The Man From Earth (2007)

January 7, 2025

The protagonist reveals to a group of friends that he has been alive since ancient times, claiming to be 14,000 years old. The entire movie revolves around his friends interrogating him about his claims. While I liked the concept of the film, I feel the execution was poor. His friends mostly asked very basic questions about his life, then acted like he was a genius just because he had answers.

One particular dialogue stood out as disappointing: the protagonist claimed to have been Jesus, by giving Buddha’s teaching “a new face.” While there are some commonalities between Buddhism and Christianity, they have fundamental differences. For example, buddhism focuses on being saved from within through one’s own efforts, while Christianity centers on salvation through a third party, namely God, “by grace alone.” These are fundamentally incompatible ideas. 6/10.