P.S. To clarify a little:

I am very big on early, more pure sources of info. As an example, I think that Cabeza De Vaca’s account of North America in the late 16th century is invaluable as a resource, as well as a fascinating read. Bernal Diaz’ history of the conquest of Mexico is also high on my list.

Although not “pure,” The reason I like Whitley Strieber’s “visitor” work is that his mythologizing is both unique and seems to capture the absurd nature of the phenomenon. It is work of artistic merit which unhooks us from the standard story. I fear little similarity with the new abduction film, although somewhat like Orson Welles’ F For Fake, it may put us in touch with how much film (especially films pretending to be a “documentary” or based on “documented facts”) can make us believe in almost anything by the nature of what documentaires are supposed to be (objective and factual.)

I don’t know if I want abductions to “stay in a cultural vacuum,” but I have specific ideas about it. I am not a film reviewer. My POV is from a decidedly esoteric viewpoint. If I don’t subscribe to the mass culture’s method of expression, so be it.

For example, I thought that the Tim Burton film Ed Wood was near perfect. It managed to convey the life of the title character almost exactly as I thought of him. That’s a selfish judgment call on my part, and so was this piece on Fourth Kind.

The other issue for me is the hopeless contamination of the database on the phenomenon, which this film apparently feeds on and further mythologizes. If things were dire before, they may become even more so with the film’s release.

Also, some films manage to riff on their subject matter in a way that seems to bring something novel to the table. Although a poor example, Mothman Prophecies featured a character who was based on Keel who Richard Gere went to for advice. His insights were closest in spirit to the original story, and made the viewer think about anomalies in a novel way (at least as I remember.)

I left some wiggle room in the pre-view review in case Fourth Kind overcomes my inital bad impressions. Based on the history of Hollywood and the paranormal however, I am not optimistic.

So, you would wish that the abduction phenomenon should stay in a cultural vaccuum? You know as well as I do that this is impossible —Furthermore, if the ‘aliens’ are as half as intelligent as I think they are, this is exactly what they want.

Anyway, regardless of what the hypothetical intentions of the aliens are: if the film manages to make the average viewer think that there’s something extraordinay behind the abduction phenomenon, i think that it would have served its purpose.

PS: Re. Communion ‘flopping’. I have sometimes wondered if books and novels that involve fringe ideas need to connect with the exact ‘zeitgest’ of the times to be succesful, regardless of their own merits. If you do the research you find that Keeley’s ideas were being proposed before by other authors, yet it was his ‘Mothman Prophecies’ the one who captured the public’s imagination; ditto with Däniken’s ideas.

I didn’t get a good feeling about it from the promo material. Pick and choose the sensationalistic elements while bypassing the truly strange and incongruous elements of the reports. Maybe Communion was a better example, but it flopped of course. So what?

What I’m afraid of is that pieces of info like this will be taken out of context and used as window dressing for an empty shell of a story that is long on sensationalism and short on true strangeness and psychological explication.

Maybe Close Encounters and The Manchurian Candidate. I’m sure there are a least a few others.

Plus, there’s Mila Jovovich playing the part of the doctor. Come on, Greg! that at least is worth the cost of the ticket!!