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I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Blistering performances.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I thought this was one of those older 1980 sci-fi movies about a spaceman going to a distant planet or an alien coming to earth. It is about an older man who lost his parents years ago, fantastically played by William Holden, who wants to go back to his roots and a "10 year old" boy, fantastically played by Rick Schroder, on vacation with his mom and dad. The incredibly beautiful scenery is set in Australia, with quality scenes of landscapes, brooks, mountains, forests, insects and animals that resemble National Geographic specials.The movie never gets boring. Here I am at 60, a serious guy, boo-hooing towards the ending. Women should like it too because of the sufferings and different views of love.

The story of the making of The Earthling might in itself prove to be as interesting a film as The Earthling itself. The film tries, but doesn't quite make it to the top rung of films that William Holden did. As it sadly turned out The Earthling was the next to last film that Holden completed before he died the following year.Only in the movies could we have the strange tale about one of the two protagonists dying of cancer, directed by someone who was himself dying of the same. Peter Collinson was terminally ill and knew it when he was directing The Earthling. I'm sure his cast didn't know it though. His own plight might have been what attracted Collinson to the project.According to the Citadel Film series book, The Films Of William Holden, Collinson was especially hard on young Rick Schroder during the making of The Earthling. So much so that Holden had to intervene and the two bonded.Which may have helped the film because three quarters of it is only dealing with Holden and Schroder on screen. The two really play well together.Holden has returned to Australia to die where he grew up in a very rugged part of the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. Heading in the same general direction are Jack Thompson and Olivia Hamnett with their child Rick Schroder on a camping holiday. But when their camper goes off a cliff killing the parents and Schroder is left alone in the wilderness, he's lucky to find Holden.But Bill proves to be a stern taskmaster. He can't tell him that it would be worse to go back, that it's farther than his old homestead. He has to teach Schroder and hope he learns well, the tools needed for survival in the wild. The bulk of the film is concerned with just that.Collinson died and some scenes were shot afterward, the ending you see is not what Collinson had in mind. But who knows what he did have in mind as the disease ruled him as surely as it ruled Holden's character. The viewers will have to judge for themselves.Rick Schroder never forgot William Holden and when he married, he named his first child Holden Schroder in honor of the movie legend who was also battling some demons of his own, but took time to help and befriend a young child player.I think if Rick Schroder reads this review he'd like me to honor William Holden as well. And so this review is dedicated to William Holden one of the cinema's brightest stars.

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.

I saw this movie from time to time as a kid on Sunday afternoons. It's a wonderful film with a heart-breaking ending. Fate brings a rough, way-faring loner and a young child lost in the wild outback together and the result is one hell of a story that is sure to touch the viewers emotions. William Holden's character is aged and wants to trek to his father's remote cabin to live out his final days. Along the way he stumbles into Schroeder's character who's parents recently had an accident on their family vacation there in Australia, leaving the child abandoned and unable to survive. Soured by civilization, Holden is reluctant to aid the boy, who's determination to connect with the older man eventually gets through to Holden's compassionate heart of gold.