The Man Who Fell to Earth

• Fanedit Title: The Man Who Fell to Earth - the Baliscon Cut

• Original Movie Title: The Man Who Fell to Earth

• Original Release Date: June 24, 2011

• Original Runtime: 2 hours, 19 minutes

• Fanedit Release Date: September 8, 2025

• Fanedit Running Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes

• Time Added: 3 minutes

• Time Removed: 12 minutes

• Synopsis: Thomas Jerome Newton (David Bowie) is an alien who has come to Earth in search of water to save his home planet. Aided by lawyer Oliver Farnsworth (Buck Henry), Thomas uses his knowledge of advanced technology to create profitable inventions. While developing a method to transport water, Thomas meets Mary-Lou (Candy Clark), a quiet hotel clerk, and begins to fall in love with her. Just as he is ready to leave Earth, Thomas is intercepted by the U.S. government, and his entire plan is threatened. 

• Intention: David Bowie is my all time favorite musician, all time favorite artist, no exceptions.  I was introduced to him before I was capable of maintaining memories and his music is ingrained in me. When I first dug deeper into his career and discovered his first major film debut in The Man Who Fell To Earth, I was both captivated and flummoxed.  I was well aware of his performance of Jareth, Goblin King, in Labyrinth, along with his many shifts in musical personas, but I was never prepared to see him assume the lead performance of a film.

The Man Who Fell to Earth is certainly a film of its time - it doesn't escape the psychedelic scope of the 1970s, yet it perfectly encapsulates the experience of an alien character, originally devised by the original novel's author Walter Tevis, and performed to perfection by David Bowie, who had at that time just retired his musical persona, the cosmic rock messiah Ziggy Stardust.

The film itself is a bizarre, entertaining masterpiece, but I was always curious to experience it with something closer to the original score that Bowie intended, yet was unable to deliver due to troubles caused by his substance abuse and other obligations. It's rumored that much of his ambient work off of the albums Low and "Heroes" began as demos for the film's soundtrack, so I pulled from those albums, along with other songs released and rerecorded around that time.

My hope is to refine The Man Who Fell to Earth and to augment the sonic experience with a David Bowie score to better reflect what could have been.

Change List:

• Created a new title credit-  Added "Speed of Life' to the opening credits and the opening sequence of Thomas descending into the town

• Cut Thomas counting his money on the highway before the sheep arrive

• Added "Space Oddity ('79)" when Thomas lays downs in front of the general store and again when he's drinking water from the lake 

• Added "Breaking Glass" after Newton's first meeting with Farnsworth

• Added "Stay" when Bryce struts out of the university

• I don't know if anyone likes the sequence where Newton watches Kabuki theater intercut with Rip Torn's Bryce laying multiple younger women, but I cut that for the sake of pacing and common decency

• Cut Farnsworth's monologue during the transition after Bryce's sex scene

• Cut Bowie mentioning negotiations with Eastman-Kodak

• Trimmed the sequence with Bryce and the dean - he seems upset at Bryce's ethics, but also upset when Bryce says he's ready to leave.  He stands up to tell Bryce off twice, and with contradictory messages.

• Cut the second sequence with Bryce's personal trysts  

• Removed Bryce's monologue about leaving his university interests for World Corporations

• Added "TVC15" during the cut to Tommy and Mary Lou living in their apartment before discussing church

• Added Soul Love during Tommy and Mary Lou's discussion while she's in the tub

• Added "Sound and Vision" to Tommy and Mary Lou's drive after church

• Cut Thomas's reaction to the early settlers when he and Mary Lou go out for a drive  

• Added "Warszawa" when Tommy reflects on his past, and later on when.  It continues on when Bryce arrives at Newton's compound and then during Newton and Mary Lou's first intimate scene

• Trimmed this sequence down slightly to match the music's timing

• Moved the TV freakout scene to later in the film. Having them go from loving to instantly antagonistic never made much narrative sense, and I wanted Newton's arc and the breakdown in his relationship with Mary Lou to be paced more naturally.  

• Cut the shot of Tommy sleeping after he appears to Bryce and then disappears

• Added "Moss Garden" to the sequence where Newton introduces his craft to Bryce

• Added "Weeping Wall" after Bryce asks Newton if he's crazy

• Placed the tv freakout scene next, before Bryce's scheme to X-Ray Newton.  

• Added an instrumental version of "What in the World" during the first half of Tommy and Mary Lou's television argument

• Cut Tommy's freak out - Bowie's acting is probably weakest at this point, and the constant barrage of visual and audio information is enough to be disorienting

• Added a red filter when Bryce is developing the X-Ray film of Newton

• Moved the conversation between Mr. Peters and the government to later in the film

• Added "Be My Wife" during Tommy and Mary Lou's argument, around the time of the cookie sequence and through until he reveals his true self to Mary Lou

• Added "Subterraneans" during Tommy and Mary Lou's first real intimate scene

• Reprised "Crystal Japan" when Newton envisions his departure from his family and his planet

• Placed the conversation between Mr. Peters and the government to after when Newton reveals himself to Bryce and right before his attempt to jettison himself off planet.  This way, it's easier to see how Peters' direct actions interrupt Newton's plans to leave Earth

• Added "All Saints when Newton realizes Arthur betrayed him, continued through Farnsworth's death and Mr. Peters' embrace with his wife

• Added "Sense of Doubt" during the first glimpse of Newtons's stay in his new home

• Added "Art Decade" When Newton is first being surgically examined

• Added "Alabama Song' to Tommy and Mary Lou's ping pong game

• Added "Neukolin" to Newton's final medical test

• Added an instrumental of "The Secret Life of Arabia" during Newton's escape

• Added "Some Are" to the scene where Mary Lou and Bryce are Christmas shopping later on

• Added "Station to Station" once Bryce listens to one of Newton's albums, and continued it through their final conversation

• Added "A New Career in a New Town" to the end credits

• Added Bowie's "Crystal Japan" commercial after the credits. Something about the commercial felt like one of Newton's commercials - it feels like it could be a deliberate message to his family back on some faraway alien world

New Soundtrack

• Speed of Life

• Space Oddity (1979)

• Crystal Japan

• Breaking Glass

• Stay

• TVC 15

• Soul Love (Live)

• Sound and Vision

• Warszawa

• Moss Garden

• Weeping Wall

• What in the World

• Be My Wife

• Subterraneans

• All Saints

• Sense of Doubt

• Art Decade

• Alabama Song

• Neukolin

• The Secret Life of Arabia

• Some Are

• Station to Station

• A New Career in a New Town