The Lies Are Out There: UFOs, Hollywood, the US government and military

Is Hollywood's love affair with aliens based simply on its desire to make money, or has it been used by the US government and military for their own mysterious ends?

The flying saucers have landed again… in Tinseltown, at least. For over 60 years, UFOs have left their mark on the Hollywood box-office in some of the most lucrative movies of all time, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Independence Day (1996), Men in Black (1997), and in the latest and most successful instalment of the Indiana Jones franchise (2008). Hollywood has continued to capitalise on the public’s insatiable appet ite for aliens with the recent remake of the classic saucer movie The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), and this March saw the release of two high-profile UFO movies: Monsters vs. Aliens and Race to Witch Mountain. In this sense, the UFO phenomenon may be regarded as a cultural one; certainly, Unidentified Flying Objects – and the otherworldly possibilities they are seen by many to represent – have become a permanent fixture in America’s pop-cultural landscape.

Bizarrely, the US government – for reasons not entirely clear – has taken a keen interest in UFO-themed Hollywood movies for decades. Official efforts to debunk UFOs through media channels originated with the CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel, which in 1953 decided that the public’s growing obsession with flying saucers was something that should be actively discouraged. The panel recommended “that the national security agencies take immediate steps to strip the Unidentified Flying Objects of the… aura of mystery they have unfortun ately acquired”, and that this should be achieved through “mass media” such as television and motion pictures, with specific reference to the films of Walt Disney.

Unambiguous evidence for the Robertson Panel’s covert impact on news media reporting about UFOs is found in the CBS TV broadcast of UFOs: Friend, Foe, or Fantasy? (1966), a documentary narrated by Walter Cronkite. In a personal letter addressed to former Robertson Panel Secretary Frederick C Durant, Dr Thornton Page confides that he “helped organize the CBS TV show around the Robertson Panel conclusions”, even though he was personally sympathetic to the existence of flying saucers.

In light of the above, then, we might reasonably consider that covert efforts to manipulate public perception of UFOs may have continued. But to what end? Logical answers are elusive, but government concern over, or involvement in, UFO movies continues to be shown in more recent Holly wood productions. Take, for example, the 1996 alien invasion blockbuster Independence Day, which, despite its proud champ ioning of American values and leader ship, was denied cooperation from the Department of Defense due in large part to a plotline concerning Area 51 (a super-secret military facility in the Nevada desert long rumoured to be the testing ground for capt ured extraterrestrial technologies) and the so-called “Roswell Incid ent”. The Pentagon specifically requested that “any government connection” to Area 51 or to Roswell be eliminated from the film.

The DoD may have been unable to dict ate script changes on Independence Day, but its involvement with the alien-themed blockbuster Transformers (2007) was so deep-rooted and integral that almost no aspect of the production went unmonitored by the Pentagon’s hawklike eyes. The film’s script is loaded with ufological references and laboured rhetoric absolving the US military of complicity in what turns out to be a massive cover-up of the fact that Earth has been visited by aliens. The conspiracy finger is pointed instead at the quasi-governmental “Sector 7” which has been concealing its “Top Secret” alien research for decades within “special access projects” – and all without the knowledge and consent of a shocked and concerned Secretary of Defense.

The United States Air Force (USAF) provided Transformers director Michael Bay with hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of state-of-the-art hardware for use in his film, including the F-117 stealth fighter (which the filmmakers were only allowed to shoot from certain angles due to the top secret technology used in its design) and – in its first ever silver screen appearance – the F-22 Raptor fighter.

The government found an earlier blockbuster to be rather less welcome. Discussing his classic UFO movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Steven Spielberg once revealed in an obscure and now defunct academic journal that he “found [his] faith [in alien life]” when he heard that the government opposed the film.

“If NASA took the time to write me a 20-page letter, then I knew there must be something happening,” Spielberg said. “When they read the script they got very angry and felt that it was a film that would be dangerous. I felt they mainly wrote the letter because Jaws convinced so many people around the world that there were sharks in toilets and bathtubs, not just in the oceans and rivers. They were afraid the same kind of epidemic would happen with UFOs.”

Close Encounters raised a red flag to the powers that be, but it wasn’t the first UFO movie to do so. During the late 1940s, the US government regarded the subject of flying saucers with considerable gravity – 1948 saw the USAF produce its controversial “Estimate of the Situation”, an official report concluding flying saucers to be of extraterrestrial origin. Other USAF factions at the time, however, favoured the more palatable (though no less alarming) idea that the saucers were a dastardly Soviet invention. With the prospect of both Reds and Martians under the bed, Air Force paranoia was almost tangible; so it should come as little surprise to learn that when America’s very first UFO movie, The Flying Saucer (1950), went into production in 1949, it registered quickly on the USAF radar.

The film’s director, Mikel Conrad, had claimed publicly while still in product ion that he had managed to secure genuine footage of a real flying saucer for use in his movie. In Sept ember 1949, Conrad told the Ohio Journal Herald: “I have scenes of the saucer landing, taking off, flying and doing tricks.” Conrad further claimed that his remarkable footage was “locked in a bank vault” and would not be shown to anybody prior to his movie’s release. It took just two days for the USAF to get hold of the story, and shortly thereafter Conrad became the subject of a two-month official Air Force investigation. Documents released under the Freedom of Inform ation Act reveal that an agent of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations was dispatched not only to grill Conrad about his claims, but also to attend the first private screening of his completed movie.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Conrad’s fantastical claims proved to be without substance – when chall enged by the USAF, he admitted that his saucer story was nothing more than an elaborate marketing scam designed to generate media buzz around what was, in reality, a tedious and uneventful movie. Nevertheless, what the Conrad case demonstrates, according to author and FT contrib utor Nick Redfern, “is that the Air Force at the time was taking a keen interest in fictional films about UFOs”. Redfern has investigated the curious production history of The Flying Saucer and suggests that the USAF may have considered it “problematic that someone was making a film about UFOs that could have contained real footage”. Redfern speculates that, from this point on, the USAF learned to be on the lookout for any other pesky UFO movies lurking on the horizon, and to carefully monitor – and even control – their content on unspecified grounds of national security.

The above scenario seems strangely plausible in light of the production of a major ufological documentary in 1956, entitled UFO, which compelled the USAF to draw up contingency plans to counteract the anticipated fallout from the film upon its release. Captain George T Gregory, the director of the USAF’s official UFO investigations unit, Project Blue Book, was instructed to monitor not only the film’s production process, but its public and critical reception. Believing that the film would stir up a “storm of public controversy”, the USAF had set about preparing a special case file that would debunk every saucer sighting examined in the movie, and even went so far as to have three of its Blue Book officers provide “technical assistance” to the filmmakers in an effort to control the content of the documentary.

More strange-but-true testimony came from Oscar-winning Disney animator Ward Kimball. Kimball was best known for bringing to life beloved Disney characters such as Jiminy Cricket, the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter, and for redesigning Mickey Mouse in 1938. He also worked as Directing Animator on classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938), Pinocchio (1940), and Fantasia (1940).

In 1979, Kimball revealed that in the mid-1950s the USAF had approached Walt Disney himself to request his cooperation on a documentary about UFOs that would help acclimatise the American public to the reality of extraterrestrials. Even more remarkable was that, in exchange for his cooperation, the USAF would supply Disney with real UFO footage for exclusive use in his documentary. According to Kimball, Disney accepted the deal and began work immediately on the USAF project – perhaps not so unusual, considering Disney’s established relationship with the US government (during WWII, Disney made approximately 80 propaganda shorts for the military).

While Disney waited patiently for the USAF to provide the UFO footage, his animators produced conceptual designs of what an alien might look like. But as time passed, it became clear that the USAF was getting cold feet. The offer of the UFO footage was eventually withdrawn, provoking Kimball to challenge the official military liaison for the project, a USAF Colonel who told Kimball that “there was indeed plenty of UFO footage, but that neither [he] nor anyone else was going to get access to it.” Needless to say, the film was abandoned and forgotten by all but the few who had worked on it.

In connection with research she was con ducting for a UFO documentary in 1983, award-winning filmmaker and journalist Linda Moulton Howe was told by government sources that the 1951 version of The Day the Earth Stood Still, which depicted an alien landing in Washington D.C., was, in her words, “inspired by the CIA”, and was “one of the first government tests of public reaction to such an event”. Howe’s statement may not be as far-fetched as it seems. The screenwriter for The Day the Earth Stood Still, Edmund H North, was actively serving as a major in the Army Signal Corps just months before being selected by 20th Century Fox to pen the saucer-literate script. During his time in the Corps, North had been in charge of “training and educational” documentaries, and later established himself as a Holly wood scribe of war films including Sink the Bismark! (1960), Submarine X-1 (1968), and Patton (1970), for which he received an Oscar – all of which raises the possibility that he maintained an official or quasi-official role in the government’s cinematic propaganda campaigns throughout his career.

It is also worth noting that the man responsible for overseeing the production of The Day the Earth Stood Still – 20th Cent ury Fox bigwig Darryl Zanuck – soon afterwards became a member of what Frances Stonor Saunders refers to as the “Holly wood consortium”, part of a covert multi-agency propaganda campaign formed in 1954 called “Militant Liberty”. The consort ium was clear about its goals: “We need to make certain our films are doing a good job for our nation and our industry.” Zanuck himself once said: “If you have something worthwhile to say, dress it up in the glittering robes of entertainment and you will find a ready market… without entertainment, no propaganda film is worth a dime.”

But it is through documentary that the most watertight case of government manipulation of UFO mythology can be established. In 1972, filmmaker Robert Emenegger – formerly Creative Director at Grey Advertising – and his producing partner Allan Sandler were encouraged by the USAF to make a major documentary feature about the UFO phenomenon. Emen egger told us that Sandler “had very strange connections” for a producer and thought that he “did things for the CIA, and maybe even the FBI… they all seemed to work together.” Emenegger himself had worked for the US government in various media-related capacities and evidently the pair had been deemed suitable for the sensitive assignment.

Emenegger told us how he was briefed on the UFO project at Norton Air Force Base in “a clean room used by the CIA… so there was no way anyone could eavesdrop on us”. In an offer similar to that made some 20 years earlier to Walt Disney, the USAF promised Emenegger real UFO footage – this time allegedly showing a UFO landing at Holloman Air Force Base in 1971 and the subsequent face-to-face meeting between alien visit ors and delegates of the US government. Emenegger was sceptical, but was assured by the USAF that the footage existed and was genuine.

While he waited for the footage to mat erialise, Emenegger and his crew continued with their wider production research, for which they were given unprecedented access to Department of Defense facilit ies, including the Pentagon. Emenegger was even granted time with high-ranking military officers apparently well-versed in UFO-related matters, among them Colonel William Coleman, a former spokesman for Project Blue Book, and Colonel George Weinbrenner, then head of Foreign Technology at Wright Patterson Air Force Base – the location where alien materials and bodies allegedly recovered from the 1947 Roswell crash are said to have been stored.

But who in the Air Force would sign off on such a controversial project? Emenegger put this question to Penta gon spokesman Col Coleman, who informed him: “The Secretary of the Air Force gave us the order to cooperate.” Thus, in an unpre cedented move, the Air Force, Army, and Navy gave their full backing to a UFO-related product ion; so too did NASA, who provided Emenegger’s research team with previously unreleased photo graphs of what appeared to be UFOs in space taken by Gemini astronauts. “We had carte blanche to go anywhere, ask any questions,” Emenegger told the authors. “There were no restrictions put on us.” Emenegger even claims to have been shown “Top Secret” footage taken at Vandenberg Air Force Base which showed two UFOs “playfully running behind” a US missile.

After months of shooting, Emenegger’s documentary was complete, save for one crucial ingredient – the much-hyped alien landing footage. At the 11th hour, the USAF withdrew its permission for use of the material; the political climate had changed, it said, and it was now deemed inappropriate due to the Watergate scandal which had recently broken. “I felt like we had egg on our face,” Emenegger says. “I felt cheated that we were not allowed to see this film. It was taken back to the Pentagon… I stupidly expected to have this footage, which would have been Earth-shattering.” Emenegger seems as baffled by the whole affair 36 years on as anyone: “Were we had? Were we being used?” he asks.

Emenegger’s Golden Globe-nominated documentary, entitled UFOs: Past, Present and Future, was finally released in 1974 and was groundbreaking in its extensive use of information provided by the DoD. In addit ion to the aforementioned photo graphs from NASA, it featured sit-down interviews with the former heads of Project Blue Book, and footage shot inside the Pentagon of Col Coleman talking frankly about the Extra terrestrial Hypothesis. In the absence of the landing footage, Emenegger was forced to include an animated reconstruction of the event as described to him by the USAF, complete with artistic renderings of the alleged aliens. The documentary presented the incid ent as “one that might happen in the future – or perhaps could have happened already”.

Interestingly, echoes of Emenegger’s deal with the Department of Defense would resound decades later in the production of the aforementioned Transformers when director Michael Bay was granted the rare privilege of shooting scenes of his alien movie at the Pentagon. Amazingly, the DoD even threw open the gates to Holloman Air Force Base – the highly sensitive location of the alleged alien landing described to Emen egger. To this day, the only two Holly wood filmmakers to have been granted access to Holloman are Emenegger and Bay – both of whose films dealt with the subject of alien visitation.

The ufological plot thickened in 1978 when Col Coleman – who had acted as the USAF’s official liaison for Robert Emenegger’s documentary – produced an NBC drama series called Project UFO (1978–79), a sort of 1970s equivalent of The X-Files, but in which the main characters usually wound up debunking the veracity of the UFO incidents at the end of each episode. This was the polar opposite approach to that of X-Files agent Fox Mulder, whose defiant mantra “the truth is out there” became the catchphrase for a generation of conspiracy theorists. It is highly unusual, to say the least, for a commercial television series to be produced by a high ranking military officer, but that this was the very same officer who had promised UFO landing footage for use in a government-approved documentary just a few years earlier, coupled with the fact that the series was entirely based around official government reports, suggests that a political agenda was being pursued.

By now, many a sane reader will probably be puzzled, seeking an answer to the first rational question that comes to mind: “Just what on Earth is going on here?” Why, first of all, has the US government taken a historical interest in something as far out as flying saucers? More to the point, why has the government’s concern about the subject been so serious that it has actually seen fit to manage public perception of UFOs by attempting to influence the content of major films, as appears to be the case?

The late Lt Col Phillip J Corso, who served on the National Security Council during the Eisenhower Administration and who was formerly chief of the Pentagon’s Foreign Technology desk, claimed that the product ion of flying saucer movies was actively encouraged by government-led UFO study groups during the 1950s. The goal, claimed Corso, was to simultaneously fictionalise UFOs (through their association with Holly wood entertainment) and to actualise them in the mind of the passive viewer, thereby acclimatising the public to UFO reality and politically manipulating their perceptions of the phenomenon in the process. Corso referred to this strategy as “camouflage through limited disclosure”. “We never hid the truth from anybody,” he said, “we just camouflaged it. It was always there [in documents, books, TV shows and movies], people just didn’t know what to look for or recognise it for what it was when they found it. And they found it over and over again.”

Perhaps – as many believe – the government is trying to acclimatise the public to the notion of alien visitation. Or perhaps it is peddling disinformation as a smokescreen for more mundane, though no less secretive, government projects. UFO movies may even be a facet of a US psychological warfare programme. Far-fetched as this might sound, CIA records show that as early as 1952 the Agency was seriously considering the poss ibility of exploiting the phenomenon “from a psychological warfare point of view, either offensively or defensively”.

To paraphrase agent Mulder: we may “want to believe” the US government when it says it no longer takes an interest in UFOs. Certainly, we all “want to believe” that Holly wood entertainment is just that – entertainment, rather than disinformation. But the pict ure emerging is of a government confronted by an issue potentially so fantastical that it has been thrown (behind closed doors) like a cosmic hot potato from one administration to the next and spun out of all recognition by an industry only too aware of the dollar potential of little green men. Perhaps, then, we might skew The X-Files’s other famous mantra to highlight what seems to be the only truth of this weird and wonderful issue: The Lies Are Out There…

My subjects of interests are in history, militaria, religions/theologies, archeology,myths and legends and while I do not generally believe in the following subjects, for fun (and to maintain an open mind) I love reading about alternate/revisionist history (subjects like pre-Columbian transatlantic voyages, etc), crypto-zoology, UFOs and other Fortean happenings.

With that said, there was a great documentary a few years back that I saw online and on cable froma British reporter for Janes' and his opinion is that UFOs are cover story for any high tech black aviation program the American military/NASA work on.

What I like about this article is it highlights how there is a govt indirect role in every aspect of American life as if there is an over arching authority feeding us a message and checking to see that our medias are on message 24/7. It is perception of course. But the Military Industrial Complex and Hollywood have been pals since WW2.

Regardless of the veracity of any of these claims, I’m surprised that no administration has yet made a serious effort to use them to their political advantage.

Perhaps we’ll see a “Flying Saucer Czar” soon?

For a socialist Michael Moore makes lots of money through the private sector. SInce none of his money comes from me or my tax dollars how he makes his money is not my problem.

The Pentagon specifically requested that “any government connection” to Area 51 or to Roswell be eliminated from the film.

I can understand the request on Area 51, but Roswell? Why is the Pentagon so sensitive on that?

Thanks.

Have accepted this as a wholesale fact for decades.

Anyone who doesn’t believe this is

—willfully ignorant or blind or
—grossly uninformed or
—living in gross denial or
—blithely clueless or
—too rigidly and stubbornly biased to be ABLE to consider the facts fairly or
—has been living in a very deep cave for a very long time. or
—has walled such stuff off as beneath their serious fair-minded consideration . . . or
— . . . .

Okay. I guess this explains the large number of Zombie movies too. Zombies are REAL and these movies are prepping us know what to do when the Zombie virus gets out. Must immediately shoot them in the head.

Could it be that we are just being prepared for the inevitable? To many “excellent” videos (that could not be faked even with photoshop equipment) are showing things you would not believe.

Unless you have totally closed off your mind and won’t accept the possibility of other civilizations from the stars and photos from numerous cameras of the same objects that all show the same exact objects (clear as a bell), then you haven’t thought the subject through and remain biased (some would even say blinded).

AFTERTHOUGHT

Yes there are a lot of fakes, and unexplained objects in the sky’s. Forget those that could just be a bunch of balloons from someone’s birthday party

Some are obviously hub caps captured on film.

Some are so blurry they could be anything you want them to be.

More and more are being captured on film because people all over the world have cameras on their phones and video cameras have higher resolution than those in the past.

There are some pictures (movies and stills) that impressed even me. Do I know they are real? The verdict is still out, however, I have changed my mind considerably in the past few years.

Logic and probability have changed my mind 170 degrees from what I (used) to believe.

First off, I pray for for the coming Zombie Apocalypse. I have been preparing for the Zombie hordes some time now.

With that said - Zombies could be a metaphor of the fear people have for collapse of society and for viral outbreaks.

In any case, always go for a head shot.

When terrorist groups in Lebabon did the promotion and distribution of the movie in that market, it crossed the line into treason.

But that’s neither here nor there. It was a bad film.

If the conspiracy theory is that Hollywood makes UFO films to discredit UFO believers, then perhaps the same Hollywood would also make other movies to discredit crackpot theories (under the guise of supporting them).

The zombie infestation seems to be worse in Japan. There they have schoolgirl zombie films, gangster zombie films, timetraveller zombie films, and rock and roll zombie films.

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