Throughout cinema history, there have been some iconic nude scenes that have transcended the bounds of the films in which they appeared. Our weekly column Anatomy of a Scene's Manatomy will take an in-depth look at these scenes, their history, their deeper meanings, and their legacy. This week, two unlikely co-stars both show their dicks in Nicolas Roeg's sci-fi masterpiece The Man Who Fell to Earth!
Coming off the critical and commercial success of his 1973 thriller Don't Look Now, director Nicolas Roeg had carte blanche to do whatever he wanted next. He decided on an adaptation of Walter Tevis' 1963 science fiction novel The Man Who Fell to Earth, featuring the biggest music superstar of the moment, David Bowie, in his starring debut. Following his contemporaries like Mick Jagger and John Lennon into the world of acting seemed like a natural extension for Bowie between reinventions, and Roeg's film presented him with the opportunity to both star in and record the music for a film, though he would eventually abandon the latter pursuit to focus solely on acting.
Rip Torn, conversely, started his career studying under Lee Strasberg at the Actor's Studio. His film work mostly consisted of playing the heavy in westerns and genre flicks in the 50s and 60s before earning an Oscar nomination and becoming an acclaimed character actor in the 80s and 90s. The 70s were a strange decade for Torn as he earned acclaim for his role as a washed up honky tonk singer in Payday, before playing younger brother Richie to Peter Boyle's Joey Gallo in the ripped-from-the-headlines mobster flick Crazy Joe.
All of this is to say that it's hard to believe that audiences would expect to see both of these men's penises in what appeared to be a straightforward science fiction premise. Roeg's film is anything but straightforward, however, as he and screenwriter Paul Mayersberg take a non-linear approach to the story of alien Thomas Jerome Newton (Bowie), sent to earth to bring water back to his dying home planet where his wife and children are among the millions waiting for him to rescue them. Using his civilization's many technological advances to his advantage, Newton becomes a wealthy tech entrepreneur, hoping to eventually amass enough money to build a spaceship to bring water back to his planet.
Torn eventually crosses paths with Newton when he is hired as a fuel technician for Newton's company, but ends up essentially becoming the boss' right hand man. His past is a checkered one—this is still Rip Torn after all—with a history of drinking and womanizing that cost him his job as a college professor, which we get to see in flashback. I doubt anyone was prepared not just for the sight of Torn's dick, but for the sight of a woman holding his dick and speaking into it like a microphone. If you first saw Rip Torn in Men in Black or Larry Sanders, gird your loins...
Newton eventually loses sight of his mission when he meets and falls for Mary Lou (Candy Clark), a woman working many odd jobs who introduces him to alcohol and sex. His addiction to alcohol is eventually turned against him by the government, who catch wind of his plan. Some years later, he and Mary Lou are reunited, both of them now ravaged by the effects of alcohol and time, with Newton having now completely lost sight of his mission. Near the end of the film, Bowie and Clark have a very bizarre sex scene involving guns loaded with blanks, and it's here that we finally get to see Bowie's member...
The film's unhappy ending finds Newton still trapped on earth, forever young but cursed with a crippling alcohol addiction. Mary Lou eventually ends up married to Rip Torn's character, leaving Torn ahead in the battle for dick supremacy in the film. Mary Lou ultimately chose his dick, so I suppose he wins. Of course, none of this is to mention Bernie Casey, who might have just stolen the film from his co-stars had he shown anything more than just the tip, just for a second...
It's nothing, if not fascinating, to think that all three of these men were nude in the same movie. Where else but the 1970s would you get two relatively well known actors and a global superstar naked in the course of two hours. What a time to be alive, I tell ya. Join us again next week when we dive deep into the world of handkerchief etiquette in the late 70s gay club scene with Al Pacino in William Friedkin's Cruising!
Catch up with our other editions of Anatomy of a Scene's Manatomy...
—Two of History's Manliest Men Wrestle Naked in Women in Love
—Ewan McGregor Has Got It, Flaunts It in Velvet Goldmine
—A Pair of Stars are Born in Y Tu Mamá También
—Harvey Keitel Goes Hog Wild in Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant
—Viggo Mortensen is Naked From Every Imaginable Angle in Eastern Promises
—There's No Shame is Michael Fassbender's Dick Game
—Kevin Bacon Steals the Show Going Full Frontal in Wild Things
—How We Met Jason Segel's Dick in Forgetting Sarah Marshall
—Jack Reynor is Uniquely Vulnerable for a Man in Midsommar
—Jaye Davidson Knows All There is to Know About The Crying Game
