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Analysis |
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Since the first alien film "A Trip to the Moon" was screened in 1902 there have been over 250 movies featuring aliens (Wiki). As a result, a wide variety of aliens have been portrayed. This includes everything from imperialist aliens such as Roland Emmerich's "Independence Day" (1996) as well as congenial beings like Steven Spielberg's "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982). Many of the movies have been predominantly for enjoyment, meant to either frighten the audience or to give a different perspective of alien encounters. However, a few movies have created a storyline predicated on circumstances that have a historical basis. No movie does this better than Olatunde Osunsanmi's "The Fourth Kind" (2009). "The Fourth Kind" transcends all former alien movies by focusing on the legitimacy of the encounter opposed to the encounter itself. The pity evoked (pathos), the logic of the movie (logos), and the credibility of the characters and action (ethos) work in unison to make the cinematic experience unlike any alien movie previously created. One unique aspect of the film that sets it apart from former movies is the real, archival footage shot by Dr. Abagail Tyler. The movie switches between the cinematic portrayal of the events and the video sessions of Tyler's patients. This helps to bolster the validity of the "actual" abduction of the movie. Another characteristic of the footage is that the names and identities of the people in the sessions are blurred out. The minute details of the archival footage give the audience a sense that the plot is real. Whether the videotaped sessions are in fact true is still up for debate. Regardless, the tapes give an added sense of truth to the movie never before used in alien science fiction.
Another feature of the movie is the interview conducted by the director of Dr. Abagail Tyler at Chapman University. The sincerity of Tyler's face during the entirety of the interview and her fluctuating emotional state expresses that she earnestly believes she and her daughter were abducted. The interview of an actual victim of the supposed abductions provides pathos to the argument. Being a learned psychiatrist and contributing member to society, Tyler is a perceived as a credible source for the truth. John Mack, a psychiatrist at Harvard University, speaks about the credibility of alien abductees. He states that there is "no gain in this for the vast majority of people" (Mack). This is especially true for Tyler. She loses her children, her respect, and the use of her body as a result of her research and abduction theories.
Another thing the movie does to transcend former abduction movies is that it uses John Mack's five concepts he believes give validity to alien abduction stories. Mack has interviewed alien "abductees" over his career and has found five things among the patients that have made him a believer. First, the stories given by the people are unbelievably similar. Second, there is nothing in their life experience that would have caused such a scenario to come to their mind. Third, they all have physical lesions on their body that they cannot account for. Fourth, the association between a UFO being "sighted" and the abductees' story of being abducted occur at similar times. Finally, the phenomenon has been known to occur to infants and toddlers (Mack). All five of these things are incorporated in the abduction theory of the movie. |
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The most impressive ploy-depending upon your interpretation of the movie as a drastic exaggeration or convincing evidence-used by Osunsanmi is the story of creation he includes by giving the aliens Sumerian voices. The Sumerian culture is considered the oldest civilization on Earth, dating back to 4000 B.C. There is an interesting creation story set forth by a 30 year Sumerian historian named Zecharia Sitchin. In his book, "The 12th Planet", he discusses the idea that an alien race living on the planet Nibiru (between Jupiter and Mars) brought man to Earth. They taught man enough to survive (hence the major advancements of the Sumerian civilization) and allowed them to live on their own, only returning every 3,000 years. The idea was brought about because of the Sumerians extensive and unprecedented knowledge of the solar system (a 12 planet solar system including the sun, the moon, and the planet Nibiru) as well as the alien figures and spaceships inscribed in rock (Sumerians). In "The Fourth Kind" the Sumerian voice refers to itself as the "God" of mankind. This is very much a reference to Sitichin's philosophy because essentially the alien race would be the gods of mankind.