Spielberg's "Disclosure Day" pre-release Speculation

[Todd Feinman]

I just didn't understand the reason you alluded for using your real name. Like you I witnessed an actually extraordinary sightings of UFOs and whatnot in the night sky, afterwards my county reported it in their official website. But sorry, I won't come back to it again here at all, it's already been once briefly discussed on an old Metabunk's thread.

If you are up to it, you can always email it to me. Suppose I could search for it here, too.
<edit> Found it.

 

[Todd Feinman]

I wouldn't ever take this man seriously, at all. But as it seems, people take his words for granted whenever it's convenient for them.

We'll have to see what kind of documents get uploaded. Unless he is just lying / breathing.

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

Chased by government agents in black cars... natch. Couldn't it be some other color for a change? Maybe a nice British racing green, or a cheerful sunny yellow?

Isn't this cliche descended from bad guys in black cowboy hats?

Review from two respected movie critics

Now suddenly they're on the run, pursued by agents from the National Security Agency. The movie has to employ the last refuge of movie making hacks, the boring car chase.

When I saw all that, this movie has just, as you say, plugged into the last refuge of the hack. Which is the chase scene. The helicopters and the black cars and the machine guns. This stuff is so old. Spare us. This Christmas, please, my gift, spare us, for next year, at least one formula chase scene.

Spoiler: Which respected movie critics?

I cheated. That's Siskel & Ebert reviewing My Fellow Americans in 1996.

 

[Mendel]

Isn't this cliche descended from bad guys in black cowboy hats?

Vampires.

 

[JMartJr]

Isn't this cliche descended from bad guys in black cowboy hats?

Maybe, but I suspect the fact that government motorcades and such tend to be e black cars may also play into it,

President Obama's motorcade in a visit to Baghdad, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/photos-and-video/photos/motorcade

President Donald J. Trump's motorcade heads back to the White House from the Trump National Golf Club,
https://time.com/4761742/donald-trump-security-costs-government-reimbursement/

 

[purpleivan]

I think there's a fairly longstanding trope of government agents (good or bad) riding around in black SUV's. For example in the TV series Fringe (2008) many of the core characters were FBI agents, who did this.

I think it's part of a more general "security people" (government or private) use black SUV's, quite possibly derived from the Secret Service using them for presidential protection, as pointed out by @JMartJr .

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

You never know what a Message Board thread will get fixated on. This time it's the black cars trope rather than the much more important issue of movie hacks resorting to the boring car chase, which was so worn out in 1996 that Siskel & Ebert went into an impassioned rant about it.

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

And let's talk about recycled Spielberg material...

Great stuff in 1971. Especially in a made for TV movie. At the time, TV was a shared experience. Lots of conversation about this movie the next day at El Modena High School.



Sadly worn out in 2026

I know... It's homage...

Well, not homage. "It's Fan service."

No it's not. It's lazy and sad.

"You just don't get it, do you? Steven-Bashers are going to bash."

I don't even know if "Steven" put this element into the movie. Or did someone else? Doesn't matter. Fan Service is stark raving hackery no matter who does it. Is it Steven-bashing to criticize Spielberg toadies?

"Well, it wasn't put in as 'Fan Service', you Steven-Basher you. It's just..."

Retread?

 

[Hevach]

I have a hard time putting the word "fan service" on a scene from a 1971 TV movie of the week based on a Playboy article that barely even got a home video release. I feel like at that point the only fan being serviced is Spielberg himself.

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

I feel like at that point the only fan being serviced is Spielberg himself.

Interesting idea. Toadies are going to toady.

The first (but not last!) time I heard the term "Steven-Basher" was on an obscure radio show for L.A. area Science Fiction Fans - Hour 25. The subject that night was the TV show Amazing Stories. The guest was someone who worked on the show.

At some point the infamous and widely derided Cartoon Wheels episode was discussed. (Actual title: The Mission)

Super dramatic narration

The lives of ten men rest in the power of one. And... now.. The impossible is about to happen.

Spoiler: Literal Spoiler Warning in case you want to watch The Mission

A guy draws wheels onto a cartoon of their B-17, and cartoon wheels really appear. The guy trapped in the ball turret is saved!

Jesus.

This guy defended this awful thing, and derided people who automatically deride Spielberg stuff just because they want to be cool iconoclasts (or something). You know. "Steven-Bashers." There couldn't possibly be any rational reason to criticize something, anything, that came from the mind of "Steven".

The thing that got me... It was clear that this toady separated the people of this Earth into one of only two possible categories. Jesus, man. Get a life. It's swell to be a Spielberg apprentice. But being a toady/worshipper/fanboy, whatever you choose to call it, is something else.

I don't blame Spielberg himself. I don't think he encourages people to become toadies. They do it to themselves.

 

[Jay Y]

Interesting idea. Toadies are going to toady.

The first (but not last!) time I heard the term "Steven-Basher" was on an obscure radio show for L.A. area Science Fiction Fans - Hour 25. The subject that night was the TV show Amazing Stories. The guest was someone who worked on the show.

At some point the infamous and widely derided Cartoon Wheels episode was discussed. (Actual title: The Mission)

Super dramatic narration

Spoiler: Literal Spoiler Warning in case you want to watch The Mission

A guy draws wheels onto a cartoon of their B-17, and cartoon wheels really appear. The guy trapped in the ball turret is saved!
View attachment 89773
Jesus.

This guy defended this awful thing, and derided people who automatically deride Spielberg stuff just because they want to be cool iconoclasts (or something). You know. "Steven-Bashers." There couldn't possibly be any rational reason to criticize something, anything, that came from the mind of "Steven".

The thing that got me... It was clear that this toady separated the people of this Earth into one of only two possible categories. Jesus, man. Get a life. It's swell to be a Spielberg apprentice. But being a toady/worshipper/fanboy, whatever you choose to call it, is something else.

I don't blame Spielberg himself. I don't think he encourages people to become toadies. They do it to themselves.

I was an actual child when I saw this repeated but remember thinking it was quite sweet. I suspect I conflate it also with 'Memphis Belle' which was released around that same time.

 

[purpleivan]

At some point the infamous and widely derided Cartoon Wheels episode was discussed. (Actual title: The Mission)

You say that the episode "the Mission" is "much derided", but it has the equal highest rating on IMDB for any episode for season 1 of Amazing Stories at 7.6/10. Even the highest rated episode of season 2 only made it to 7.7/10.

However, I do admit that the "cartoon wheels" would have been divisive. I've always loved cartoons, so I didn't mind it, even if I felt it was a bit silly.

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

You are right.

 

[Mendel]

Great stuff in 1971.

I suspect the railroad crossing scene dates back to the Keystone Kops, which would make it 1917 or so.

 

[jarlrmai]

L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat (translated from French into English as The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station, Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat [US] and The Arrival of the Mail Train, and in the United Kingdom as Train Pulling into a Station) is an 1896 French short silent documentary film directed and produced by Auguste and Louis Lumière.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'Arrivée_d'un_train_en_gare_de_La_Ciotat

 

[purpleivan]

At this point I'm wondering if there's an 18th century painting of a someone on horseback, waiting at a crossroads for a line of carts to pass

 

[Mendel]

L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat (translated from French into English as The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station, Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat [US] and The Arrival of the Mail Train, and in the United Kingdom as Train Pulling into a Station) is an 1896 French short silent documentary film directed and produced by Auguste and Louis Lumière.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'Arrivée_d'un_train_en_gare_de_La_Ciotat

not quite a car chase interrupted by a passing train

 

[jarlrmai]

not quite a car chase interrupted by a passing train

Think of it as the "hello world" of train scenes in films

 

[Ann K]

I've been seeing Tim Burchett on the news positively getting PTSD from the dadgum things he's been told, dagnabit!
Luna too.

He's still at it. From an interview with Piers Morgan:

"We've seen too much. I've seen too much. Not myself personally, but out when I've been briefed by government officials. Video, pictures. Some of the best-trained pilots in the world have described having close collisions with some sort of aircraft or apparatus, and so I think it's time that they come clean.

"Some of the stuff I've heard is pretty troubling. It's very troubling. To think that we just deny their existence and then we have aircraft, half a billion dollar aircraft with some highly trained professionals on it that are put into harm's way, and we've had to scrub missions before because something's out there and the Pentagon claims that they have no knowledge of it.

"And it's not going to be ours, sir, because if it was ours, we wouldn't risk those lives, and we value life. I constantly have death threats on my life, sir. I've been warned many times about doing certain events, parades, things like that.

"If you look at the book of Ezekiel, he saw the wheel of some sort of landing craft. Landing gear that came down from it. Back in the biblical times the most advanced technological machinery was the wheel, so that's what they were describing as close as they could describe it." – GOP Rep. Tim Burchett, who insists that alien civilizations are operating undersea bases around the world and that the feds are covering up a project to create alien-human hybrids at a dozen secret labs.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtXhvtsKcaU

 

[Todd Feinman]

He's still at it. From an interview with Piers Morgan:

"We've seen too much. I've seen too much. Not myself personally, but out when I've been briefed by government officials. Video, pictures. Some of the best-trained pilots in the world have described having close collisions with some sort of aircraft or apparatus, and so I think it's time that they come clean.

"Some of the stuff I've heard is pretty troubling. It's very troubling. To think that we just deny their existence and then we have aircraft, half a billion dollar aircraft with some highly trained professionals on it that are put into harm's way, and we've had to scrub missions before because something's out there and the Pentagon claims that they have no knowledge of it.

"And it's not going to be ours, sir, because if it was ours, we wouldn't risk those lives, and we value life. I constantly have death threats on my life, sir. I've been warned many times about doing certain events, parades, things like that.

"If you look at the book of Ezekiel, he saw the wheel of some sort of landing craft. Landing gear that came down from it. Back in the biblical times the most advanced technological machinery was the wheel, so that's what they were describing as close as they could describe it." – GOP Rep. Tim Burchett, who insists that alien civilizations are operating undersea bases around the world and that the feds are covering up a project to create alien-human hybrids at a dozen secret labs.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtXhvtsKcaU

So bizarre. Hard to believe any of this is happening.
<edit> a guilty pleasure, but I like to hear Burchett, RFK and others talk; I like to try my hand at impressions in my spare time. I can't do women though, so Marjorie is but a distant dream.

 

[Mendel]

From an interview with Piers Morgan:

"If you look at the book of Ezekiel, he saw the wheel of some sort of landing craft. Landing gear that came down from it. Back in the biblical times the most advanced technological machinery was the wheel, so that's what they were describing as close as they could describe it." – GOP Rep. Tim Burchett, who insists that alien civilizations are operating undersea bases around the world and that the feds are covering up a project to create alien-human hybrids at a dozen secret labs.

I blame von Däniken.

Ezekiel 1 (NIV):

10 Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle. 11 Such were their faces.

Gotta wonder why the literalists still go with gray aliens when we could've had totem pole aliens all along.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kakaso'Las_totem_pole.jpg

 

[Todd Feinman]

Burchett and others have said they've seen evidence of things they can't explain. They interpret or profess to interpret the phenomenon in religious terms, specifically Christianity. I'm not sure what the point is, if the connection cannot be proven, somehow. I certainly would have thought I was looking at something divine if I was an ancient person, seeing what I did. And the other strangenesses that occurred. But one can't just toss these things into the basket of spirituality and cross oneself. How are these things interacting in / with the material world? It's the same dichotomy with the nuts 'n bolts repoed flying saucers vs. UFOs as a "paranormal" phenomenon.

 

[Mendel]

They interpret or profess to interpret the phenomenon in religious terms, specifically Christianity.

No. Just no.
There is no theologician in the whole world who's going to agree with the Scripture being about 'ancient aliens'. This is either atheist or blasphemous. Definitely not religious.

Quoting the bible doesn't make one a Christian.

I wonder what you think being a Christian is about.

 

[Rick Robson]

I'd like to go one last time off-topic just to know if you have researched whether there's some possible connections of the UFO phenomenon with what is described in ancient scriptures (eg. first book of Enoch) about allegedly past civilisations in our planet. Because, in my opinion, it might all boil down to either the "Multiverse" or the "one only fine-tuned universe" theory.

How are these things interacting in / with the material world? It's the same dichotomy with the nuts 'n bolts repoed flying saucers vs. UFOs as a "paranormal" phenomenon.

As I observed earlier, I find interesting how often every discussion over the UFO lore boils down to either the "Multiverse" or the "one only 'fine-tuned' universe" theory, but the latter one rejected more often then not by secular/non-religious people. However, it seems to me that all those "miltidimensional" (what a vague term), cryptoterrestrial, supernatural (and whatnot !) theories have been the trendy ones as of late. I personally don't subscribe to just any of them.

 

[jdog]

As I observed earlier, I find interesting how often every discussion over the UFO lore boils down to either the "Multiverse" or the "one only 'fine-tuned' universe" theory, but the latter one rejected more often then not by secular/non-religious people. However, it seems to me that all those "miltidimensional" (what a vague term), cryptoterrestrial, supernatural (and whatnot !) theories have been the trendy ones as of late. I personally don't subscribe to just any of them.

Well, not the "you" of this timeline.

 

[Todd Feinman]

As I observed earlier, I find interesting how often every discussion over the UFO lore boils down to either the "Multiverse" or the "one only 'fine-tuned' universe" theory, but the latter one rejected more often then not by secular/non-religious people. However, it seems to me that all those "miltidimensional" (what a vague term), cryptoterrestrial, supernatural (and whatnot !) theories have been the trendy ones as of late. I personally don't subscribe to just any of them.

Right. None of it really makes sense.
I was interested in the occult for many years, but I don't think UFOs are part of that world.
From what I've seen, I don't think people made the objects I saw. Just hard for me to imagine it. As they seem to be completely different from anything we could create. The air force pilot and police officer who saw the objects couldn't identify them either, and they were probably closer to them than I was. The capsule object was amazing. So fast and smooth. Nothing like any rocket.
So, I don't know what they are. I've given my thoughts on what many of them could be, previously. I do think they go into space or that some come from there, as I watched a capsule-shaped object head off into space, and I think the formation I saw in 2010 was very possibly seen in space by Leroy Chiao.
At the end of the day I'm not sure what they are.
Anyway, I don't want to always refer to my experiences. I have a link in my profile for those who want to know about it.

 

[Jim Davis]

From what I've seen, I don't think people made the objects I saw.

How did you establish that what you saw were objects?

 

[Todd Feinman]

How did you establish that what you saw were objects?

I refer to them as objects, but I suppose phenomenon might work too. I believe others saw them, so I think they were persistent. They seemed to be quite opaque. When they were bright, initially, their light was contained, and you could look directly at them, even thought they were so bright. Others described this quality too. Initially completely stationary and bright, though then moved ahead of me and assumed the second formation and were glowing orange.
The capsule-shaped object I saw in I think 2013, was self-luminous, but not bright, and cream colored. I could see it quite clearly.

 

[MonkeeSage]

"If you look at the book of Ezekiel, he saw the wheel of some sort of landing craft. Landing gear that came down from it. Back in the biblical times the most advanced technological machinery was the wheel, so that's what they were describing as close as they could describe it." – GOP Rep. Tim Burchett, who insists that alien civilizations are operating undersea bases around the world and that the feds are covering up a project to create alien-human hybrids at a dozen secret labs.

Like many folks who appeal to Ezekiel as talking about real objects, Mr. Burchett is not reading his bible very carefully.

Ezekiel chapters 1-3 are a vision Ezekiel received while sitting on a river bank.

Ezekiel 1:1 In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the River Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. (NRSVUE)

Ezekiel 3:15 I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who lived by the River Chebar. And I sat there among them, stunned, for seven days.

Ezekiel chapters 8-11 are a vision Ezekiel received while sitting in his house.

Ezekiel 8:1 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. (NRSVUE)

Ezekiel 11:25 And I told the exiles all the things that the Lord had shown me. (NRSVUE)

These are visionary experiences, not Ezekiel looking at the sky and seeing real objects.