5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A treasure trove of 70's spiritual counterculture with amazing archival footage, February 2, 2008
This review is from: Aliens From Spaceship Earth (2006) (DVD)
**NOTE: Ignore the packaging on this film. It was made in the mid-seventies and has a great mid-seventies aesthetic and vibe that looks and feels nothing like this current packaging.
"Aliens" is a wild, deeply moving insider's view into the guru/yogi/cult/consciousness/alt. spirituality explosion of the 60s and 70s. With incredible archival footage and narrated Donovan (!!!), who also provides the film's soundtrack, this forgotten jewel of a film has original footage of the most controversial and popular spiritual leaders of the time and their followers, including Sai Baba, Yogi Bhahan, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Guru Maharaj Ji, Sri Sathya, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Ram Dass and Father Yod (and the Source Family at morning meditation!!). This includes jaw-dropping footage of thousands of white, middle class young people walking across coals, recounting their kidnapping by "deprogrammers", chanting with shaved heads or long, long hair, and devoting themselves unconditionally, and with a deep satisfaction, to God Consciousness via their "alien" spiritual leaders.
The film also features Cybil Shepard, Martin Landau, Chicago 7 activist-turned-mystic Rennie Davis, actors Leigh Taylor Young, Linda Day George, and Raymond Bur getting starry-eyed about their gurus and God consciousness. Wowza!
This is one of the only films of the era I've seen that intelligently and provocatively counteracts the schlock and mass media sensationalism that basically demonized a generation of seekers in the 70s.
The film is at turns riveting, hilarious, mind blowing, and deeply moving. With its sympathetic viewpoint, "Aliens" stands, thirty years after it was made, as one of the most authentic documents of the era, and provides insight into a powerful movement of the 70s that is still widely misunderstood or even forgotten to this day--especially by current and recent "countercultures".
Jodi Wille
PROCESS Media
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11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Like, wow, man!, January 15, 2001
By A Customer
A must see for all ageing hippies who ran the spiritual gauntlet of messianic wannabes. So who was YOUR guru? Pick your way through a dozen or so rare film clips of your favorite Avatars, from the pre-pubescent rotundness of Guru Maharaj Ji to the slightly disturbing babbling-in-tongues of Elizabeth Clair Prophet.
So where are they now? Well most have either passed on to a "higher plane" or have taken the hint, and the money, and quietly disappeared. Notable exception to this would be the Divine Light Mission problem-child Guru Maharaj Ji. Having recently dropped the "guru" and condensed the rest into a more economical "Maharaji", he is still going strong reaping in fresh devotees and dollars with respectibly renamed Elan Vital as his non-profit vehicle.
Pixie-faced Donovan loosely strings together all these quaintly bizarre pearls of spiritual wisdom with the help of DLM devotee Rennie Davis, the resulting mish-mash begging the question "What is it all About?".
Thirty years on most of us have managed to answer that question in regard to these Eastern Mystics - it's about the MONEY!
But do buy this video, smoke 'em if you've got 'em, and enjoy a quiet chuckle to yourself revisiting those heady, foolish years of our youth.
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