Mirage Men (2013) User Reviews

Geeky Randy's summary

[Geeky Randy · 7/10 · 18 September 2014]

Unlikely UFO documentary that examines the possibility of cover-up theories being encouraged by the government in order to distract the public from observing sophisticated warfare technology, with some interviewees even claiming the government created alien/UFO hoaxes to help drive attention away from their operation. An overall spooky outing that is delivered professionally enough to make the intriguing concept seem plausible; however, pacing is a bit bumpy and some of the interviewees seem a little too tense, pulling the viewer away from the film's main focus.

*** (out of four)

The lesson is clear as day.

[smokeysmokeysmokey · 5/10 · 1 December 2021]

Never trust anyone working for government and be wary of others who tell of the fantastical. Trust instead if you can independent witnesses with nothing to gain. Level-headed people with one sighting, maybe two. Most of all trust your intuition.

In this documentary we learn among other things Doty made sure we understood he was "doing his job". We also learn you cannot trust a thing that comes out of his mouth. Not then... and certainly not now.

He was basically a manipulative lying heartless man working for a soulless machine that feeds on being in control of others: you see it in his empty eyes. On behalf of powerful interests this man destroyed people's lives. A confidence trickster; liar; charlatan; snake. You'd be naive to believe he's not still playing this role. Now he attends UFO conferences "as a citizen". Hilarious! Avoid him and don't talk to him no matter what. Retire Doty... give up the ghost and go away. Your game has past its sell-by-date. Pack up your racket and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

I don't love this film, but some of the editing was quite good. Mainly the subject matter would leave a bad taste in your mouth. Not that you wouldn't know government was capable of this stuff. Just when you see it up close it's more repulsive, inhuman and harder to stomach.

Some others in this field to steer clear of: Steven Greer and Timothy Good. The tea test-if you wouldn't trust them to make you tea then don't trust what they say. In fact, not only don't trust what they say, don't waste any of your valuable time on them.

Some you can trust: UFO documentary filmmaker James Fox and ufologist Richard Dolan. Not to imply they are defacto always right. They are after all human. They seem trustworthy as people, is the point. Dolan has a YouTube channel which is easy enough to find.

I've seen most documentaries on this subject matter and James Fox makes the best ones. His recent documentary is The Phenomenon (2020). To be sure you have found the correct documentary you'll notice it is has a running time of 1h 40m and has James Fox listed as director on its IMDb page. Be sure to avoid the Australian TV documentary of the same name. It's another waste of time with the usual sensational editing and loud annoying music.

In summary: trust yourself.

Neither Superman nor plane but a flock of birds

[take2docs · 7/10 · 16 January 2022]

Anyone who has studied the UFO/UAP decades-long story, as well as the field of ufology itself, from a detached perspective as possible, is likely to come to the realization that, indeed, there is something 'out there' ... albeit past, beyond, and beneath all the wild goose chases and red herrings, which only serve to muddy the waters and, in the case of the late, poor Paul Bennewitz, cause some researchers/investigators to go from being caught up in a nest (a mare's) to ending up in one (a cuckoo's).

Why all the bird references? Because our story here concerns a particular 'Sparrow', nicknamed such for his being part of a COINTEL outfit dubbed 'The Aviary,' which in the early 1980s singled out an Albuquerque citizen (in Bennewitz) to be their, ahem, pigeon.

Physicist and businessmen Paul Bennewitz was clearly a man of above-average intelligence, which is what makes what became of him all the more curious; a tragedy that in some respects reminds me of the equally sad case of MK-ULTRA victim Frank Olson, only in this instance no dosing of LSD on an unsuspecting scientist was ever involved.

The intriguing MIRAGE MEN recounts the entire tragic case of Paul Bennewitz, with appearances by Greg Bishop (author of "Project Beta") and even 'Sparrow' himself (aka, Richard Doty). Linda Moulton Howe can be spotted in this as well, in one scene putting to the director the straight-out question as to what kind of documentary he's making, understandably not wanting to be set up as it were and thus made to look a fool.

One may wonder why Howe is even in this. Well, it turns out that in and around the area where Bennewitz made his home there apparently were a number of cattle mutilations that were taking place, which is why Howe and fellow 'mulologist' Gabe Valdez (a friend of Paul's) turn up here on camera.

Okay, and...? How is this in any way related? I'm not entirely sure, but if you ask me, I personally think that any leaked story which claims that ufonauts were out to cross-breed the locals with material from cattle in order to cure lactose intolerance in the region, via the creation of self-milking hybrids, a rather far-out theory and one that can be safely dismissed.

Also featured in this is one-time UFO researcher Bill Moore, including clips of the infamous speech he gave at a MUFON conference in the late '80s. You got to give this guy credit for being courageous enough to come forward about his involvement with the Aviary. Say what you will of Moore, he wasn't chicken about it.

If MIRAGE MEN does anything other than entertain, it's that it provides I think a most valuable lesson for anyone -- amateur or professional -- interested in examining the UFO phenomenon: Beware of disinfo agents, be wary of so-called insiders and supposed whistle-blowers, lest you possibly be led astray and taken in by a sophisticatedly engineered deception and wind up wrapping your car in aluminum foil, a la the paranoiac Bennewitz. (Technically speaking, Paul was no tinfoil hatter.)

As I perceive it, the Bennewitz case illustrates how easily an average citizen can become duped, by, say, a false-flag operation (a staged event), should one ever occur in the future on a worldwide scale/on society at large, under the official story of 'ET'-initiated contact. After all, it might all turn out to be a cleverly orchestrated mirage.

I'll be short.

[kensolar · 2/10 · 29 October 2020]

Let me make this short. I knew the officer in charge of security at the Roswell incident. Back in the 1970's, long before the movies, he told me he stuck half his body into a flying saucer, drew it as the one in Independence Day and saw several child sized grey aliens, dead or dying. He also claimed to have taken a piece of the wreckage and hid it in the desert. I believe every word he said, especially as all the documentaries and movies that came out 20 and more years later matched his story very closely. If what he said is true, then this Doc isn't.

Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction

[timdalton007 · 8/10 · 20 June 2014]

Truth, as the saying goes, is often stranger than fiction. When it comes to the UFO phenomenon and the topics associated associated with it, that would most certainly appear to be the case. Based on the book by Mark Pilkington, the documentary film Mirage Men certainly proves that the real world can produce tales as strange as any you are likely to encounter in a science fiction tale.

Mirage Men explores more than sixty years of government involvement in the UFO phenomenon but it doesn't so with the typical conspiratorial overtones. While it touches upon everything from rumors of secret government bases to crashed UFOs, it really looks at something just as compelling: how the phenomenon has been manipulated, especially by groups and agencies within our own government.

The main focus of the documentary is Richard Doty, a former agent of the Air Force Office Of Special Investigations (AFSOI). The documentary looks at how Doty and some of his colleagues in the 1980s were responsible for helping to foster much of what is today part of the lore that has become synonymous with UFOs. For example, it presents what one interviewee calls the "sad, strange, horrible" true story of electronics engineer and UFO researcher Paul Bennewitz who, having filmed and recorded transmissions from what he thought were UFOs, was targeted by Doty and his colleagues to the point of being driven virtually insane, having come to believe an alien invasion was imminent from underground bases in New Mexico.

The Bennewitz story is just the tip of the iceberg. The documentary explores the efforts Doty and his colleagues made around the same time with others including UFO researcher William Moore (one of the original investigators of Roswell) who made a Faustian bargain that involved him spying on others in the UFO research community in an attempt to get information out of the government and investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe who Doty handed documents claiming humans had been genetically altered by aliens. There's also an exploration of cattle mutilations with the odd origins of that sideline of the UFO story and ends by exploring the alleged human/alien exchange program Project Serpo, which appears to be just the latest addition of disinformation to UFO lore.

The question the documentary really tries to answer is a simple one: why do any of this at all? Is it just a series of cover stories to protect any number of things from the early development of stealth technology in the 1980s to drones in more recent times? Is it to cover up what the government actually knows about UFOs? Or is the truth somewhere in the middle perhaps, having been perhaps irrevocably distorted by the need for "national security"?

In the end, Mirage Men doesn't have all the answers nor claims to have them. What it does present on the other hand is a fascinating look at how the UFO phenomenon, whatever the truth behind it might be, has been manipulated and often so by the very government that claims they don't exist at all. Ultimately then, Mirage Men shows that the truth might be very well out there but it may be stranger than anything we could imagine.