A Field Full of Secrets

I settled in expecting this to be rubbish and was not disappointed.. Wheeling out Peter Sorensen - who was always at best a stomper rather than a designer - with zany music and still shots was a low blow, especially as the man at least had the courage to admit that he knew the geometrical cc's were all man-made after first thinking it was ET.. Then focusing on Blake and others who run businesses based upon perpetuating the myth of non-human involvement.. The ''looking for hoaxers'' but was a total crock of baloney.. Of all the thousands of fields in Hants and Wilts, why go to that one?? Yawn-inducing bilge

I like a film that makes you think... though its hard to know just what to think of this film and its subject matter, its power is in not letting you make up your mind too easily. Before I say what I think of its subject, I'll say its an entertaining film that most people would enjoy, even if they decide that the protagonists are simply nutters (as one of Charles' friends suggests). No doubt they put genuine and considerable effort in trying to turn a theory into a reality, and its inspiring to watch this. Their efforts are compared with those of the Wright brothers and with Edison in taking a leap of faith to venture into new fields of science and technology, despite the high risk of failure and the scepticism of others. They are inspired by the designs that appear in crop fields, so the title alludes both to these mysterious phenomena, and the attempt to open up new fields in science. All inventions are inspired by thinking outside the box, they require leaps of faith, and their success is often due to a mixture of persistence and fortuitous accident. The potential of many discoveries and inventions is not realised until much later. Charles and Nikola attempt something so inspired, daring and original, so far beyond our existing technology, that their results should be interpreted in that light. If you gave the ancient Romans a blueprint for creating a helicopter, do you think they could build a working model? I hope this review inspires you to watch this film, its the best I've seen for a while, and it may just make you wonder as well...

I saw this on Netflix and was curious, as it gives the same blurb it does here. I'm not an avid crop circle researcher, so you're if you're looking for an expose on crop circles, aliens and everything in between, this isn't for you. The film begins with some interesting facts on the crop circle phenomena, especially in regards to hoaxers. There are definite hoaxers, but there are also things they showed that cannot be hoaxed nor explained.

As the story went on what really drew me in was the human interest part of it. The director, Charles Maxwell, was as much a part of this story as he was the one creating it. I really admired his courage to go all in and see just where this was all leading. He became friends with a transsexual, and despite judgment and criticism from his friends, began to build with this woman what might be the secret the crop circles were trying to share. I was really rooting for Charles and Nikola and extremely curious what would happen when their invention was built. Mixed in with this are stories on Nikola and how those closest to her feel about her transition.

I won't tell you what happens in the end. I will only say that Charles is what I would call a dreamer, and it's the dreamers who bring about the most important and revolutionary changes in this world. They also tend to face the roughest path as those who don't believe in their vision want to hold them back. What if what Charles and Nikola built really is a glimpse of future technology? What if it really is something that historians will look back on and say, "Thank God they tried that." We'll never know. All I do know is, the world needs more people like Charles and Nikola. People who will put what society says is rationale aside, knowing full well they could fail, to take a chance on something that expands all of our minds. Charles and Nicola, I salute you. You're two people who won't have to die with regret and the wonder, "What if I'd not cared what people would say and just went for it? What if I'd tried? What if...."

All in all, a movie I would recommend to anyone. Some will like the crop circle stuff, others will like the personal aspects. And some might even get inspired like me.

Great effort trying to show what might be behind the circles that appear on the fields near a small pyramid at the south of England. Thanks to this documentary I could come up with the answer. It's my perception. The circles are done by the planet itself, by mother earth herself and she is showing that the gadget we have to create, cultivate and take care of is ourselves. You can see the figure of a human being in the figures appearing on the fields. The energy they are talking about is in this precious machine already built called human being. The answer is in ourselves not outside. A human being is rounded, when sitting down in meditation position, he becomes a pyramid with six circles showing eternity, no limitations, no laws. Thank you for this documentary and for showing that the most important was the people involved in it and the transformation Nikola had is important to the extent the others respected and accepted that transformation. It is time to cultivate ourselves to get to extend ourselves to maturity.

I stand on a very neutral platform on the subject of crop circles, I've no spiritual feelings about them but think that they are both spectacular and very special things. I also know people who have a completely opposite opinion to my own and I also know of people that this documentary names as 'hoaxers'. So I watched this from the stand point that these circles are art and that the humans (yes, humans) that make them are talented and capable people who never claim ownership. This is not just because what they do can be classed as criminal damage but because the joy they get from watching people's reactions to the masterpieces they have created and that is enough for them.

Sadly the 'secrets' promised in the title of this documentary never materialise. They treat Peter Sorensen (the only maker they could get to actually talk to because no one else involved would even want to broach the subject on camera) as a silly, sad old man. Stick on some comedy music and show footage of him pulling faces all you like, the truth is that he came to Wiltshire to research the subject as a 'believer' but actually found out on his own terms that the patterns are made by people, deciding not to take the road of discarding evidence and blocking out anything that he didn't want to hear.

The resultant film never comes to any any conclusions, spends endless tracts of time padding out their footage with night watches in random fields, uses the phrase '... which was a decision we would later regret' way too much for no good reason and ends with the film makers basically saying 'we've wrung all we could out of it and have come to absolutely no conclusion whatsoever'.

A vanity project that didn't have enough material to fill it's 1hr 22 min runtime.

Don't bother watching it. You'll learn nothing.