Reagan wasn't joking, and Spielberg knows it

By Robbie Graham

In an interview with Ain't It Cool News writer Eric Vespe (better known online as 'Quint') published June 6th, Steven Spielberg confirms that, following a White House screening of E.T: The Extraterrestrial in 1982, President Ronald Reagan did indeed make remarks to the effect that the premise of Spielberg's movie - extraterrestrial visitation - was fact, not fiction.

This is something of a bombshell. Rumours have persisted for years about just what - if anything - Reagan told Spielberg during the 1982 White House E.T. screening, but not until now has the director spoken about it on the record. Spielberg's version of events, however, differs slightly from the version that has entered UFO-lore.

According to Spielberg, Reagan did not address his remarks to him personally, but rather - and more remarkably - to all guests in the room collectively (some of whom were astronauts). Here is what happened in Spielberg's own words:

"It was in the White House screening room and Reagan got up to thank me for bringing the film to show the President, the First Lady and all of their guests, which included Sandra Day O’Connor in her first week of as a Justice of the Supreme Court, and it included some astronauts… I think Neil Armstrong was there, I’m not 100% certain, but it was an amazing, amazing evening.

He just stood up and he looked around the room, almost like he was doing a headcount, and he said, 'I wanted to thank you for bringing E.T. to the White House. We really enjoyed your movie,' and then he looked around the room and said, 'And there are a number of people in this room who know that everything on that screen is absolutely true.'

And he said it without smiling! But he said that and everybody laughed, by the way. The whole room laughed because he presented it like a joke, but he wasn’t smiling as he said it."

The Reagans with Spielberg before the 1982 White House screening of E.T: The Extraterrestrial.

Asked by his interviewer if he thought Reagan "let something slip" that evening, Spielberg replied:

"I don’t think he let something slip there, no. I think he delivered a joke without smiling, without a little bit of a twinkle behind the joke. I think the joke landed because everybody laughed, but because I’m a little bit of a Ufologist I was hoping that there was something more to the joke than met my eye. I’m sorry to say I think he was simply trying to tell a joke."

Sorry, Steven, I'm not buying it. Anyone who is even vaguely familiar with the subject of UFOs and the Presidency will know as a well documented fact that Ronald Reagan was extremely interested - obsessed, even - with the idea of alien visitation and that this interest extended to a 'belief' (if that is right word) in UFOs (Reagan even had two UFO sightings of his own whilst Governor of California). The notion of alien visitation so preoccupied the President that it entered his policy speeches on a number of occasions, most famously at the 42nd General Assembly of the United Nations on 21 September, 1987:

Even if Spielberg had not been aware of Reagan's interest in UFOs back in 1982, the self-proclaimed "ufologist" would most certainly be aware of it today and could be confident in hindsight that Reagan's comments were not meant in jest.

Of course Reagan's guests laughed at his remark - how else would they have reacted? With a collective gasp of shock followed by a flurry of pressing questions? And surely Reagan knew they'd laugh, which is probably why he felt comfortable saying it in the first place. But Steven - Mr. Spielberg - when a President who believes in aliens tells you that aliens are real, when he says it "without smiling, without a little bit of a twinkle," and when it seems in no way at all like a joke but for the obligatory laughter that follows, it's safe to assume he's not kidding around.

President Obama with Spielberg and Tom Hanks in the White House screening room in 2010.

I don't doubt that Spielberg is telling it as it happened, but I am indeed suggesting that he is being less than truthful in regard to his own personal interpretation of Reagan's comments. But if Spielberg believes - or even knows - that Reagan wasn't joking, why not just say so? Well, because Spielberg is quite a friend to the White House, and has been for decades. He routinely rubs shoulders with the Washington power elite. He's a former Bilderberg attendee. He's a billionaire. He's hugely influential. What he says matters; it rings out. He's smart, and, most importantly in the eyes of his friends in Washington, he's discreet. If Spielberg were not discreet, those regular invites from the White House would long ago have ceased to grace his mailbox.

When you're in Spielberg's privileged position, you don't ruffle Presidential feathers, no matter how old those feathers may be.

Bill Clinton presents Spielberg with The
Liberty Medal, Oct. 2009.

For further information on the Reagan/Spielberg story, as well as on Spielberg and UFOs more generally, see:

http://www.openminds.tv/spielberg-confirms-reagan-705/

http://www.presidentialufo.com/steven-spielberg/344-spielbergs-saucer-secrets

http://www.presidentialufo.com/ronald-reagan/99-reagan-ufo-story


Copyright © 2011 Robbie Graham 

The sky is falling!

Spielberg's alien-invasion series, Falling Skies, premiers June 19 on TNT...

'Area 51' movie update

There's still no official release date for Area 51 - the low-budget, alien abduction/secret base-themed sci-fi chiller from director Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity). Indeed, it turns out that the film is still in production.

"I anticipate the movie will be mostly done in three or four months," says the film's producer, Jason Blum. "Like Paranormal Activity, we went back like fifty times for additional photography. The great thing about doing extra shooting for inexpensive movies is that the cost is low, so we screen and shoot and screen and shoot." Blum has indicated, however, that the film should hit cinemas before 2012.

For further details on this story, head on over to Empire.

Spielberg's UFO movies: from regular 8 to 'Super 8'



The proud director: Spielberg in 1964

By Robbie Graham

In anticipation of the June 10 release in America of the Spielberg-produced UFO movie Super 8 - which draws considerable inspiration from Spielberg's early work in the sci-fi and adventure genres - I thought it might be fitting to take a brief glance back to a time and place of considerable significance in the history of Hollywood's longstanding love affair with aliens; specifically, to 1964, when, at the Phoenix Little Theatre, in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona, a 17-year-old Steven Spielberg premiered his first-ever UFO movie - the 8mm Firelight. 

The film cost Spielberg $500 to produce and, having managed to sell an impressive 500 tickets for the premiere at $1 each, it was his first commercial success (it made a profit of $1 dollar: "I think somebody probably paid two dollars," Spielberg later surmised).

Since Firelight, Spielberg has helped to push the idea of alien visitation into the heart of popular culture like no other filmmaker with movies such as (as director): Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET: The Extraterrestrial, War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, (and as producer) Batteries Not Included, the Men in Black franchise and the Transformers franchise; and with TV series such as Taken.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

ET: The Extraterrestrial (1982)

War of the Worlds (2005)

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

   

This summer, audiences will receive a triple dose of Spielberg's aliens on both the big screen and small with movies Super 8 and Cowboys and Aliens and the TV series Falling Skies.

For a more in-depth look at Spielberg's historical fascination with the UFO phenomenon, as well as details of his intriguing political connections, check out Spielberg's Saucer Secrets.

And so here's to Spielberg's aliens - the good, the bad and the ugly - and to hoping that his extraterrestrial offerings this summer don't disappoint!

Copyright © 2011 Robbie Graham

Underbelly presents its list of THE WORST SUPERHEROES!

Youtube is full of new and exciting (and entertaining) content these days, and one of the several web-shows I follow is UNDERBELLY. They cover everything in pop culture, from movies, to comic books, to video games, and they do it with their tongues firmly in cheek. Their latest video picks out numerous comic book heroes that are for the most part, just plain stupid.

There's MATTER-EATING LAD (he can eat through anything), EXTRANO (gay Mexican magician who battles THE HEMO-GOBLIN, a vampire that spreads A.I.D.S. to minorities), SQUIRREL GIRL, and several other bargain basement/bad idea superheroes. (Although, I have to admit that MAN-THING does not belong on the list. Although his name is highly suggestive and he's been eclipsed by DC's Swamp Thing, he has been getting plenty of action lately in Marvel's THUNDERBOLTS series.)

Without further ado, here is the latest Underbelly episode that is kicking off their month-long celebration of superheroes:

If you liked what you saw, then subscribe to Underbelly on Youtube, "like" Underbelly on Facebook, follow their Twitter feed, and don't forget to swing by their IMDB page too!

TCM delivers some classic monster goodness in June + new podcast for all you cult movie fans to listen to!

Egads! It's been a long time since I last posted on this here blog, and it has been almost as long since I've written a review or article. (Speaking of which, CLICK HERE to read the last article I posted: Indie Films You Should Be Stoked For: Vol. II!) Rather than go into why I've been "slacking," let us pretend that I was cryogenically frozen for a month and have only now thawed out because someone accidentally unplugged the freezer I was trapped in.

Anyway, while I recover from my severe case of freezer-burn, and prepare to write up some new content to celebrate the Vault's ELEVENTH YEAR ONLINE (as of June 6th!), here's some interesting stuff to distract you:

First off, TCM announced last week, with a really cool trailer I might add (scroll down to watch), that they are celebrating June by having "DRIVE-IN DOUBLE FEATURE NIGHTS" every Thursday of this month. They have thirty films queued up for fans of classic monster cinema, and have already gotten things underway with a delightful combo of Godzilla and dinosaur films. I actually sat down and watched "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" and "Rodan" with my dad earlier tonight and.... it was really cool.

In all the years I've known him, we've spent very little time watching movies together. (He kind of looks down upon my obsession with cinema, especially "those weird movies" I have, if only because he doesn't understand it.) But tonight, we sat there and quietly watched (and occasionally laughed at) two classic kaiju films in the living room, and dare I say.... my old man enjoyed them. (To paraphrase Indiana Dundee himself: "Rodan was ok.... but Godzilla was much better.") Excuse me, while I mark this day down on my calendar and send a thank you letter to the staff of TCM.

If you missed tonight's impressive lineup, have no fear because there's plenty more monster movies on the way over the next four Thursday nights in June. For the full lineup of movies being featured this month, CLICK HERE!




The next item of interest on my list is a fairly new podcast by the CULT MOVIE CABAL. These guys choose two or three cult/b-flicks, watch them, then record their thoughts on the wonders (or horrors) that they have seen. I've listened to several and I'm enjoying their podcast so far, so be sure to check 'em out and subscribe! In fact, check out their latest podcast now and see if the Cult Movie Cabal is right for you.

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Well, I'm going to head off for a bit and do some writing and website tinkering. Since Monday marks the Vault's 11th year online, I'll most definitely be trying my best to add a good chunk of new content to the site. So keep your eyes peeled for new stuff, and enjoy the month of June, because Summer is about to begin, there's gonna be cool movies out in theaters, and plenty of awesome stuff to watch on TV! Blog ya later b-movie fans!

U.S. Air Force monitored 1956 UFO docudrama

In my co-authored article A History of Government Management of UFO Perceptions through Film and Television - which appears in the Spring 2011 issue of the peer-reviewed North American Studies journal 49th Parallel - I mention an intriguing case from the mid-1950s in which the U.S. Air Force (USAF) saw fit to closely monitor the production process and audience reception of a major UFO-themed docudrama entitled UFO: The True Story of Flying Saucers (1956).

The USAF believed that the docudrama would stir up a “storm of public controversy” and had prepared a special case file that, if required, would  have served to debunk every last one of the real-life UFO sightings dramatised during the film's 90-minute running time. As it turned out, however, the USAF had little to worry about: upon its release, the film did not generate mass-saucer-hysteria, only respectable box-office returns. 

You can watch UFO: The True Story of Flying Saucers, in full, right here:

For further information about UFO: The True Story of Flying Saucers, check out researcher Robert Barrow's excellent blog, which is solely dedicated to the film and features a huge amount fascinating historical material associated with its production and reception, including articles, original newspaper clippings, photographs, interviews and much more - essentially everything you could ever hope to know about the film.