There are great documentaries and there are bad ones. The
good ones take you on a path of discovery involving a topic you may know little
about and hold your interest from start to finish. The bad ones have one of two
problems. The first is that they take a subject no one cares about and do a bad
job of gaining your interest. The second is when they take what could be a very
interesting story and turn it into something so boring no one can stay till the
final credits. MIRAGE MAN falls into this
second category.
The topic at hand is UFOs and aliens, something that many
find of particular interest. It seems everyone can find someone they know who
has seen something odd in the sky or who claims they have seen a UFO. This
movie tries to explain where the whole hysteria of flying saucers stems from.
According to this film it all came from one man, Rick Doty.
Doty was an agent of the Air Force Office of Special
Investigations (AFSOI). When an electronics whiz and UFO researcher named Paul
Bennewitz began looking into transmissions he was receiving word got back to
the Air Force. What Bennewitz was actually receiving was transmissions from
secret Air Force tests being conducted. But this was at the height of the cold
war so they wanted him to steer clear of what he was hearing. Rather than
threaten him they sent Doty who worked alongside Bennewitz and allowed him to
believe that these actually were messages of alien origin.
Passing along false information they carried out a charade
that lasted decades and that almost all UFO information has stemmed from.
Photos and leaked documents were all false and passed along to Bennewitz and
others with the hope that it would lead people to think they were either crazy
or perhaps on to something. Of course it was UFOs and not the secret projects
being formed and tested in those deserts. What better way to camouflage what
was really going on?
The problem came when the tiny story began to expand and
become bigger than they ever dreamed it would. The government went so far as to
hire members of the groups searching for the truth about UFOs to help them.
Many weren't even aware at the time just how involved they were. But here is
where the problem with the movie comes in.
To begin with the movie is done is such a straight forward
way with nearly non-stop interviews with the most uninspiring and bland people
that it nearly puts you to sleep. The other problem is how the stories unfold
which becomes confounding to the viewer. There are items that Doty being
interviewed says were stories concocted to be passed along but then he
backtracks about later and says there was some truth to. By the time you're
done listening to him you're not sure if there was UFO technology being used
and backtracked or if it was all faked. Then again that was what his job was to
do for all those years.
In the end your own personal beliefs will not be shaken by
this film nor will they be confirmed. Like the ever elusive Bigfoot and the
long seen but never found UFO, it all depends on your belief. Until either of
these is sighted I'll have to take the side of the skeptic. When you find
either of them please let me know.
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