On the occasion of the theatrical release of Steven Spielberg’s latest film, “Disclosure Day”, on June 10, and while speculation on the existence of UFOs intrigues the current head of the American government, a look back at eight decades of representations of the mysterious “flying saucers” on the screen. Or, how Hollywood transformed UFOs into a modern myth.
Even if there are precedents, such as Orson Welles’ radio broadcast around War of the Worlds in 1938 (science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells, published in 1898), fears and fantasies linked to UFOs really appeared in 1947.
In June, Kenneth Arnold, amateur aviator, was the first to observe what the press quickly called “flying saucers” (flying saucers). On July 8, the army announced that a flying saucer had crashed near Roswell, New Mexico, before retracting, thus creating the first suspicions of a state lie.
The US Air Force prefers to call these devices “UFO” (Unidentified Flying Objectsthat is to say UFO, unidentified flying objects, in French) to give them a more neutral and serious connotation.
But Hollywood decided otherwise: in 1956 the film was released Flying saucers attackamong many other alien invasion tales (including an early cinema version of War of the Worlds in 1953). Even the abductions by aliens, which soon multiplied, seem to draw on the Hollywood imagination: the story of the experiments on Betty and Barney Hill, kidnapped by aliens, is very reminiscent of episodes ofAu-delí du réelbroadcast a few weeks earlier in 1964. The spiritual and the religious are never far away: in the Red Planet (1952), God himself manifests from the planet Mars, leading to the destruction of communism and the advent of Christianity everywhere on Earth.
The technological marvel
The 1950s thus gave rise to the first UFO religions. They often see UFOs as messengers who come to warn humanity of nuclear danger, perhaps drawing inspiration from the film The day oÃ1 the Earth will end (1951). According to these beliefs, the messengers come to save a handful of the chosen ones from the coming atomic Apocalypse, or encourage humanity on the path to spiritual renewal. The Seekerscreated in 1953, think that they are going to be taken by Jesus in a UFO on the eve of the end of the world, December 21, 1954.
The failure of their prophecy will be the subject of the first university study of the phenomenon, When Prophecy Failsin 1956. Two years later, the psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung published a work devoted to UFOs, which he described as a “modern myth” and a spiritual revolution as important as the advent of Christianity in its time.
Lorsque Steven Spielberg réalise Close Encounters of the Third Kindwhich came out in 1977, it is therefore based on what has become over the years a true mythology, essentially American but now globalized. The phenomenon already fascinated the young Spielberg, who collected articles about them and made an amateur feature film at the age of 17, Firelightwhich offers almost the same story. The big difference is that Meetings above all highlights the so-called New Age sensitivity, by offering benevolent aliens who bring transcendental light from the stars.
When it was released, the film, clearly influenced by 2001 : L’Odyssée de l’espaceis called “an event in the history of the faith” and “the pinnacle of New Age mysticism.” For Jean Renoir, who wrote to François Truffaut (who played a small role), Close Encounters of the Third Kind is the work of a “poet” worthy of Méliès, a palace in the literal sense of the term, that is to say touched by the fairies. Spielberg clearly felt the marvelous or magical character of extraterrestrial mythology.
Here Spielberg films the blissful wonder of the witnesses to the first contact through long reaction shots, a technique he likes. The gaze of the adults is implicitly assimilated to that of the child, who is also the same size as the aliens. The character played by Truffaut and the other adults find their childish soul, a great theme of Spielberg.
The truth is elsewhere
The phenomenon experienced renewed interest in the 1990s, after pseudo-revelations of a supposed plot aimed not only at hiding the existence of aliens, but also at helping them colonize the planet. The Cold War may be over, but the conspiracy theories are only just beginning, with globalists and the deep state now replacing the communists.
This is the time when Area 51 in Nevada joins extraterrestrial mythology, and when works like X-Files or Independence Day bring the figure of the threatening extraterrestrial up to date. X-Filesin particular, links UFOs to a supposed shadow government and to theories around vaccinations and terrorists manipulated by the deep state, helping to familiarize the general public with conspiracy theories.
The advent of the third millennium is also no stranger to the phenomenon: in March 1997, 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate ufological sect, created in the 1970s, committed suicide. They thus hope to escape the coming end of the world by transporting their souls aboard a spaceship where they would find Jesus himself.
As early as 1982, Hollywood was inspired by their story in the television film the Sect of the Futurealso inspired by Close Encounters of the Third Kind and which made their leaders aliens. Even Spielberg offers a much darker version of the alien than before with War of the Worlds in 2005, a film clearly marked by the events of September 11. The alien once again serves as a metaphor or an outlet, always to express contemporary fears. In the remake of Jour oÃ1 the earth s’arrÃata (2008), the alien that emerges from its flying saucer is now concerned about environmental degradation.
X-Files parody here at once an episode of the Fourth dimension (Comment servir l’homme), The day oÃ1 the earth will s’arrÃata and Trump himself: the alien, who announces the construction of a wall to isolate the Earth from the rest of the galaxy, repeats almost word for word the future president’s famous speech on Mexican immigrants. Ironically, the alien Trump accuses human beings of being complete liars.
Trump facing UFOs
The phenomenon has come back into fashion since the revelations of New York Times on the existence of a secret program led by the Pentagon to investigate UFOs. Whistleblower testimonies before the United States Congress, along with new videos recorded by the military, lend new credibility to what the Pentagon now calls Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP, or unidentified aerospace phenomena) in order to move away – once again – from the often ridiculous image associated with UFOs.
Since 1977, France has had its own investigative body, GEIPAN, which inspired the excellent series ram(s)much less tempted by the mythologization of reality than Hollywood works.
Finally, since the election of Donald Trump, many conspiracy theorists have dreamed of “Disclosure Day”, the day when the government will finally reveal the existence of aliens. This is what it’s about The Age of Disclosurerecent documentary on the subject. This is what Spielberg’s new film is also about, Disclosure Daywhich returns to the Roswell incident and the technologies which would have been recovered there, and which certain theories see as the hidden continuation of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
The Vice-President of the United States, J.D. Vance, an enthusiastic Christian, recently confided to being “obsessed” with UFOs and convinced that aliens are in reality “demons”. According to the tabloid Daily StarTrump, who promised to shed light on the issue, is even preparing to make the long-awaited revelation during the opening ceremony of the Football World Cup, this June 11, 2026. That is to say seventy-nine years to the day after the Air Force announced the crash of a flying saucer in Roswell. And a month after the release of Spielberg’s film. As always when it comes to UFOs, Hollywood is never far away.
Mehdi Achouche, Lecturer in English-speaking cinema and American studies, Sorbonne Paris Nord University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
