UFO's Are Real (1979) User Reviews

Much Better Than It Deserved To Be

[BuddyBoy1961 · 7/10 · 31 May 2005]

Though the production budget looks extremely limited, and the narration is a bit ripe, this still manages to be an interesting and informative (and even a bit creepy) documentary on the UFO phenomenon up to the late seventies. In other words, it succeeds despite itself. It does suffer from a bit too much pomposity now and then (note the frequent questioning by the narrator: "Could this be proof of...", "Is this evidence of...", and so on). But it does have in its favor a significant amount of UFO still and movie footage, not to mention in-depth interviews with Betty Hill, Travis Walton and several people involved with the Roswell incident. Highly recommended as a primer for those just starting out in their search to find "what's out there".

NOTE: The link to Amazon is misleading. While an interesting and more up-to-date report on the UFO phenomenon (and also featuring Dr. Stanton Friedman), the "Flying Saucers Are Real" DVD/VHS contains only a few minutes of footage from "UFOs Are Real". The "UFOs Are Real" VHS is likely long out-of-print since it was first released in the 80s, but you're still better off trying to find an old copy if you can.

Excellent Work!

[jhjenntex · 10/10 · 16 June 2005]

Frankly, I was surprised to find such extremely LIMITED commentary on this film! I'd RATHER have extensive ADVERSE judgements, rather than such a big SNORE! I guess that this film is basically, "pre-Internet", hence, lacks the "big review" number of responses! Based upon my "to date" research, I have garnered a lot of respect for Stanton Friedman, and know he DESERVES a much larger VOTE, regardless of whether UP or DOWN.

As far as I can tell, this is something of a "masterwork" for Friedman, and, within the limitations of the UFO format, a brilliant execution! Interest in UFO's seems to come and go in "waves".

Hence, two things I know for sure. First, we seem to be at the bottom of the current cycle, in terms of interest by the American public.

Two, it will take only a a "slight nudge", to rocket this topic back to, "the top of the charts."

UFOs Are Still Real.......

[bayardhiler · 9/10 · 22 October 2013]

And still creeping people out today. 1979's "UFOs Are Real" is one of those grainy but still spooky paranormal documentaries that everyone seemed to be making in the 70's. Featuring top Ufologist Stanton Friedman, "UFOs" shows some of the best UFO photos and films as well as written accounts from such distant times like ancient Rome that may very well have been UFO sightings. But it also features people who have seen fantastic things that cannot be explained only to be discarded and laughed at in most cases. This factor, more than anything else, is what gives the show its power. From pilots who have encountered UFOs to people who claimed to be abducted, this documentary has it all. Listen as Betty Hill tells her tale of her and her husband, Barney, being abducted from a lonely New England road and taken onto a craft manned by beings not of this world. Their tale never fails to send shivers down my spine every time I hear it. Adding to the creepiness of it all is the chilling music score used throughout the film. As I said earlier, the film quality may be grainy but the message is no less important today than it was then. After all, even though it has been over thirty years since this was made, the truth about UFOs is still out there and just as far from our grasp as it has ever been. So, if the subject of UFOs and anything strange interests you in the least, I urge you to look up "UFOs Are Real" on you tube-since this is the only way one can view it-and be sure to type UFOs are real since the cover shown on IMDb is of a different documentary. And as I always like to say when writing on such productions, keep watching the skies!

Great Video with PROOF of UFO's

[MovieHistorian · 10/10 · 24 December 2005]

Everything in this documentary is GREAT with PROOF of UFO existence.Everything except the Billy Maier baloney that is.I wish that mess was not in this documentary,but 9 out of 10 is not bad.Plenty of hard evidence here.President Jimmy Carter,J.Edgar Hoover,Military Officials,and many other CREDIBLE witnesses are featured in this show.I mean Betty Hill describing Amniocentesis BEFORE it was INVENTED says VOLUMES.As does a handwritten memo from J.Edgar Hoover,attesting to the existence of UFO's.There are soil tests that are DEMONSTRATED,and also many,many legit photo's of UFO's(don't count the Billy Maier crap near the end of the movie,lol).Everything in this is intelligently written and presented.99% of the evidence presented here stands up today still(Again the Maier stuff is a joke,but not the main item here,thank God).This and a few of the recent UFO's documentaries with Bryant Gumble is very well done also.I want to get those as Gumble shows the military's outright LIES explaining people seeing BODIES after the Roswell crash.The Military explains them as "Crash Test Dummies".Then Gumble points out the dummies were NOT used until 7 YEARS AFTER ROSWELL.Get your cover ups STRAIGHT Military!

Creepy

[gobruen · 29 March 2004]

This movie scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. I remember watching it alone on TV and not being able to sleep afterward. It seems like a silly, campy movie now but it is still entertaining. The grainy documentary style makes it even creepier. That alien-autopsy video has nothing on this. Another good one is "Sasquatch, the Legend of Bigfoot", along with the old "In Search of..." episodes. Many of these movies that used "real" events were much scarier than scripted horror movies. Not scary, but a good creepy 70's documentary is "F is for Fake" by Orson Welles. I think Oliver Stone borrowed heavily from these styles to make JFK. These tapes may be hard to find at your video store.

Best of the UFO documentaries from the 1970's and 80's

[dbborroughs · 9/10 · 2 October 2009]

This is the best of the many UFO documentaries that cropped up during the 1970's and 80's, before Discovery Channel and home video made it so much easier to get footage of the strange things that maybe flying over head.

Rational and reasoned this film puts out the footage and the photographs with as much information as was known at the time and lets you decide what is what. There is no real hyperbole, just "the facts" as they seemed to known at the time. Actually its more controlled and rational than some of the Discovery Channel shows like UFO Hunters which is good TV but probably not good science.

I really like this film a great deal. Its a shame that it seems to have gone out of print and is only available from sources that charge an arm and a leg for it. I'm reduced to watching my well worn VHS copy every now and again when the TV nonsense gets to be too much and I want to see a film on the subject thats rational and well thought out (something even many of the films from the period are not) This is a must see for anyone interested in the subject. Its one of, if not the best film on the subject. Its rational and reasoned and nowhere as over the top and silly like we've come to expect.

Bluevelvet-2

[kryptic-31985 · 10/10 · 18 April 2021]

This is just a correction of a previous comment. I agree with the information in the review but the final sentence has an error. His name is Bob Lazar not Paul Lazar.

The truth IS out their.

[bluevelvet-2 · 10/10 · 19 February 2002]

I've owned this video many years. I have conversed personally with Stanton on a few occasions. I've conversed with people who new Jessie personally and i've conducted my own research in Roswell. I've been to the proposed crash site in Roswell. I find this documentary to be absolutely truthful and without error. Mind you, I was a total skeptic prior to my investigation but after it was completed, well, I will go to my grave a believer. We are NOT alone in this vast universe. If you know who Paul Lazar is, he too speaks the truth. ( S-4 A51).

It's okay bein' grey, M'kay!!!!!!

[Weirdling_Wolf · 9/10 · 26 December 2021]

Sensational sky watcher Edward Hunt's lazer-bright, cigar-shaped documentary 'UFOs Are Real' (1979) is still keepin' it real, man! I happily remain an unapologetically obsessive, astronomically objective fan of Extraterrestrial truth-seeking titillation, dude! Come on, who can't dig on a terrestrially grainy, terrifically zany vintage UFO docco every now and again! I still got a lotta spare inner Space for outrageously out-there outta space ruminations, dude!!! I galactically groove on this frequently far-out, cosmically crucial, wormhole wicked, closely encountered, fabulously factoid-engorged 'look-to-the-skies' phantasmagoria!! Right on! And I can righteously testify to it being a Universally Funky Offering, dude! Praise be to wunderkind Von Daniken! Hey!!!!! The Buck Rodgers stops here, man!!...as I believe in space Jebus, baby! It's okay bein' grey, M'kay!!!!!!

Not flawless

[artemsp · 9/10 · 13 June 2009]

I gave it a 9 as I'm a believer and was very pleased to find something close to the topic. A no skeptic person will certainly find it amazing and a little creepy, especially if you watch it at night, alone.

However.

Don't know about 1979, but these days it is about to convince mostly those eager to believe whatever they see. I wish it had more solid facts, expertise and analysis -- less talking and those stupid alien wax figures! My girlfriend who has a MS degree in physics just nothing but laughed during the most "ingenious" episodes.

Anyway, for those who are interested, it's a must watch.