I had picked up The Man from Earth about four years ago, but only watched about 20 minutes before getting bored. After coming across it again I decided to humor the film and watch it all the way until the end. While I enjoyed some of the ideas put forth and the questions asked, many of those questions were provided with asinine answers that were then accepted without debate by presumably educated university professors. At times the film exudes freshman-level materialist philosophy that is so thickly laid on you can see it hanging in the air. Some may see this emerge from a desire to make the film accessible to the widest possible audience, but this is not a typical Hollywood style movie. It brands itself as something akin to educational material, "a thinking man's movie," and it's a shame to see what many believe is one the decade's most thought-provoking films turn out to be little more than a Philosophy 101 study group discussion at one of America's many criminally overpriced institutes of higher learning. Then there's the blatantly ahistorical statements about the Middle Ages in regard to hygiene, scientific stagnation, and the church, all of which are made, of course, without providing any supporting evidence. Such idiocy I cannot defend in any context. Perhaps you may take away something from this film that you had never previously considered. I, for one, did not. If you are the type of person who enjoys a good old fashioned philosophical brainstorming session then I sincerely believe that you can do better than The Man from Earth. Watch Primer instead. Even better, why not read a book? If you get even one solid book on philosophy under your belt, then you will be officially more qualified to speak about mankind's origins than this film.
Review of The Man from Earth
