The Man from Earth

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Richard Schenkman directs. Afshin Shahidi behind the camera. Mark Hinton Stewart scores. Neil Grieve cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 187 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
• 2Shot for just $0.2M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 3Released 19 years ago.
• 4Part of the "The Man from Earth Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
• 5Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
• 6Directed by Richard Schenkman, shot by Afshin Shahidi. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 7Original score by Mark Hinton Stewart. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 8Editor Neil Grieve shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 9David Lee Smith and Tony Todd and John Billingsley carry the top of the cast.
• 10Marketing tagline: "From one of the acclaimed writers of Star Trek and The Twilight Zone comes a story that transcends both time and space...".
• 11IMDB entry: tt0756683 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 12Classified under 18 themes, including "immortality", "birthday", "legend", "philosophy".
• 13Released under 19 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography

Afshin Shahidi

Original score

Mark Hinton Stewart

Editing

Neil Grieve

Production design

Priscilla Elliott

Runtime

87 min · 1h 27m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$200,000

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

NR

IMDB

The Man from Earth (2007) ↗

Part of

The Man from Earth Collection

The Man from Earth Collection

• 
  The Man from Earth

  2007 · this one
• 
  The Man from Earth: Holocene

  2017

Also by

Richard Schenkman

• 
  October 22

  1998 · ★ 6.6
• 
  A Diva's Christmas Carol

  2000 · ★ 6.2
• 
  And Then Came Love

  2007 · ★ 5.9
• 
  I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance Is Mine

  2015 · ★ 5.8
• 
  The Man from Earth: Holocene

  2017 · ★ 5.5
• 
  Mischief Night

  2013 · ★ 5.1

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  The Man From Earth - Trailer

  Trailer
• 

  ▶
  The Man from Earth - Movie Trailer

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Andres Gomez2016-02-18
  ★ 8/10

  A great idea for a movie developed in a witty script. Well done and with a decent cast. Perfect for being played also in the theaters or watched under the blanket at home.

  Read full review ↓
• furious_iz2018-02-13
  ★ 3/10

  DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE! Maybe that statement is a little facetious, but I feel it is true. I read AMAZING reviews for this film. I went in with high hopes, expecting a well acted, thoughtful, existential and quiet science fiction film. Instead I saw a film so poor I wondered what's the scam here? How could this film possibly have a score in the high 7s. The premise is solid at first glance, but as the film moves along it delves deeper and deeper in to melodrama, and then eventually patronising and insulting trash. I am agnostic, but I found the religion bashing heavy handed and unnecessary. Most of the actors were doing the best they could with the script, but everything comes across flat and lifeless. None of the characters rang true. None of the dialogue sounded like how real people actually talk. If you want to make a science fiction film that shies away from special effects, and instead relies on realism and storytelling, you had better make the dialogue realistic, and the storytelling compelling. Sadly neither are found here. The look of the film, I get that it is a low budget film made on a single location, but the quality of the film stock! It may seem petty, but I could not get over the thought that I have seen better looking lifetime films. Honestly I have seen better looking daytime soaps from the 80s. Basically I don't get why anyone would call this film good, let alone a masterpiece. I have read rave reviews, 10/10 reviews, gushing about how thought provoking and challenging this film was. My thoughts were ones of disdain. My challenge was to finish this abysmal film. Many of the reviews seem to fixate on the fact that the writer of this wrote for the original Star Trek series. That to me is not a good enough reason to rate this film highly. I honestly felt ripped off by this film. I've been told I didn't get it, but sadly I did. I understood every scene, I understood the implications, I understood the moral dilemmas and deeper meaning of what was being said. It's just that the deeper meaning was shallow and unconvincing. I've been told maybe I should have watched Transformers instead. Just for the record, I was looking forward to a slow, intelligent film minus explosions. Instead I got, this. 3/10, avoid unless you have already drunk the kool-aid and are pre-conditioned to love the film because the writer worked on Star Trek.

  Read full review ↓
• Hossein2020-12-24
  ★ 10/10

  I'd like to invite you to believe the hype. This movie is very well written and simply great. Keeps you at the edge of your seat and doesn't fail to amaze you till its very last second.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• FA

  Falling Sky Entertainment

Key crew

• Executive ProducerMark Pellington
• ProducerEric D. Wilkinson
• ProducerRichard Schenkman
• Production DesignPriscilla Elliott
• EditorNeil Grieve
• Executive ProducerEmerson Bixby
• Scenic ArtistConor O'Gorman

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• immortality
• birthday
• legend
• philosophy
• professor
• psychology
• bible
• time
• survival
• anthropology
• prehistory
• religion
• memory
• church
• cavemen
• assertive
• dignified
• enchant

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical2007-06-10NR

Also known as

International titles

• PozemšťanCZ
• L'uomo che venne dalla terraIT
• 這個男人來自地球TW
• 맨 프럼 어스KR
• El hombre de la TierraES
• PozemstanCZ
• Mees planeedilt MaaEE
• Čovjek sa ZemljeHR
• Az őslakóHU
• Czlowiek z ziemiPL
• O Homem da TerraPT
• Čovek sa ZemljeRS
• DünyaliTR
• Jerome Bixby's The Man from EarthUS
• The Man from EarthCA