Review of Circlespeak: A Journey into the Heart of Crop Circle Country

Introduction

Crop Circles. The very name evokes an image of fantastic shapes and geometric patterns such as the Julia Set that both stir excitement at their natural beauty and bewilderment at how on earth they got there.

CircleSpeak is a documentary film that follows the happenings of the 2001 Crop Circle season, which ultimately was a little disappointing to most of those involved with the study of circles. Kirk Kirkland, editor on such shows as The Osbournes and Boot Camp, has used masses of location and interview footage to put together what is surely one of the most comprehensive documentary on this phenomenon. Hollywood was to get in on the act as well, albeit late and only briefly with M. Night Shyamalan`s Signs. The focus of that film was purely extra-terrestrial though, which provided a narrative focus but failed to examine the questions that researchers have been asking for at least 25 years.

This documentary follows a few of the groups that are caught up in this whole phenomenon:

Circle Chasers - a dedicated group of people who are up at the crack of dawn and respond to the first hint of a crop circle appearing somewhere in Wiltshire or Hampshire, which surprisingly is the world epicentre of the whole crop circle thing. This group zooms to the identified site and documents the circle as soon as they can after it has been made. The film it, photograph it, measure it and draw it so that as much data is recorded before some pesky farmer comes along with his combine to destroy it, the philistines…

The Researchers - as the name implies, this group study the crop circles and ponder upon the mysteries that spring to mind, such as `where do they come from?` and `how are they made?`. This group don`t appear to have any academic qualifications in their field per se, more a collection of people who have been affected by crop circles in some way and have made it their life mission to study markings that they believe, in general, are produced by a higher intelligence than the human race.

The Circlemakers - mortal enemies of The Researchers, this group make crop circles. The motivations for these groups differs, more of which later, but the first documented Circlemakers were Doug & Dave, a pair of lovable rascals from the Shires who first broke ranks with other Circlemakers to admit they were man-made and thus incur the wrath of Researchers everywhere.

Video

The picture is very good, some care and attention has been given to the filming of this documentary. Even the inside shots are of excellent quality and not the graininess those seen in other documentaries. Only letdown in picture is during the night shots and also the footage that shows mysterious lights zipping across a field. But hey, isn`t that always the way when you`re trying to prove extra-terrestrial involvement? Maybe one day a UFO will appear in the same place as a professional film crew and we`ll get top quality footage that will stand up to both scrutiny and a zoom feature. Not today, though. Some of the overhead shots of the circles themselves are particularly impressive, as you might expect.

Audio

Sound is of reasonable quality, although the choice of music and narrator is clearly down to the budget for this film. To be fair, the narrator (Diane Kirkland, presumably wife of the writer/editor/director) does a quite good and effective job of holding it together, but she isn`t a professional in this field at all. The script doesn`t always help her and a more suitable act-or may have added gravitas to the whole proceedings.

Features

Deleted Scenes - 45 minutes of either deleted or extended scenes.

Interviews - nearly an hour of extended interviews with some of the main participants.

Conclusion

This film isn`t really about crop circles themselves. There is obviously a lot of talk about the circles, but while they are at the core of the documentary, it`s about something on a more fundamental level. People.

CircleSpeak contains masses of documentary evidence that people with an interest in a particular subject will generally have made their own conclusions as to what is the truth and what is not, and then fall into camps that agree with their opinions. This is so clear here, and it`s also quite sad, as Colin Andrews, a once-respected Researcher, found himself cast aside as an object of revulsion when he announced that he believed 80% of the crop circles he`d examined over a two year period were probably man-made.

To me, this suggests that Researchers in particular are not really interested in finding out the true origins of the circles unless it ties in with their own pre-conceptions. A couple of the older Researchers epitomise that viewpoint and come across as very bitter towards anyone or anything that challenges their `truth`. They truly believe that there is something either mystical or extra-terrestrial about the origins of the circles and some talk quite openly (and sometimes bafflingly) about their experiences with circles and the strange feelings of different planes of existence et al.

Of course, if they just spoke to some of the Circlemakers they would find out that some of these `hoaxers` (as they are known within the right circles, hehe) believe they are driven by a higher power to create their crop circles. Unfortunately being perceived as tools of a higher purpose is not the same as being the higher purpose and so the Circlemakers are shunned and presumably never the twain shall meet.

So what is the truth? None of it if you believe Doug of `Doug & Dave` fame or John Lundberg. Doug, without his now deceased partner, claims that the whole thing was decided over a couple of pints and was done for a laugh, claiming they made the first circle in 1978 to fool people into thinking they were depressions left by visiting UFO`s. John Lundberg, of Team Satan fame, sees himself as carrying on the pioneering work done by Doug & Dave, although the patterns his team creates are more and more elaborate than the original simple circles. His work now, he argues, is a covert form of art and it`s hard to argue against when you consider some of the beautiful patterns that have appeared in recent years. The only problem here is that Lundberg claims not to be interested in claiming his work as it would inhibit the research going on.

So what do I think? Well, in my younger days I did class myself as a bit of a believer in UFO`s, MIB`s and the like, although nowhere near borderline obsessive. I was also a huge X-Files fans during the 90`s and certainly don`t believe that science can explain everything. On the other hand, I don`t believe that everything that is currently unexplained will forever be that way or therefore automatically has a higher purpose or intelligence behind it. A kind of more romantic Scully, then…

In the case of the evidence documented here, I can`t help but be swayed in one direction. We have a procession of `tools`, researchers, mystics and psychics who all lay some claim to sensing something of a divine and higher purpose and are all based around Stonehenge and Avebury or the near vicinity. One quote from the whole film sticks in my mind, and it`s from one of the interviewees and inhabitant of Glastonbury (same area…) who states that the town has the best pot in the country. Could this be part of the problem or is that too simplistic? Who knows, but listening to some of the people involved in this documentary, you can`t positively rule it out.

For me, the solution is obvious. On one side you have a group of people who simply don`t believe that humans can create the crop circles and certainly not in the 30 seconds flat they believe that they arrive within. They also state that Circlemakers have never been able to produce the complex patterns seen. On the other you have both artistic and `tool` circlemakers who claim to be making the very things that the other group revere; one part doing it for art, one part driven to do it. The solution? Get representatives of both groups together in daylight and get the artists to demonstrate the artform they profess to create. Will it happen? I doubt it as I suspect that both groups have a symbiotic need for each other and the conflict between them.

Last thought. The 2001 season was generally thought of as disappointing, although it finished with what has been described as `the mother of all crop circles` (and a mightily impressive one at that). That season was also the period of time where swathes of the countryside were effectively shut down due to foot and mouth. So why was this season so disappointing? Was it that welly-wearing circlemakers couldn`t get into the fields or that ET was scared off by DEFRA?

Still, this is a thought-provoking and well-balanced documentary that tries to walk the thin line between the two opposing sides. Quite enjoyable, if a little kooky at times. I don`t think you`ll find anything as definitive as this on what is a quite English phenomenon.



For more info or to purchase, please see here: www.circlespeak.com