The Earthling (1980)

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I only learned that Briton Peter Collinson, the director of The Earthling, tragically died of lung cancer in the same year The Earthling was released. 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. Credit to the special effects team for this scene which I still remember to this day. I can only imagine the couple's final words and thoughts as they headed down the cliff in the campervan. It reminds me of the scene from a Knight Rider episode where Michael Knight's evil twin and his beau go off a cliff in their car, and also Thelma and Louise.

People often dismiss this as a movie for children, but it is simply not the case. It's about the hard cold facts of reality as they pertain to two very different people, as well as the equally hard lessons they must both learn in order to deal with it. The story that it tells says so much about love and on so many different levels. There is a powerful healing that the man and boy imparted to one another despite their age difference. A healing for a loss that cannot be recaptured once forcibly taken or repurchased once casually cast aside as valueless. It is a testament to the real possibility of personal change that lies deeply dormant within us all. A change so profound, it is often referred to as a miracle. Not to be missed by the hard-of-heart or the ageless.

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.

I'm rarely moved to comment on a movie, but the Earthling is one of my favorites. 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. The cinematography was outstanding, the Australian landscape was full of color and the story line quite refreshing.