Tag Archives: flying saucers

“UFO’s – It Has Begun” (1974) – The question is: Will there ever be an answer?

An engaging 1970’s era documentary that examines reports of strange flying objects from ancient times up until the present which was 1974 when this documentary was made. Cool recreations of eyewitness accounts are interspersed with actual pictures and films taken by pilots, military personnel, NASA astronauts and civilians alike.

The whole shebang is hosted by the great Rod Serling, the creator of “The Twilight Zone” and MC of “The Night Gallery”. It appears as though his recorded segments were filmed among the remains of his “Night Gallery” set: spotlight on Rod, and various illustrative props given a bit of highlight but everything else draped in black. Cool, economic staging technique! Throw in some guest narration by Burgess Meredith, Jose Ferrer and Jacques Vallee, and you’ve got a very interesting tapestry of UFO reports.

Yet, all these years later, the lingering questions remain: What are these unusual objects which behave so abstractly and randomly and do the Powers That Be have a grasp of what they can be or how we are going to deal with them? Of course not. Expect to be in the dark and helpless for another 1000 years.

I loved this show. Give it a shot!

OVERLORDS OF THE UFO – 1976 – BOSS!

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Until Ken Burns comes around to create the definitive UFO documentary, whet your appetite for extraterrestrial visitation speculation with this 1970’s compendium of still photos, film footage and witness interviews. A lot of zooming and panning across still images of alien abductions and weird encounters taking place are in full representation in this film.  Very serious narration bolsters the claims of pilots, military personnel and civilians that they have been in the presence of other worldly beings and craft.  Nice, electronic music flourishes, combined with canned orchestral passages provide the musical bed for this piece.  It all has a very ’70’s feel which can be attractive or repulsive according to your tastes.  For a historical refresher course on the state of UFO research up until the 1970’s, this one is worth checking out.  But be warned that the film’s mellow pace may lull you to sleep as well.