BEFORE: So, an opportunity to get a film that's been on my list for a VERY long time crossed off. It's probably been on the list for more than three years, maybe more than five years. I don't keep track of how long something's been on the list. I think I just put it on the list with a "what the hell" attitude, I mean, the film was released in 1993, and if I haven't watched it in thirty years' time, I figured it was a real longshot, and the cast is fairly obscure except for a couple major roles, so honestly, I thought I'd just never get around to this one, and then one day I'd die with maybe 10 films to go, and this one was likely to be one of those ten. But no, the chain's got a plan for me, or the linking gods have looked favorably upon this alien abduction film from three decades ago.
OK, so "what the hell", let's go for it. Robert Patrick carries over from "Tell".
THE PLOT: An Arizona logger mysteriously disappears for five days in an alleged encounter with a UFO in 1975. His co-workers endure ridicule and contempt as they are wrongly accused of murder.
AFTER: It's just a coincidence that Season 5 of "The Secretsof Skinwalker Ranch" is starting THIS WEEK. I watched the first season of the show a few years back, so I could figure out why my mother was watching weird alien shows on The History Channel. (Yes, alien investigations are somehow part of "History", there might be something wrong with that, sure.). And here it is, 5 seasons later and I'm still watching, trying to find something to disprove. These ranch guys keep thinking they're going to find the right combination of frequencies, high-speed cameras and launching rockets and drones into the air above the ranch that will make the aliens reveal themselves and say, "OK, you got us, here we are. We were going to stay invisible and off-radar, but wow, come on, 86.5 megahertz AND four rockets launched at once? We just HAD to meet you guys!" Yeah, UFOs (or I think it's UFPs now) don't work like that.
1975 was a different time, for sure. (Hell, 1993 was a different time, too...). America's obsession with UFO's was in its infancy, even the film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was still two years away. Travis Walton wrote a book about how he was abducted by aliens, or maybe he just needed to explain why he disappeared for five days, and if he was drunk or high or just fell down into a ditch for a while, who's to really say? But his co-workers couldn't find him, and when he finally resurfaced, he was blaming the aliens for whatever happened. Apparently the movie changed a lot of elements of the book he wrote, so, umm, what are we doing here then, guys? Are we going to say this guy is 100% believable and then just make a movie about whatever we want, whether's it's part of his story or not? If he's credible, then why not just film what was described in his book? And if he's not credible, then why make a movie at all?
Either way, I don't think that filmmakers can be trusted to handle information like this, even if Mr. Walton is believable and his story checks out, they're going to use movie magic to create their own thing, so we're not even comparing apples to apples here, we're hearing one man's account of an abduction, but filtered through a book AND a screenplay, and filmmakers who set out to try to make the best possible movie, and please don't confuse them with the facts, because they're professionals! If you're looking to learn about what REALLY happened (or didn't happen) in the mountains of Arizona, boy, did you come to the wrong place. Movie makers just want to make a movie that puts asses in the seats, and they'll do whatever it takes to do that. I feel foolish even looking into this further, because if they changed the abductee's account, then I probably shouldn't take anything in this film too seriously.
And then what happened? You almost never hear about anybody claiming to be abducted by aliens any more. Did if fall out of vogue? Did people realize they were watching movies about alien abductions and then having very vivid dreams about it, which they then thought were real? Did people stop chain-drinking and get sober and stop remembering things that didn't happen to them? Or did the aliens abduct a few rednecks and then decide to leave the planet alone and never visit again - either because they saw the human race as no threat at all, or because they saw rednecks who stockpile guns as a very real threat, and vow never to visit Earth again? Or maybe they ate a few humans and realized we don't taste very good at all - great plan everyone, keep fit and lean so we'll taste terrible to invading aliens. This means more snacks and fatty meat for me, of course, so I'm all for it.
More recent movies like "Attack the Block", "The Darkest Hour" and even the most recent remake of "The War of the Worlds" are big spectacle events, naturally they depict thousands of alien ships coming to Earth, they're trying to take over. Oh, what happened to the old days when the aliens abducted people in secret, they weren't trying to take over the planet, just learn more about us, umm, both inside and out. That's the problem with modern times, things are so impersonal - in the old days the aliens took over one person at a time, they really got a chance to do the probing and experiments on a small scale, and they'd at least get to know you. It's a damn shame.
I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed that the film sort of doubled down on the alien invasion thing. There's not any attempt to suggest that the logging crew might have been drinking or smoking the wacky tobaccy or anything that might have interfered with their perceptions and memories of the events in question. Nope, we're sticking with aliens. It's a bold move, but it's also a boring one, I'm sorry to say.
Also starring D.B. Sweeney (last seen in "Introducing Dorothy Dandrige"), Craig Sheffer (last seen in "Some Kind of Wonderful"), Peter Berg (last seen in "Smokin' Aces"), Henry Thomas (last seen in "Spielberg"), Bradley Gregg, Noble Willingham (last seen in "Paper Moon"), Kathleen Wilhoite, James Garner (last seen in "Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It"), Georgia Emelin (last seen in "Space Cowboys"), Scott MacDonald (last seen in "The Call of the Wild"), Wayne Grace (last seen in "All About Steve"), Kenneth White (last seen in "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"), Robert Covarrubias (last seen in "Sunset"), Bruce Wright (last seen in "The Negotiator"), Robert Biheller, Tom McGranahan Sr., Julie Ariola, Peter Vasquez, Gordon Scott, Mical Shannon Lewis, Courtney Esler, Holly Hoffman, Marcia MacLaine, Vernon Barkhurst, Jane Ferguson, Nancy Neifert, Charley Lang, Lynn Marie Sager, Mari Pedron, Frank Chavez, Eric Wilsey.
RATING: 4 out of 10 chain saws - and yet we never get to see the loggers fighting back against the aliens with their logging equipment, like what IS UP with that?
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