What really happened on ——– 1973?
If your answer is “No clue, I wasn’t even born yet,” you, sir or madam, are WRONG. (Not about the being born part. The other part.)
Four Approx. 1-hour features: Amazon Prime for $
I thought I knew the story. I mean, UFOs, creatures, weirdness, scifi, hello?
This doc told me with a “wake up, Nancy Know-it-All” slap in the face that no. No, I don’t know the whole story.
You get a background, including how the two met. Also some interesting facts about Charlie’s childhood that might be “aha” moments.
The story is made somewhat linear by Mantle, Philip Mantle | EFR but is interspersed with occasionally CGI-enhanced (3D viewing or waving arms, for example) images plus contemporary and later news clips. The most interesting, of course, are the real comments from (the abductees’ namesj).
Overwhelmingly, the voice of this doc isl UFO researcher and writer Philip Mantle
Keep in mind that these are two men who grew up in the 1950s in MS. Sharing this story would have taken incredible strength. We were just collectively starting to reveal how we felt about things in the early 70s; the unacceptable was
If it had just been Mantle telling the tale in his overexited and rather breathless (rhythm), this would have been a decent enough documentary. Maybe even a cut above, given the artsy pull-away style with quick clips and the attention to detail.
But as I came to a little more than halfway through the doc, I found I was leaning in for something more, and it was only later that I realized what it was.
The most fascinating thing is how sane they both sound. A clip of the two talking confidentially is included, and I got no feeling whatsoever of collaboration on a prank — these are two men sharing something the believe. (If you watch the first vid in the series, though, you’ll see that I’ve dropped a little hint in there. Let me know if you catch it.)
Throughout the doc Their emotions are varied and match what’s going on; calm when they’re rested or being interviewed after the fact; exhausted and at their wits’ end after long, repetitive sessions without food. (What the…? Feed these poor men.) Details they give are very realistic — didn’t see the creatures breathing; recollection of quick pain in a specific area of the shoulder when grabbed — the most natural thing in the world. But then you realize what they’re talking about: possibly mind-controlled tall carrot robots dragging two men across a river to a spaceship in order to perform dubious experiments on them.
And for me, that’s what makes this docu series so fascinating. Sure, I love the bizarre. (That’s kind of a no-brainer.) But do I really “believe”?
No. Not really. Not in the broad daylight, not when I’m dressing up in my Halloween gear and scaring my poor put-upon family for a good two months, not when I’m getting chills over a freaky movie and know I’m getting chils. Because duh, it’s a movie.
But watching the first episode of Pas 73, I can tell you that I was captivated. I watched. I listened. I found my heart beating faster when these two very normal, very unscripted-seeming men came to the points when they were frightened, or shocked, or, themselves, disbelieving…
And just for a moment…yes. I believed.
“Robots controlled by beings from somewhere else.”
