually grows to love him.This strange outdoor adventure film feels like it was originally conceived as a family production.
Either way, the cruel attitude evident in Collinson's direction - via Holden's character - lends the film a highly unusual element of grittiness.
This is a lost classic and a great family movie and I hope hope hope that it is released onto DVD soon.
(Studios, are you listening?) I was 9 or 10 when I saw it and would love to share it with the young kids in my family today.
The performances are beautiful (Ricky Schroeder is so underrated, even today)and William Holden does a heartbreaking, amazing job.
Looking at his childhood performances coupled with NYPD Blue and Lonesome Dove--he should be grouped with the young indie actors of current films.
I don't like some of the movies Rick is doing today but even in those films he delivers such alive, powerful performances.
This movie is a beautiful artistic statement, from the scenery of the Australian outback to the wonderful performances from William Holden and young Ricky Schroder.
This really showed what was best about Holden's natural brilliance as an actor, the detail and emotion he conveys in his work was unparalleled in almost any other actor of his time or really, ever since.The story is tragic, yet compelling, about a young boy stranded in the wilderness alone when his parents are killed in a auto accident.
A lot is learned in this film in surviving with your own inner strength of body and mind, a concept that has basically fallen by the wayside in our day and age.Fantastic movie that has unfortunately gone under the radar for too long and hopefully will get a resurgence very soon..
William Holden and Ricky Schroder do a superb job of acting.
Schroder is great for a 10 year old boy.
Holden's perform is really good this is almost his last film before he die in a tragic house accident, and the performance of the boy (Shoedrer) is good too.
The story its tragic but its a life lesson, so i think this is one of my favorites films cause is gentle and humanism with a great sense of what the life is and how the life sometimes is hard but this film teaches you to respect your world and teaches you that we need to be strong to survey cause the weak confuse standing people the wind can blow them away like the tree sheets.
I like to see this movie when I'm spiritually lost and then i just remember one of the teaches of the old man Foley "Remember Go to the north boy".
Cute boy melts heart of dying man.
Cute Ricky Schroder, then 10 years old, stars against super-macho William Holden in this Australian adventure of mind and body.Holden will be dying shortly, and is on his way to the outback to pass over.
Yet he runs into Schroder, who is the only survivor of a crash of his family's motor-home.There's no one to look after the boy, and no one for the man to look after.
See "Little Lord Flauntleroy", "The Champ" and his other movies made while he was a little boy.His charm and good cheer soon turn the grumpy Holden around.
If any boy could warm up an affection with a man with a stone heart, it has to be Schroder.Holden now joins the ranks of those super-macho stars who have played a part as giving care and affection to a needy boy.
It is about an older man who lost his parents years ago, fantastically played by William Holden, who wants to go back to his roots and a "10 year old" boy, fantastically played by Rick Schroder, on vacation with his mom and dad.
The incredibly beautiful scenery is set in Australia, with quality scenes of landscapes, brooks, mountains, forests, insects and animals that resemble National Geographic specials.The movie never gets boring.
I'm a big William Holden fan and this film has had such good reviews I was quite desperate to see it.
My rating is probably too high because I'm such a Holden fan, but he really gives a remarkable performance and the story itself is quite wonderful.
Basically it's the story of a bitter and lonely man coming home to die in the Austrian outback but along his way he finds a young boy lost and alone.
He can't take the boy back to civilization, he doesn't have that long, so he must take the boy deeper into the wild and teach him to survive along the way.
The movie could have been very melodramatic but the cast and director don't go that way, it's played very straight and matter of fact.
Rickie Schroder does a fine job as the boy, not cloying at all.
I sure hope they come up with a DVD of this movie, but until then, check it out on Youtube..
The story of the making of The Earthling might in itself prove to be as interesting a film as The Earthling itself.
The film tries, but doesn't quite make it to the top rung of films that William Holden did.
As it sadly turned out The Earthling was the next to last film that Holden completed before he died the following year.Only in the movies could we have the strange tale about one of the two protagonists dying of cancer, directed by someone who was himself dying of the same.
His own plight might have been what attracted Collinson to the project.According to the Citadel Film series book, The Films Of William Holden, Collinson was especially hard on young Rick Schroder during the making of The Earthling.
So much so that Holden had to intervene and the two bonded.Which may have helped the film because three quarters of it is only dealing with Holden and Schroder on screen.
The two really play well together.Holden has returned to Australia to die where he grew up in a very rugged part of the Blue Mountains of New South Wales.
But when their camper goes off a cliff killing the parents and Schroder is left alone in the wilderness, he's lucky to find Holden.But Bill proves to be a stern taskmaster.
He has to teach Schroder and hope he learns well, the tools needed for survival in the wild.
The bulk of the film is concerned with just that.Collinson died and some scenes were shot afterward, the ending you see is not what Collinson had in mind.
The viewers will have to judge for themselves.Rick Schroder never forgot William Holden and when he married, he named his first child Holden Schroder in honor of the movie legend who was also battling some demons of his own, but took time to help and befriend a young child player.I think if Rick Schroder reads this review he'd like me to honor William Holden as well.
It's heartening to know, according to Stefanie Powers, that Holden and Schroder formed such a loving bond that Schroder grew up to name his two boys William and Holden.
No two guys would act the way Holden and the other geezer yell at each other.
That said, Holden looks surprisingly good for a guy who would soon die in real life.
I am putting this review up not to tell you the story of this movie.
If you love this movie and you've longed to see it in high-quality, then please grab yourself a copy of the Blu-ray remastered edition by Kino Lorber.I am a big fan of Kino Lorber, they do a very good job of taking really good VHS movies that have suffered from low-quality and restoring them.
If you're a fan of this movie, and you love everything about this movie, grab yourself a copy of the remastered Blu-ray version.Yes, I know, I am repeating myself.
There is a powerful healing that the man and boy imparted to one another despite their age difference.
I remember, as very young boy, watching this movie at one of our babysitters' houses and it scaring the hell out of me.
Very cool movie, still kinda gives me the creeps, even though I am now older then R.S. parents are in the movieIt is also sparking the thought in me that I should start looking for other films from my earlier childhood that I can recall.
"The Earthling" is a much-maligned story concerning Holden's character, terminally ill with cancer, on a pilgrimage to a remote valley in the Australian bush where he lived as a child.
Together the pair form a mature bond as Holden tries to teach the young apprentice the primitive life skills that will keep him alive in the wilderness, long enough to find his way back to civilisation.Regularly criticised, I watched this movie for myself many years ago and was surprised by its quality; that of the cinematography, acting and Collinson's direction, culminating in a bittersweet and moving tale that's not as cheesy as some of the previews and reviews imply.There's a couple of pathos moments that probably didn't need to happen, but generally, the film's tone is sincere and the plot has enough content and momentum to carry its 100 minutes duration.
Before he starred in "Silver Spoons", Ricky Schroeder was in two worthless movies, "The Champ" (1979) and "The Earthling" (1980).
I mean, these two movies involved the boy's parents getting killed in a gruesome way.
William Holden was a grumpy old loser and Ricky Schroeder was a whiny little orphan twerp in this piece of crap.
It's a wonderful film with a heart-breaking ending.
Fate brings a rough, way-faring loner and a young child lost in the wild outback together and the result is one hell of a story that is sure to touch the viewers emotions.
William Holden's character is aged and wants to trek to his father's remote cabin to live out his final days.
Along the way he stumbles into Schroeder's character who's parents recently had an accident on their family vacation there in Australia, leaving the child abandoned and unable to survive.
Soured by civilization, Holden is reluctant to aid the boy, who's determination to connect with the older man eventually gets through to Holden's compassionate heart of gold..
"The Earthling" is one of William Holden's last films.
So, perhaps it's fitting then that in this film, Holden's character is dying from cancer.
However, his plan goes a bit awry, as he stumbles upon a young kid (Ricky Schroder) whose parents were just killed.
Together, eventually, they form a sort of bond.So why do I say that the film is good but not great?
Well, the film just ends and you really have no idea if the child ever makes it--after all, he's hundreds of miles from civilization!
A Classic Treasure of a Film - for the young and old....
**SPOILER** I was about 11 years old when i saw this film.
As a kid you see this movie through the child's perspective, now as an adult I found my emotion coming from the old man's character (Holden).
I think there's so much to draw off of this film for a young child or an adult who has struggled finding his or her way through life.
The Australian Outback is breathtaking and its great how they captured all the animals and wildlife throughout the film.
This was the first film Ricky Schroder made after The Last Flight Of Noah's Ark (now there is a real classic).
I read a biography of Bill Holden's and it said that he and Ricky had a ball working together and it surely shows in this fine film.
This man teaches the boy how to survive and he teaches the man how to love.
Yes it is dark and depressing, but I feel that makes it a better movie because it is not typical Hollywood schmaltz.
Peter Collinson, the director of the film was dying of cancer as it was being made and less then a year after the film was released, William Holden died in a drunken fall in his home.
A possible spoiler here, Holden's character dies and I always wondered if Ricky made it back to civilization in the end..
Peter was famous as the director of the 1969 movie The Italian Job, and here he gives the Aussie touch to a movie with two famous Americans, William Holden and Rick "NYPD Blue" Schroder in the lead.The two Aussie actors, Jack "Petersen" Thompson and Olivia Hamnett (actually British, but migrated to Australia in 1971) tragically get short shrift in the famous campervan scene which goes off the cliff.