Chariots of the Gods

Let me start off by saying that I love movies and documentaries about the paranormal, strange phenomena and unexplained mysteries. I particular enjoyed the old Rod Serling specials produced by Alan and Sally Landsburg, but I always regretted not having seen Chariots of the Gods.

I didn't miss anything.

On the face of it, this film would make a lovely travelogue of Mexico and South America because, despite the premise of exploring and/or revealing ancient mysteries, it actually does very little of either.

True, all the old familiar sites are visited, but the bland narration does little more than tell you that these places are associated with mysterious doings. It would be like a documentary on ghosts and hauntings showing only the exterior of the Amityville house and saying vaguely "...and the Lutz family claimed to have experienced something here, in this house."

The photography is very nice, the camera angles fresh and dramatic, but as I mentioned earlier, the narration (both the text itself and the narrators) is monotonously bland and surprisingly UN-informative; which negates any instructional value the film might have had as a documentary. Again, just change the narration and this could be a fine travelogue.

I suspect that the high ratings people give this title are based merely on that -the title and its association with the excellent and influential book- and less on the film itself. I also suspect that people are remembering the soundtrack LP (and later CDs) of the excellent Peter Thomas score -which ironically is almost unrecognizable in the garbled monaural sound mix of the film itself.

My opinion is that you should ignore this film and look instead at the much more dramatic and informative In Search of Ancient Astronauts (which is itself a far superior re-edit of this film, narrated by Rod Serling), or any of the other Landsburg productions, like In Search of Ancient Mysteries, The Outer Space Connection or Encounter With The Unknown.

For that matter, track down the old In Search Of... TV programs or Robert Stack ferreting out those Unsolved Mysteries.

I was 11 years old in 1973 when I read some of "Chariots of the Gods?" and saw "In Search of Ancient Astronauts," a condensed version of this 1972 documentary. As a kid, you are impressible and can be enthralled by these new ideas, that maybe aliens helped humankind along the way to advanced civilization.

As an adult seeing "Chariots of the Gods" 35 years later, I was amazed at the claims the narrator sometimes makes, leaving out significant background details and being excessively one sided. There are several specific examples. In the first, a visit is made to the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, where a set of curved tubes is said to be the exhaust port on the bottom of the rocket (and the base of a Saturn one is shown for comparison). However, no details are given of where the artifact was found, how old it was or what mainstream archaeologists thought it was.

In the second, there were statues in Mexico, who were claimed to be wearing odd hats, communication or utility devices on their chests and perhaps weapons or communicators on their belts. No alternative opinion was presented, such as the "communicators" might just be ordinary breastplates, and the hats some kind of ornamental warrior headgear. Additionally in Pelenque, Mexico, a sarcophagus lid for the Mayan leader Pacal is supposed to be a rocket ship, with no additional explanation given that his "rocket" might actually be a collection of Mayan symbols representing the king's passage to the underworld, and the meaning of these symbols unknown to few modern people except archaeologists specializing in pre-Columbian history.

I liked the crazy, spacey soundtrack, which ranged from early '70s electronica to New Ageish acoustic, and the cinematography, much shot from the skies -- the way these alleged "ancient astronauts" might have seen the earth! There just wasn't enough evidence presented that aliens created all these mysteries, which certainly are unexplainable.

Spacemen? I don't know. The theory that humans, not aliens, reached a high level of civilization thousands of years ago -- say more like late 21st century -- only to have it destroyed by a natural disaster, such as an ice age, seems like a more probable explanation for the supposedly advanced technologies in ancient artifacts and even the strange costumes. People knocked back to the stone age by a disaster over generations could have forgotten their heritage, old costuming and technology and have only traces, which to them might become religious legends. They might record them on cave or cliff walls in images that look more familiar to us because we are advanced, just like their distant ancestors. And artifacts that were fabricated with technology similar to ours thousands of years ago also could have come from these very ancient humans, not a bunch of extraterrestrials!

Documentary based on Eric von Daniken's famous book, which deals with ancient mysteries and specifically whether aliens visited Earth centuries ago. The gimmick in the book is to suggest outlandish theories but always to phrase them in the form of a question. This way von Daniken can always backpedal and say things like "I didn't say that the Bible has aliens in it. I just asked what if it does?" It's a clever huckster's trick but it served him well as he made a career writing books like this using the same technique.

I love the footage of the various locations and artifacts. That the footage has that vintage '70s look is an added bonus. It's talky and a little dry but still interesting and worth a look. As far as documentaries on ancient aliens or forgotten history goes, this is pretty good. For the absolute best in this type of material, you'd have to watch the Leonard Nimoy "In Search Of..." series.

This is a fascinating tour of the world in search of hieroglyphic statements, cuneiform writings, and extremely heavy objects that were purportedly moved by extraterrestrial beings when they visited Earth.

Daniken's explanations may suggest how the pyramids were constructed in Egypt and the means by which the heavy statues of Easter Island arrived at their current sites all over the island.

In any event, it is fascinating to see aerial views of landing fields which extraterrestrial visitors may have fashioned for their purposes.

Virtually all continents seem to offer proof of such other worldly visitors.

It is a wonderful trip around the world. The cinematography is good.

Entertaining for those interested in far away places as well as for scientists.

I still recall what a stunning impact this "documentary" had on my family -- including my father, a professor -- when we saw it on television in the early '70's.

Of course, all of von Däniken's assertions have been thoroughly and utterly debunked in the meantime, and von Däniken turned out to be a complete fraud, but still, this was the first time I had ever heard of the Plains of Nazca, so I have to thank Erich for that.

I much prefer the German title to the English: "Erinnerungen an die Zukunft" or "Memories of the Future".