The Roswell Crash: Startling New Evidence

What a complete waste of time. Bryant Gumbel totally marks out for the UFO industry. Not even Pro Wrestling fans are more devoted than Mr Gumbel.... Absolutely no time at all is spent with opposing view points.

And where is the startling new evidence promised in the title? Much of the time in this show is spent on an "archaeological dig" where the weather balloon was found. Which turns up absolutely nothing that they are able to point to as evidence! You would think that if a UFO crashed there some small piece would still be embedded in the ground despite the 1948 cleanup. They do haul dirt off site for chemical analysis and promise to "keep the public posted". Hey, Bryant! I'm turning blue over here! The analysis was no doubt completed while the show was in post production, so if they had found something, it would have been included as a voice-over.

Update Dec 2005: It has been three years since the original air date and the SciFi Channel just ran this show again. Still no information on evidence found in dirt excavated from the site. I may be leaping to a conclusion here, but to me no news means they FOUND NOTHING!

So the only thing new was a supposed computer enhancement of a photograph. In the photo, an officer is holding a document. Supposedly this document is an order to cover up the "truth" about the UFO crash or at least that is what the computer enhancement "reveals". If you figure that the photo was taken with the standard 5 X 7 press camera of the era, on the photo, what is being enhanced is a spot less than 1/2 inch across. Add to that the document is being held at an angle to the camera, and you can barely distinguish where one word ends & another starts. Some evidence. They could make up whatever they want.

The rest of the show is a bunch of ex-military people who have decided that their pensions are not enough so they write UFO books and hit the lecture circuit, accusing each other of spreading misinformation. Thats the one thing that they are all correct about.

THIS SHOW IS FICTION!

This absurd packaging of everything you already knew about the "Roswell Incident" has a marvelously telling moment when the archaeologist leading the expedition to excavate the very furrow where their alien spaceship allegedly impacted realizes they could be excavating any of the furrows within the former sheep pasture. How they chose that one particular spot to dig is very curious as nobody who found the said wreckage in 1947 is involved with the spectacle, directly advised the crew, or for that matter is even still alive. New Mexico looks pretty much the same and nobody left out a marker plaque to commemorate the spot, so any spot is as good as the one they chose. It's in the same state, same county, likely on the same ranch land and maybe even within a stone's throw of where whatever came to earth ended up. But give us a break.

They do, by picking another spot to excavate while the archaeologist wanders around until finding the remains of a modern day weather balloon, demonstrating that weather or observation balloons really did fall to earth on this sheep ranch often enough to be notable. If you are going to send a balloon train aloft New Mexico seems to be the place to do it, both in 1947 and 2002, likely 2021 as well.

The only other useful insight provided by the production comes from Dave Rudiack's c.2000 era PowerMac Photoshop enlargement of the message held in the hand of General Whatshisname while kneeling by the unimpressive scraps of balloon target remnants shown to the press in 1947 as a handy coverup to a sheep rancher having found a classified observation device. Dr. Rudiack uses various zoom and rotate techniques before adding his own translation to the fuzzy typing from 1947 and argues that it purports to refer to the victims of a crashed flying saucer. That we the people have not heard much else about this hypothesis speaks volumes for the results, which was about as scientific as putting shapes to cloud formations.

But it did kill 90 minutes of pandemic quarantine time, so I guess the production was successful. Just, really really stupid.

Mostly I'm offering this "review" as a contrary reply to the other (negative) comments ("review").

This isn't the best "documentary" in the world, but it is good. And definitely good enough. It is NOT fiction, and only a certain type of person would call it such, to put it politely.

It has some interesting information in it. It interviews some people with interesting things to say. The ending is a let down, but I think they were hoping to do a sequel. Which I don't think they have done to date. I'm not a huge Bryant Gumbel fan, but even he doesn't destroy this film.

Personally, I'm glad they finally are doing some films about this stuff without the Idiot so-called "skeptics" blabbing their fat mouths with stupid comments and inane commentary and taking up valuable time that can be filled with real information. That gets old REAL quick. Especially the shows that act like they are doing an "objective" report, but are really just mouthpieces for the naysayers to denounce anything and everything without room for true objective skeptical research, analysis and reporting.

That's why I refuse to call myself a "skeptic" anymore, and call most so-called skeptics, "skepters", or "skepTicks", or "skeptFleas", and now refer to myself as a Skeptique. (a la trekkie, trekker, trekist, etc.) That being a true, open-minded, objective, analytical, questioning, intellectual person. As opposed to the unfortunate others. (Randyites, et al.)

It's nice to see some people attempting to do some real science regarding these things. They need to do more, but I doubt that will happen, because most so-called scientists are definitely not of the Skeptique mindset. In fact, most "scientists" I've ever met seem to be pretty close-minded, non-far-seeing, barely creative, logical-if-you're-lucky, and the like. (it's no wonder we still don't have a "cure" for cancer, among other similar situations)

Anyway, watch this film at least twice.

It is my belief that the purpose of any DVD is to entertain, and to that end "The Roswell Crash Startling New Evidence" succeeds quite well. The controlled dig at the Roswell crash site may have turned up nothing, but it was something new, and an interesting investigation. The computer enhanced memo in the 1947 photograph, is another fresh piece of research. If you are intrigued by the U.F.O. phenomena, then this DVD offers much to enjoy, even if it is nothing more than chasing smoke in the New Mexico desert. Crash or no crash there are enough fresh eyewitness interviews, and investigations, for me to recommend "The Roswell Crash Startling New Evidence" as entertainment. - MERK