Bigfoot: Man or Beast?

This movie is a great nostalgia trip to the 70's, especially if, like me, you have a fondness for 70's paranormal programs (OK, maybe I'm the only one). J. Smith narrates as we watch Robert Morgan, John Green, Rene Dahinden and a host of others discuss Bigfoot! Watch Robert Morgan's expedition into Bigfoot country (in the shadow of pre-volcano-blasted Mount St. Helens). I just love it, it takes me back to my 70's childhood, when Bigfoot, UFO's and other topics were really getting a foothold into popular culture. If you like In Search Of, chances are you will like this.

As a kid growing up in the 1970s, I was addicted to paranormal documentaries. Documentaries such as Mysteries From Beyond Earth (1975), docudramas such as The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972) and TV's Project UFO (1978) and TV documentaries like In Search Of... were the kinds of shows I lived for. Recently, while wandering around on YouTube, I found the opening segment of one of my all-time favourite 1970s' paranormal documentaries, Bigfoot: Man or Beast? (the release date is often mistakenly said to be 1972, but it was actually released in 1975). Unfortunately, YouTube only features the first 10 minutes of the film (you can watch the first 11 minutes 48 seconds of the film on Google Video). Apparently, you can watch the entire documentary online at The Film Wall (http://www.thefilmwall.com), although the poster they feature on the Website is for a different Bigfoot film and the website asks for your credit card #, even though it insists you can watch movies online for free. It looks pretty dubious to me.

Bigfoot: Man or Beast? is a beautifully made documentary with outstanding production values, compelling footage and, at the risk of being accused of hyperbole, I consider it a work of art. Sadly, this outstanding documentary has not found its way to DVD. Many of the old- timers in the film are now, alas, no longer with us, so the film is also a very important historical document about early twentieth century sightings.

The film holds up beautifully today. The last time I saw it was on TNT back in 2000. Too bad it hasn't been released on DVD, because there is definitely a niche audience for this film and I think it would sell fairly well. The location filming and gripping eyewitness accounts combine to make this a remarkable film. If you see it, do not miss it. The sound of the screaming Bigfoot in the film (based on eyewitness descriptions) is chilling and worth the price of admission.

UPDATE (April 26, 2014): The movie is now available on DVD, as well as YouTube. Check it out if you get a chance!

Bigfoot: Man or Beast? (1972)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Released the same year as THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK, this docu-drama is basically just like that movie, although this one here focuses more on the actual hunting of the creature.

For the most part this is an entertaining movie as long as you're a fan of the subject. There's certainly nothing ground-breaking here but you've got to admit that the 1970's were the clear Golden Era for Bigfoot movies. You had countless documentaries, several cheap movies and television series like In Search Of... that took a look at the legendary creature and all of them tried to educate the viewer on the creature and what hopes there were for finding one. This film does a good job with the interviews as we get to hear from several eyewitnesses. I thought the film started to drag during the final thirty-minutes when it turned into more of a hunting guide.

This is the best Bigfoot documentary of them all. I HIGHLY recommend it. Most of it deals with a team of explorers. Including two biologists, a microbiologist, a botanist, an expert tracker, & sociology researcher, two Bigfoot researchers, an anthropologist, a naturalist, & a Native American historian spend most of the summer of 1974 in the Mt. St. Helens area gathering evidence & talking to people who claimed to have seen Bigfoot. Until a forest fire forces them out of the area. Luckily they found footprints & hair samples before they had to leave. Unfortunately, the 1980 eruption of Mt. St Helens heavily impacted or destroyed some of the area. The rest is interviews with other Bigfoot witnesses & the Patterson/Gimlin film. Which has NEVER been proved to be a hoax as the other reviewer claims. I know this because I'm a Bigfoot researcher myself & keep up on all the Bigfoot news.

My only problem with the DVD is nobody bothered to restore the color of the film before putting it on DVD.

This was a great film if it was 20 years ago and about four in the morning and you had a hand rolled cigarette and a couple of glasses of wine and it came on the only station broadcasting all night in your area. This was before cable, folks. Stations really did often shut down from two to six a.m.. They'd play the star spangled banner, show some Air Force jets flying through the Grand Canyon and then suddenly a major network tv station shut off and you got a test pattern and a a four hour high pitched beep. I kid you not. But one would usually stay on and it was your only hope. Whatever movie came on, that was the hand you were dealt, and this miserably amateurish idiot film was the only game in town on more than one sad occasion. The only authentic scientific moment is the frame by frame showing of the famous footage of the Bigfoot walking through a forested area in the U.S. Northwest. This shakey 8 millimeter clip was recently proven to be a total hoax, a guy in a gorilla suit, so if the movie wasn't a joke before, its twice as comical now. By all means, watch this film if it ever comes on TV, but not if you're sober. Another fine film from American International.