The Observers Quicktake: Expert Interviewees, Covers Plenty of Ground, Could Use Alternative Perspectives on the Topic
It’s been 80 years since UFOs invaded popular culture. And after all these decades, they’re still on our minds in a big way.
UFOs and aliens appear in our most popular movies, literature, and video games. So what is it about the phenomenon that drives this worldwide obsession?
We’ve all wondered what it would mean for humanity to encounter extraterrestrial life. But documentary filmmaker Roger R. Richards takes that line of thinking even further. Richards’ new documentary The Observers doesn’t ponder whether nonhuman intelligence exists in the universe; the film argues it’s already here engaging with us.
For most people, the thought of a nonhuman intelligence visiting earth sounds implausible. After all, how can the most significant event in human history happen right under our noses? The government couldn’t somehow bury a story of such magnitude? Not according to The Observers. Richards walks viewers through the history of the UFO phenomenon while outlining the systems in place to keep the public from learning the truth.
The Observers is a 90 minute talking heads doc featuring some of the most renowned names in Ufology. Interviewees sit down and speak to the camera while discussing Ufology’s hot button issues like government coverups, reverse engineering UFO technology, and alien abduction.
The Observers covers a lot of ground in 90 minutes. The focus may be UFOs, but Richards wants to have a broader discussion. The doc splinters off to discuss conspiracy theories and how they’re used to discredit truth seekers.
The film uses the JFK assassination as an example of how governments suppress, distract, and misdirect suspicious citizens. The doc also makes a case that if the government can keep a secret as monumental as the Manhattan Project, it can also hide a UFO recovery program.
Richards keeps the many interviews from feeling stale by jazzing up the footage whenever possible. He captures his subjects from multiple cameras, sometimes circling them like a shark with a handheld camera as they look straight ahead.
The movie features flashy transitions and fancy motion graphics to keep your eyes busy while the subjects speak. And each interview is intercut with lots of b-roll of UFOs, redacted government documents, and even live footage of alleged alien beings.
The interviewees are some of the UFO community’s biggest (and in some cases, most-respected) names like Ufology historian Richard Dolan, radio personality/producer Jimmy Church, and former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura.
The subjects’ beliefs are all over the map, ranging from guarded skepticism to conspiracy theorists with claims so far out there they make Oliver Stone look like Mr. Rogers.
The biggest name in the doc (and in Ufology right now) is former U.S. Army Counterintelligence Agent Luis Elizondo. For years, Elizondo operated a special access program tasked with investigating UFOs.
When Elizondo’s higher-ups didn’t take his assessments seriously, he resigned to continue his work in the public sector. Elizondo was part of the organization that secured and released three UFO (also known as UAPs- Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) videos captured by the U.S. military that sparked the mainstream media’s current interest in the phenomenon.
The Observers makes a lot of one-sided arguments that don’t challenge the subjects appearing in the film. It doesn’t feature skeptics or even points of view that don’t vibe with the doc’s underlining narrative. The closest the movie comes is UFO investigator/podcaster John Greenewald Jr., who questions former Counterintelligence Agent Luis Elizondo’s role in the UFO disclosure movement.
Greenewald Jr. started investigating UFOs when he was a teenager. His area of expertise is filing UFO-related Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the U.S. government. Folks like Greenewald Jr. represent one end of the credibility spectrum.
Greenewald Jr. deals in facts and forms opinions based on verifiable data. He doesn’t focus on theories about UFO crash retrieval programs and shape-shifting aliens. If you’re new to the field, Greenewald Jr’s work is a solid starting point.
He presents on-the-record government documents concerning UFOs that conflict with what officials state publicly. Whether or not you believe in the phenomenon, you can’t argue with the data he uncovers. There may not be a UFO conspiracy, but there’s clear evidence of lies and misdirection.
On the other end of the spectrum, the movie features subjects like best-selling author Whitley Strieber. Strieber played a prominent role in fostering pop culture’s awareness of grey aliens. Strieber’s 1987 nonfiction book Communion ignited pop culture’s obsession with alien abductions, opening the door to the success of The X-Files and Men in Black.
Many of the subjects in the film are world-class storytellers who know how to work their magic in front of the camera. Like Strieber, Linda Moulton Howe makes a great documentary subject, with her stories of an intergalactic conflict between warring alien races. However, you can’t corroborate much of what they say.
It’s impossible to verify whether the film’s interviewees are telling the truth, lying, or misinformed. It’s less of an issue if you treat stories of secret government overseers and human/alien hybrid programs as thrilling campfire stories.
The Observers uses UFOs to examine life’s biggest questions: Why are we here, and where are we headed. The film posits solving the mystery behind UFOs may bring us closer to understanding humanity’s place in the universe. The thought of answering these age-old questions is intoxicating.
So many of us want to believe we’re getting closer to solving the puzzle. But in the age of fake news and disinformation, I worry about the people who need to believe. If people accept the information in The Observers as fact, it will lead them down one hell of a rabbit hole.
It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about Friedrich Nietzsche or Jacques Vallée; no one has delivered definitive answers to the questions at the heart of The Observers. Instead, the film rounds up a collection of rumours, hearsay, and speculation. At the end of the day, The Observers highlights the divide within the UFO community between data-seeking rationalists and the Ufology gurus who claim they’ve got the phenomenon all figured out.
A great way to win a debate is to make an argument from the opposing point of view. If you know you have a strong case, you feel confident letting the other side share their perspective so you can dismantle it piece by piece. However, this tactic forces you to confront the flaws in your own argument, which this doc refuses to do.
James Fox’s 2020 documentary The Phenomenon is the gold standard in UFO documentaries right now. The film builds a rock-solid case some other intelligence is here, engaging with humanity. You can show the doc to a skeptic and see them start wrestling with their beliefs right on the spot. The Observers won’t change a skeptic’s point of view, but it will tell believers what they want to hear.
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