Tuesday, 12 October 2010

Chariots of the Gods

It's a slow news day and I have a full calendar, so I've decided to inflict share this perfect example of how not to make a documentary.

Think of it as the Inconvenient Truth of the 1970s.

Personally, I'd go with the re-edited American version narrated by Rod Serling. That way you can go into the next room and pretend that it's a vintage episode of Jacques Cousteau.

3 comments:

Chris Lopes said...

I loved that movie as a kid. Then I grew up and learned about the wonderful world of critical thinking. Still, it's cool on a nostalgic level.

Neil A Russell said...

I love these fakeumentaries. This one in particular I remember when it was in the theaters. Haven't seen it since, but when I saw the island dudes and their thatch airplane it all came back.

Good comparison to Inconvenient Truth, since the Van Daniken stuff was all crapola too.
The major difference of course was that I wasn't expected to change my very way of life because of the "space gods"

eon said...

The best thing about it was the pseudo- ethnic score by the Peter Thomas orchestra. Next best was the footage of some fairly interesting ruins, if you can ignore the bizarre claims made about how they were built in the first place.

As for director Harald Reinl, he was better known for (a) directing dozens of low-budget West German "krimi" films, mainly based on stories by Edgar Wallace or his son Brian Edgar Wallace, (b) being the director of most of the second run of "Dr. Mabuse" films made in the Sixties after Fritz Lang stopped making them, and (c) being married to Karin Dor, aka "Helga Brandt" in "You Only Live Twice" with Sean Connery. Reinl should have stuck to making crime dramas, and "making it" with his attractive wife.

As for Von Daniken, he is at least a bit more entertaining than, say, George Adamski. Just not much, is all.

cheers

eon