The Man from Earth

Digitaalinen kuvaus ja hirsimökkien tumma sisustus tekevät elokuvasta televisiomaisen, ja viisiminuuttiseksi lyhennettynä se sopisikin Beyond Belief -tarinaksi. Toisaalta kyseessä on mystinen, paljon puhetta sisältävä (jopa kamarinäytelmän tyylinen) draama, minkä vuoksi lähes digitaalisen tallennuksen alkuajoista muistuttava kuvanlaatu ei häiritse, ja John Oldmanin kerronta on mukaansatempaavaa eikä pitkäveteistä. (14.10.2017)

A compelling philosophical masterpiece for $200,000, a home video flick that, if you listen carefully and absorb the information from the beginning, catches you without you even realizing how. A very original concept and a barrage of high-level intellectual dialogues that skillfully oscillate between sufficient expertise, comprehensiveness, and sophistication, while at the same time being fast-paced, true to life, and accessible to the average conventional viewer. (16.02.2014)

I would object to the effort to come up with some sort of “scandalous revelation” at any cost, furthermore enhanced with needless dramatic background music, but I find the central idea of The Man from Earth seriously likable. Very simple, very stimulating, compelling us to think beyond the framework of the film. As one of the characters suggests, however, you can contemplate the position of the individual in human history, the advantages and disadvantages of eternal life and the fleetingness of time, and just listen and be entertained by the screenwriter’s intellectual flourishes, which aren’t annoying. Nit-pickers will undoubtedly find some inconsistencies that don’t correspond to the information in the book of wisdom, but factual accuracy is not what this is about. It’s enough to join the filmmakers in hypothetically asking “what if?”, which I found extremely entertaining and I wasn’t bothered by the fact that the whole thing (like most philosophising) is actually useless. 80% (17.09.2011)

This film managed to surprise me quite a bit. Yes, it's just a conversation film that's not filmed in a great way, it could use a little better camerawork and better lighting, but the message that's being told here is pretty good. Moreover, the film has an interesting point. This was a major and nice surprise for me. (13.02.2018)

I've made countless comparisons in my reviews using the word interesting, but I don't think it's ever been applied anywhere as aptly as to this film. The Man from Earth is an indescribable experience, definitely one of the most original in recent years, and it doesn't matter that it's all talk, because I've never encountered such engaging dialogue before – if I turned away from the screen once, it was only because I’d drank two litres of Kofola before the screening. I was also very pleased with the ending, it was really well done. It's hard to describe, it's something that everyone has to see (or at least hear) for themselves. (17.06.2012)