Mysteries of the Gods (1976) User Reviews

Captain Quirk

[Steve_Nyland · 5/10 · 27 January 2010]

Sideplitting fun as William Shatner doffs his Captain Kirk uniform for a suede shirt with a big collar + bell bottoms and heads out onto the road with a film crew of six to explore mankind's mysteries. Shatner's enthusiasm for the material is boundless in energy. You will either be swept up in the marvel of it all or laughing yourself silly, in either event its grand entertainment that actually beat crewmate Leonard Nimoy's far more dignified "In Seach Of ..." out of the pop culture refuse chute by a year or two.

Seriously though, this was a West German produced quasi-documentary cashing in on the Ancient Astronauts fad of the 1970s ala Erich Von Daniken's ridiculous books of a similar name, who was thoughtfully given a screen credit. The film even boasts a very listenable electronic musical score by "Winnetou" composer Peter Thomas & is fast paced enough for the attention deficit disabled. Then again just watching William Shatner gaze into the empty sockets of the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull while theorizing on the influence of ancient space mariners on human development is worth the effort needed to obtain a copy -- This baby is way out of print, and probably for a good reason.

An additional curious footnote is found in the presence of paranormal phenomenon guru William Dennis Hauck, one of the leaders of the Modern Alchemy movement, who served as a technical consultant and even gives an on screen interview to Shatner in front of a radio telescope they couldn't get the keys for. Hauck wrote up a sort of memoir of his experiences working with Shatner in his 1989 trash expose "Captain Quirk", which paints an unflattering portrait of the actor as a raving narcissist who actually believed he was an alien contactee at one point. Fun reading, you can find a copy for a dollar on Amazon.

I think Shatner is in fabulous form, raising the material from mere proto new age crap into a sort of kitschy exploration of the marvelous quirks that make humanity such a fascinating life form. Only humans would have thought to scrape the top layer of iron oxide rich soil of the Nazca plain away to expose the brighter soil underneath and make pictures best appreciated from overhead. And only humans could read anything more into it than people just making pictures in the sand.

Without someone like William Shatner as our host the proceedings would wear thin, but his enthusiasm for the phenomenon and his own search for an answer to his own alleged contact experience carries it like Sigourney Weaver carrying an ALIEN movie. If it was anybody else we'd be tempted to take it seriously, and the whole thing would be a dreadful bore. I watch not because of the paranormal angle, but because its a William Shatner film from his lost years of the 1970s with Krautrock electronic disco space music. Plus, his shirts all have big wide collars, and he wears matching bell bottoms! And he gets all intense -- sometimes *really* intense -- about UFOs, crystal skulls, native costumes that look like space suits (my favorite part!), drawings of proposed NASA projects that were never made, lost pyramids overgrown by jungles, space aliens, and ESP!

In other words, I've been looking for garbage like this my whole life.

5/10

Earnest and entertaining, look back at weird stuff

[Red-Barracuda · 6/10 · 22 October 2021]

William Shatner investigates the unexplained phenomena of UFOs and historical alien intervention. While its true that nowadays it is only Donald Trump supporters and people from Bonnybridge who believe UFOs are alien spacecraft, this nevertheless still works well as a fun historical artefact. Much of the material covered also appeared in 'Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Word' such as the Nazca lines, the crystal skulls, the giant balls of Costa Rica, the giant figures on the landscape in England and South America, as well as plenty of stuff on UFOs. Despite much of its sometimes dubious content, like 70's Bigfoot documentaries, its still an earnest and entertaining look back at weird stuff.

Lovable junk

[BandSAboutMovies · 7/10 · 10 March 2021]

In 1976, William Shatner was seven years away from the end of Star Trek and three years from the theatrical movie, so he was taking whatever work he could get, which meant The Tenth Level, A Whale of a Tale and the TV series Barbary Coast.

And oh yeah - Mysteries of the Gods.

Let me tell you, the seventies were a weird time to be alive. People had biofeedback machines in their plants so they could talk to them, everyone was recovering from Vietnam and Watergate, and aliens were everywhere.

Harald Reinl (who also directed The Return of Dr. Mabuse, The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism and Chariots of the Gods) directed the German version of this movie, with the American parts directed by Charles Romine (Behind Locked Doors). This is based on the work of Erich von Däniken, whose ancient astronaut theories now form the basis of so much of basic cable alien shows while he himself has been seen as a charlatan for some time.

Shatner wears some astounding clothes that have huge collars and often bare his chest, like some lusty Doc Savage flying all over the world to interview old women about crystal skulls and debate with scientists. Man, for that reason alone, this movie is worth a watch, plus there's plenty of synth music and a short running time. This is a good start if you've just getting into 20th century carny paranormal documentaries.

One of the 'standard works' for anyone interested in Ufology and the ancient astronaut theory

[imdb-3046 · 26 December 2009]

I purchased 'Mysteries of the Gods' and a number of other UFO-related videos more than ten years ago and considered this one worth transferring to from VHS cassette to DVD.

The documentary is a fascinating glimpse of 'new age' thinking, a full two decades before it would reach its zenith in the mid to late 1990s.

Interspersed with material by Eric von Däniken (of whom, more below) are interviews with employees of NASA who clearly acknowledge the statistical probability of life somewhere else in space. The documentary pre-dates the first U.S. Shuttle launch and we see mention of the idea that the Shuttle could service earth-orbiting observatories together with more ambitious projects further from the Earth. In later years, of course, we would see the Shuttle being used to launch the Hubble observational satellite and then to send a team to effect repairs.

A great deal of the material draws on the writings of von Däniken, a major proponent of the 'Alien Astronaut' theory that extra-terrestrials visited Earth in the distant past and raised the technical level of humanity. His views are now treated in a much more critical, that is to say, sceptical manner.

Also in the documentary, there is an interview with the late Anna Mitchell-Hedges concerning the eponymous crystal skull. This is worth viewing in its own right, particularly her anecdotes about the skull, the most frightening of which involved a student who allegedly joked about the skull and died shortly afterwards. (Ms Mitchell-Hedges, whose respect for the skull was presumably unquestioning, lived to the ripe old age of 100.) Again, there have been questions raised about the provenance of this and other crystal skulls.

It would be easy, but somewhat unfair, to describe the documentary as pandering to "true believers". Although Shatner could have asked more searching questions, he and the editors did permit the interviewees to leave a lasting record of their opinions, and the viewer was left to form his or her own conclusions. Something that documentaries on more factual subjects often fail to do.

Even a sceptic will still enjoy the discussion of various ancient archaelogical sites, mainly in South America and Europe, at a time when many were still well off the organised tourist track.

As an avid but sceptical student of Ufology and related fields, I have often been struck by the number of low-brow 'docutainment' programmes which just re-hash old material, interspersed with a lot of music and repetition to make the documentary last an hour. "Mysteries of the Gods", and the contemporary Arthur C Clarke documentaries, contain original material, which is often dipped into by many subsequent documentaries. In the case of "Mysteries of the Gods", not a minute of the one hour and 25 minute running time is wasted.

TYPICALLY-TONED ANCIENT ASTRONAUT/UFO DOCUMENTARY...AVERAGE OF TYPE

[LeonLouisRicci · 7/10 · 12 August 2021]

In the Pre-"X-Files","Ancient Aliens" Inclusion to the "Pop-Culture" Exponential Explosion of the Public's Fascination with said Subjects, these Things were Common.

Ever Since Erich Von Daniken's Blockbuster Paradigm Challenging Book "Chariots of the Gods" (1968) was Released Skeptics Scorned and Followers Pointed Fingers to the Many "Unsolved Mysteries".

Von Daniken's Mega-Selling Book was Followed by a Documentary of the Same Name in 1970, Managing to Garner an Academy Award Nomination.

The Flood-Gates for Dozens of "Paranormal" Films of theType, Like This One.

They were Produced on the Cheap.

Usually Adding a "Name" like Rod Serling, Leonard Nemoy, to Aid in the Sizzle, like This one's Shatner.

Similar in Tone, Style, and Biases, the Movies were Diverse in Category but Unrelenting in Formula.

Everything from Ancient Astronauts, UFO's, Psychic Phenomena, ESP, Noah's Ark, The Bermuda Triangle, etc., were Given a Platform.

The Counter-Culture's Use of Mind-Altering Experimentation seemed to Open a Portal that was Used Prolifically by "Enquiring Minds" in the 70's.

It Changed the Perception about Our History, Educational Orthodoxy, and just Plain Curiosity.

About What Passes as Fact and What is a "Best Guess" or simply Dodging Profound Unanswered Questions about Anomalies.

William Shatner Hosts this Particular Picture with Sincere Inquiry and Forward March to Varying Locations and "Expert Guests".

This is Tricky and here there are 2 On Screen Interviews that were Embarrassing Miss-Steps.

It can Divert Serious Inquiries with Close to "Crack-Pot" Status.

You will Know who They Are when You See Them. Jeanne Dixon.

This is Ammunition for Debunkers and Doubters, or Worse that are Always at the Ready to Hurl Ridicule.

Worth a Watch.

A documentary movie about the influence of "ancient astronauts" in mankind's history. the film is based on a book by Erich von Däniken.

[Ruzaccho · 2/10 · 23 January 2005]

"Botschaft der Götter" or, as it is written in the international version, "The Mysteries of the Gods" is a full length documentary portraying the ancient astronaut theories of Swiss-born researcher Erich von Däniken. The film is hosted and narrated by no less than William Shatner himself.

Everything from the Peruvian Crystal Skull to the megalith structures in the jungles of Southeast Asia is accepted as evidence for the Ancient Astronauts theory. Cave drawings, old legends, Biblical stories and even some psychic visions of late Jeane Dixon are understood as stone cold facts. Eric von Däniken's reputation was still quite unspoiled at the time so all the arguments (even the most far-fetched) are shown with a great confidence.

William Shatner is–as usual–overacting his part. With all the strange "scientific" people, long shots, enthusiastic Shatner and eerie 70's synthesizer music this amazing documentary was from the day one destined to become a cult classic.

More von Däniken nonsense

[InjunNose · 2/10 · 12 November 2010]

In this followup to "Chariots of the Gods", William Shatner interviews NASA scientists and charlatan mystics alike in an effort to prove that extraterrestrials visited Earth in ancient times, and will soon return. Of course, they still haven't come back, have they? Oh, well...there's always 2012! "Chariots", while ridiculous in its own right, at least boasted impressive footage of the Great Pyramid, Easter Island, and Sacsayhuaman. But aside from some interesting, all-too-brief shots of the enigmatic ruins of Nan Madol in Micronesia (Nan Madol became part of the official pantheon of ancient astronaut sites upon publication of "The Gold of the Gods", Erich von Däniken's third book, in 1973), "Mysteries of the Gods" doesn't have much to offer except unintentional humor. One could almost feel sorry for the profoundly muddled Anna Mitchell-Hedges--possessor of the Lubaantun crystal skull--during her interview with Shatner, if not for the fact that she shamelessly sought publicity for so many years but refused to submit the skull to further scientific testing after initial investigations cast doubt upon the artifact's supposed mystical origins. Director Harald Reinl saves the most hilariously awful moment for last: a solemn prediction from famed "psychic" Jeane Dixon that visitors from other worlds will soon land on Earth. At first she gives a target date of August 1977 but, when Shatner presses her on this point, Dixon grows increasingly vague...so vague that Reinl finally settles for cutting her off in mid-sentence ("I think it will be August, I could be off a little in my timing either way, but it will be--") with a dramatic echo and a freeze-frame shot. Yes, Jeane, "it will be". Avoid this dreary time-waster.

Mostly forgettable

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 4 August 2016]

"Botschaft der Götter" is a West German documentary film from 1976, so it has its 40th anniversary this year. It was made by Manfred Barthel, Charles Romine and Harald Reinl and it is based on a book by Erich von Däniken. This is not the first time Reinl adapted a work by von Däniken and for his previous project he managed to score an Academy Award nomination, his biggest success. So it should not be a surprise that he makes another movie based on the work by the Swiss author. The success of the last probably also let actor William Shatner agree to star in here as the narrator and also interviewer on some occasions. or maybe it was just that Shatner was obviously the right man due to his "Star Trek" past when it comes to narrating a film that has a lot to do with astronauts, aliens and extraterrestrial life.

I personally really like Shatner, but still I must say that this documentary brought really nothing to the table that we have not seen already in so so many other documentaries and I also felt the interviewees were a bit strange and sometimes had no justification to appear in this little movie. I must say I am glad this was a fairly short film as it only runs for slightly over 80 minutes. It is only worth seeing if you have a very strong interest in the subject, but not to get you interested plus von Däniken's work of course always has to be seen critically as scientific research often works against him. I give "Mysteries of the Gods" a thumbs-down. Not recommended.