Product Details

• Actors: Hosted by: Jonathan Frakes, Hosted by: Bryant Gumbel
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Medialink Ent Llc
• DVD Release Date: July 17, 2007
• Run Time: 180 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000PHW2RW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,460 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

ROSWELL:SPECIAL 60TH ANNIVERSARY EDIT - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential purchase for those with an interest in the Roswell story, August 10, 2009

By 

Philip A. Carter "PeeCee" (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Roswell: Operation UFO (60th Anniversary Edition) (DVD)

This double DVD set consists of two seperately produced documentaries which together form an exceptional package that I consider an essential purchase for anyone with more than a cursory interest in the Roswell story.

Disc 1 of 2 - Roswell : Cover-ups and close encounters (1997)
Produced and Directed by Don Goldman
Hosted by Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek: The Next Generation 1987-1994)
Duration: Approximately 1 hour 31 minutes

Summary : What crashed in Roswell in 1947 - Extra-terrestrial Craft or some type of Balloon?

This program, produced in 1997, is a thorough summary of the events that took place in Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947 and the political and social backdrop at that time.

It is suitable viewing for those interested in the Roswell event, and for those with an interest in UFO's in general. If you don't believe the Roswell event was the crash of an extra-terrestrial craft, but rather a classified US Air Force Project or something similar, you may find this program of some interest as well.

The program begins with a little background information on Roswell. It is a city in New Mexico that was founded in the 1860's, and was home to the 509th bomber group which at one time (including in 1947) was the only bomber group associated with nuclear weapons deployment. The Roswell Army Base at which the bombers were assigned was closed in the 1960's.

An event occured in Roswell in 1947 which some believe was the crash of an extra-terrestrial craft or UFO, whilst others say it was simply a classified experiment gone wrong. Either way, Roswell has gained a notoriety and is now a name known world-wide.

1947 was just after the end of World War 2 and the cold war with the Soviet Union had just begun. The documentary notes that there was a pervasive feeling of paranoia within society. New Mexico was a hot-bed of secrecy and had nuclear capabilities. Then this:

June 1947
There is a wave of sightings of unidentified craft in the skies over the United States. Kenneth Arnold, pilot, sees 9 unknown objects flying in formation at high speed near Mt. Rainier in Washington. The term "flying saucers" is coined after he described them as looking like "saucers skipping over a pond".

Friday 4 July 1947
There are violent thunderstorms over Roswell, New Mexico. A rancher, Mac Brazel, is awoken that night by an ear-splitting explosion.

Saturday 5 July 1947
Mac Brazel, whilst out riding on the ranch to investigate the noise he heard last night, discovers a large quantity of "light weight metallic debris" scattered over an area "3 quarters of a mile long and several hunded feet wide".

Sunday 6 July 1947
Brazel rides 75 miles into Roswell and reports his find to Chavez County Sheriff George A. Wilcox who in turn, upon witnessing the debris field himself, decides to notify military authorities at Roswell Army Air Field. In the meantime, Wilcox speaks to Frank Joyce, an announcer for local radio station KGFL in Roswell.

Monday 7 July 1947
Brazel escorts intelligence officer Major Jesse Marcell and Sheridon Cavitt of the counter-intelligence corp to the debris field. The two then gather and load up some debris and return to Roswell.

Tuesday 8 July 1947
Troops are deployed to begin recovery of the debris field. By now soldiers are already deployed and guarding a second area some distance away believed to have been an actual crash site. Colonel William Blanchard, commanding officer of the base, instructs Lieutenant Walter Haut to issue a press release disclosing that the army has recovered the remains of a "flying disc". That afternoon, the story hits the newswires and headlines the local paper and the phone lines are jammed.

Evening papers all over the West pick up the story. Also that afternoon, Major Marcell is sent with some debris to Fort Worth, Texas, to meet with Brigadier General Roger Ramey. At a hastily arranged press conference, Ramey announces that the identification of the recovered debris as a flying saucer has been a mistake and that it is nothing more than the remains of a downed weather balloon with an attached radar reflector.

Wednesday 9 July 1947
The Roswell Daily Record newspaper runs the revised "sanitized" version of the story.

During this program you will hear the original radio announcement detailing the Roswell incident, and see the original newspaper headlines covering the story.

The program then asks - what happened to remnants of the wreckage? Apparently, some material was flown to Fort Worth to be inspected by General Ramey. The program states it is well documented that wreckage was sent on to Wright Field which at the time was the Army's centre for top secret technological research, and was where captured German and Soviet hardware was dismantled and studied, adding there is also evidence that within hours of the initial reports a sachel of material was flown to Washington for a briefing with President Truman.

What follows is a discussion about whether the UFO story is plausible or whether the Governments official line was true - that the material recovered, whilst not a weather balloon, was in fact another type of balloon; part of Project Mogul, top secret in 1947, whose purpose it was to detect Soviet Nuclear exposions in the atmosphere.

The program contains interviews with various experts in their field and/or interested parties including:

Glenn Dennis - This former Mortician at a Roswell funeral home received a call in 1947 from an army mortuary officer wanting to know if he had any caskets 3'6" to 4 feet long that were hermetically sealed, airtight, and waterproof. The army man explained they wanted to see how well prepared the funeral home was in case of an epidemic breaking out amongst the army base's children!

Bill McDonald - Forensic Sketch Artist who has produced sketches of a what the alien craft may have looked like based on his interviews with witnesses.

Albert C. Trakowski (Colonel, US Army, retired) - "Why he did not know this was ordinary meterological material is simply explained by the fact that he didn't know what it was. That he had no prior experience... no knowledge of what it was so he simply could not identify it".

Dr. Jesse Marcell, Jnr. (Son of Major Jesse Marcell) - Recollections about the material he saw that his father brought home in 1947 to show him and his mother. "The material I saw did not fit the description of a weather ballon or targetting device used for radar reflection". "He used to bring some weather balloons home for me to play with. There was no balloon component to the wreckage that we saw. My father went to radar school ... he would know if it was a radar target."

Phillip Klass (Aviation Author) - "There is a cover up. After many years of investigation I am certain that there is a cover up as far as Roswell. Not by the US Air Force.... not by the US Government ...but by those people who falsely claim that the government is covering up. They are the ones withholding key information from the public."

Thomas DuBose (Brigadier General, US Air Force, retired) - Fascinating testimony filmed at the age of 89 whilst apparently under hypnosis

Walter Haut (Public Information Officer, 509th Bomb Group, retired) - "In 1947, if we were told to do something, we did it. We didn't ask why. Basically you didn't have a need to know." "If the boss man said that we had a flying saucer in our possession then we had one, and that was it. I was just told to put out a press release".

Stanton Friedman (Investigator/Author) - "There is no question whatsoever that agencies in the United States Government are withholding UFO information." "Many people think that it's easy with Freedom of Information ... this magic key that unlocks all the doors... all you gotta [do is] ask and you get anything you want. Nothing could be further from the truth. You have the right to ask, they don't have to reveal 'cos there's a page full of exclusions. And the major exclusion is national security." "None of the arguments made by a very small group of debunkers or noisy negativists as I call them... stand up under careful scrutiny. The arguments sound great until you look at the evidence and they collapse of their own weight. The evidence is overwhelming that planet earth is being visited by intelligently controlled extra-terrestrial spacecraft. In other words, some UFO's - underline some twenty times - ARE alien spacecraft. Most are not. I don't care about those".

Steven Schiff (U.S. House of Representatives 1989-1998, New Mexico) - "There seems to be no doubt that these materials, when picked up, don't seem to have been treated like they were part of a weather balloon. These materials were flown out of New Mexico under armed guard by military police. Now weather balloons are not normally shipped under armed guard."

John Pike (Space Policy Director, Federation of American Scientists) - "There are a lot of reasons the government might want to cover up the fact that it was in contact with an extra-terrestrial civilization. It could destabilize our society and political system, call into question religious or economic beliefs, and it could get a lot of other governments on this planet very nervous about what sort of advantage we were getting from our contact with the aliens."

Lee Shargel (Metal Scientist/Author) - "Suppose there was something contained within that craft, some alien technology that could be used, either for or against us, but its effect could change the course of history. Withholding it would prevent that change from occuring at that time. Maybe some... Read more ›

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining And Informative, July 5, 2011

By 

Jeremy - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Roswell: Operation UFO (60th Anniversary Edition) (DVD)

Two DVDs or two different Roswell television specials, one hosted by Jonathan Frakes, the other by Briant Gumbel. The Gumbel one had some stuff I'd never seen before. Both are enjoyable. Recommend.