goblin
Noble
I suspect the documentary is more for the purposes of getting the word out so people can take paid tours.
Innnnnteresting thought... hmmm!
I suspect the documentary is more for the purposes of getting the word out so people can take paid tours.
I suppose you could get a few people out there for tours, but it's pretty much the middle of nowhere. Utah has some spectacular scenery and gorgeous parks, but Vernal is not close to those attractions.
I went looking for the ranch way back when, since I lived a few hours away and had a free afternoon when the weather was nice. There wasn't much to go on as far as the location, since it was something of a secret. I found out later that I had circumnavigated the place, so I was within half a mile but never managed to find the famous gate. A couple of years later, of course, it was absurdly easy to find directions. You can just do a Google search on "Skinwalker Ranch" and get a map.
That's some pretty hard country out there. I admire the people who can make a living off that land. The ranch's neighbors seem to fall into two categories: "Yep, there's been lots of weird things go on out there," or "Nothing to see here, so move along and stop bothering my cattle."
We went up to the gate in 2013. It's a public road up to that point, and there are concrete barrier in an offset configuration like a military base gate, so no one can just zip through there. During the day, they don't give you much flack, but at night they were scaring people off, and they harassed us a couple of times. We also saw tribal police (most of the area is reservation) with people pulled over in the vicinity. They also provided some security theater for us later at night.
Not really in the middle of nowhere. There is a lot of oil and gas industry right around there, and you are not far from a couple of small towns. Several houses around, both East and West of the ranch, and over the ridge.
As a counterpoint to my wife. (I'm in the doghouse,with her as it is.)
I think this is a case of imagination run wild with Bigalow leading the charge.
it's like the Amityville horror house.
all story no substance.
Now Knapp’s reporting has revealed that the Pentagon’s secret UFO program the New York Times exposed in an article in December 2017 has its roots at Skinwalker Ranch.
“The New York Times put out the story in December of last year, about AATIP [the Pentagon UFO study],” Knapp explained. “And they sort of conflated some of the facts. The 22 million dollars that they allege funded AATIP, actually went to AAWSAP, the program that basically funded [Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies], that funded the study of Skinwalker Ranch and funded a much broader discussion, much broader than just UFOs. What we'd call paranormal activity.”
“I hope to clarify that there wasn't just one Pentagon program, there were two,” says Knapp.
“People have not understood that connection,” adds Corbell. “This is the most studied paranormal hotspot in history, not only by private industry but also by the United States Government, by the Defense Intelligence Agency.”
“That connection and the ranch being the hub, the center, the beginning and the reason for that 22 million dollars has not been expressed to the public,” Corbell continued. “Our film expresses that, and it also shows in the bonus features, very much in-depth, those connections and how that occurred. So this is a movie, but it's also a historic moment where we get to break the news.”
Well, I broke down and bought it. A bit too late last night - only got in about a half hour before it was time for bed. So far it feels a bit melodramatic and is only providing exposition at this stage but no complaints.
Points to Jeremy for the Fierce Beard.
So, how many stars (out of 4) do you give the film?Yeah but all Amityville had was the Warrens. Skinwalker has Bigelow and the DIA
So, how many stars (out of 4) do you give the film?
OK. We finished it last night and admittedly we probably lost something in translation due to all the start/stop. George Knapp provided a fair amount of footage from the NIDS days so we get a look at the pasture, trailer the bulls were in, the 'twin towers' lights, homestead and so forth. Give you a feel for what the area looks like.
Corbell did a nice job packaging it and had I just been channel surfing would certainly have watched it. There were a few small points of continuity regarding BAAS and the current AATIP/TTSA efforts that seemed a bit vaguely connected but again, that might just be me having to restart it a few times due to interruptions. Good interviews with Colm Kelleher, Eric Davis and John B Alexander but they were delivered in somewhat choppy chunks. In the end I'd have preferred less melodrama, less Jeremy - he reminded me of New Spock doing New In Search Of. More interested in the film that the film maker.
See? I take one class on film and become a p.i.t.a reviewer. I'd say if you are unfamiliar with Skinwalker and all that it would give you a good taste and would have made me go find the book. Having already read the book other than filling in a little color I can't say it was earth shaking. Two stars, maybe three for nice production
Thanks for the mini review.
That's pretty much what I expected. Even if Bigelow's various organisations had some kind of paranormal holy grail on tape there is absolutely zero chance they would ever release it to the public (they are after all trying to create technology and hence monetise these things).
That's a big "if" though because the nature of the phenomenon itself seems to be beyond being recorded - hence my hypothesis that it represents some sort of perception distorting mechanism (whether environmental or technological) that does what it does by a combination of misdirection and hallucination.
There may well be physical components to it but it is hard to say if they are directly related to what is going on or are the attempts of as yet unknown parties using their own advanced technologies for investigating what is going on and using the cloak of the confusion which is created to their advantage (e.g. government agencies or defence contractors) .
Any kind of phenomenon which can cause people to undergo such florid hallucinations (often collectively) would be a license to print money for a military contractor and would have any military salivating over it's potential use in warfare. One could also imagine it being sold to unscrupulous regimes around the world for suppression of public protest and policing purposes.
I will try to watch the documentary this weekend (assuming I have enough time as I understand the whole thing is quite long when you include extras).
Bought in on Amazon Prime and found out too late that all the extras were only on iTunes. Joy. Something tells me I'm not missing much