UFOs - The Best Evidence
Since I had nothing to do with it (except for one vote online) here is a relatively unbiased review of Best Evidence - The Top 10 UFO Cases.
Paul Kimball’s new documentary about the UFO phenomenon is not something you would usually see on the Egypt (Discovery) or Hitler (History) channels. In the plainest, most logical terms possible, Kimball and his subjects lay out evidence for something unexplained appearing occasionally in the skies, and which has been with humankind for at least the last few hundred years. He doesn’t call them “aliens,” but he couldn’t keep a couple of his interview subjects from blurting out this opinion.
The program strips away the crap that litters most UFO shows. We are spared stories about furtive aliens and endless images of blacked-out documents. Kimball sticks with witness testimony and lets well-documented cases speak for themselves. Believers will say “I told you so” and fundamentalist skeptics will howl that no contrary opinions are given, but so what? The information is simply presented to convince the average person with little or no knowledge of the subject that UFOs are worthy of serious consideration. In contrast with almost any documentary, Kimball’s effort does not attempt to hide behind a façade of false objectivity.
Who says that these are the “10 Best Cases?” Kimball polled a group of seasoned researchers for their best documented and supported sightings. He also weighted the voting with an online poll. Some may not agree with the choices, but the aim of Best Evidence was to come up with a list that would stand up to reasonable skeptical scrutiny. Significantly, Kimball does not personally agree with the some of the choices or indeed the opinions of his experts.
Good UFO cases should have multiple, unconnected, and observant witnesses. All sightings examined in Best Evidence fall into this category. More support, such as radar traces, photographic evidence, and witnesses who are experts at identifying most things in the sky are icing on the cake.
Some of the cases that make the top 10 will surprise seasoned UFO dilettantes. A 1996 “mothership” case from Canada’s Yukon Territory is supported by multiple witnesses from widely divergent points along its apparent route. Other incidents, like U2 aircraft inventor Kelly Johnson’s 1953 sighting of a 200-foot long aeroform over the California coast, show that someone who should have known about everything manmade in the skies was at a loss identify it. This case was new to me, and puts Johnson’s later statements about earthlings being able to “send E.T. home” in a new light. Perhaps the incident affected Johnson more profoundly than he let on in public.
The Trent sighting and photos from McMinnville Oregon in 1952 have been summarily dismissed by skeptics for years. Kimball (through testimony from optical physicist Bruce Maccabee) manages to confirm that it would have been difficult even for someone who knew how to fake photos at the time to have produced the 2 famous images which have been burned into the consciousness of UFO fans for decades. For a good photographic case, I might have suggested the Rex Heflin incident from 1965, which has been extensively researched by Bob Wood and Ann Druffel, among others.
Kimball managed to locate and interview firsthand witnesses such as Captain Robert Salas, who witnessed the shutdown of nuclear missiles in their silos at Malmstrom AFB in 1967 while UFOs hovered nearby. Salas is convinced that some extra-human intelligence was trying to send us a message, since this was not the first or last instance of this disturbing effect. Another military case featured is the infamous Rendlesham incident. Colonel Charles Halt, who led a patrol to investigate strange lights in the forest near an American base in the UK, gives his testimony in a convincing interview. Among Rendlesham witnesses, Halt is one who has not changed his story in the intervening years.
Nick’s spoiler review can give you a rundown of all the cases covered, but even if I did not know Kimball personally, I would have given a big thumbs-up to Best Evidence, if only for its dispassionate premise that something which shows intelligence, but is not human, has been racing through our skies for centuries, and occasionally landing on the ground. It’s the one to show your friends who can’t understand why anyone would take the UFO subject seriously.
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Jul 14 2007 
July 15th, 2007 at 4:02 am
Greg:
Thanks for the positive review / kind words. Coming from a friend (like Nick and Mac as well) who I know would tell me if it wasn’t a good film, and whose general opinion I respect even when I don’t agree with it, it means a lot.
Paul
July 15th, 2007 at 6:23 am
Greg: I’m just finishing up the new “Best of John Keel” book which I’ve really enjoyed. So I googled Keel and found that Loren Coleman excerpts Jerome Clark’s noting of Keel downplaying the two main factors noted in this review: radar and multiple, independent witnesses. I like Keel’s “ultraterrestrial” take even if Coleman disagrees with Keel’s morphing of a large bird into a demonic force aka “mothman.”
Keel notes how SciFi writing and even a comic book gave details on how to build a nuclear bomb — before the Manhattan project was even finished! Yet this supposed “secret” knowledge spurred the Black-Listing of many a supposed Commie Spy (the latest declassified records states that there were 300 Commie Spies in the U.S. but none of them were on McCarthy’s list which was made up after such spying was in its peak).
Keel does seem to capture or even embody this cutting edge of science which really is ultraterrestrial. I urge readers to check out the Best of John Keel because the book has a certain subjectivity that seems to transcend the attempt to study anything. It enters the realm of peaceful ultraterrestrial observation.
July 15th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Where, when or how can a person get a copy of this DVD?
July 15th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
DVDs, with lots of bonus materials, should be ready by the late summer / early fall. I’m working on it intermittently at the moment, as I’m in the middle of post-production on another film.
Best regards,
Paul
July 16th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
Paul,
Even if I didn’t agree with it, if the information was presented well, I would have given it a positive review. When presented with good info that conflicts with our opinions, we may have to question and perhaps (oh NO!) even change them.
July 16th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Drew,
You said,
I urge readers to check out the Best of John Keel because the book has a certain subjectivity that seems to transcend the attempt to study anything.
I couldn’t agree more. This is the sort of thing we are talking about when we talk about “new” ufology. UFO sightings/ encounters are one of the most subjective things we can experience, and the phenomenon speaks to us individually on many levels. Taken a step further, this is just what Strieber is saying.
I bought a copy of that Keel book at Roswell and will begin reading it within a few days. Review to follow.
July 17th, 2007 at 1:32 am
Greg:
You wrote:
“When presented with good info that conflicts with our opinions, we may have to question and perhaps (oh NO!) even change them.”
I don’t know. That doesn’t sound like the ufological modus operandi to me.
Paul