“Extraordinary: The Stan Romanek Story” is a documentary featuring Stan Romanek and his ties to what some believe is the connection to aliens and forces beyond ourselves. Stan Romanek is an individual who claims to have been first abducted in the year 2000, and since then has been trying to share his experiences. With the help of J3FILMS, Romanek’s story is brought to the eyes of thousands in a documentary featuring his twenty years of encounters. Because “Extraordinary” documents a controversial topic, criticism can be expected from viewers of the film, as many have expressed since its release. Despite the backlash, many of these viewers find that the closing message from the film rings true; that the human race is most likely not alone, and …show more content…
it’s important to push the boundaries of what is accepted about our universe at this point in time. Evidence provided in the film can be seen as skeptical to the viewer, but the documentary accomplishes its job: making people think about the topic at hand. Romanek has over 195 documented pieces of evidence that he has accumulated over the years. He has dedicated a sizable portion of his life to sharing this evidence with people. Throughout the film, multiple people of expertise in their fields (for example, a psychologist and a physicist) examine the content Romanek provides, leaving the viewer with a more respect for the evidence shown. In certain sections of the film, there is also a great deal of emotion a viewer can connect with. Romanek’s marriage being affected by the experiences is something the film looks into, giving anyone watching a universal pain they can relate to. A viewer doesn’t have to believe Romanek’s experiences to fulfill the purpose of “Extraordinary”, they just need to consider the idea of the experiences themselves. The first time watching “Extraordinary”, the viewer is given what seems to be an endless stockpile of video footage, audio recordings, and Romanek’s own personal record to consider. The documentary is presented in a way that lays out all of this evidence within the first half hour, and then is analyzed by Romanek and others who know him either personally or professionally. This technique helps Romanek’s story and the documentary itself gain credibility. Including so much of this evidence shows that no incident was isolated, and emphasises the point that Romanek understands this topic. This offers some Ethos appeal to the viewer. However, a lot of the evidence could be said to be doctored, particularly photos and video footage. Within “Extraordinary”, a viewer might notice that there are barely any general statistics presented. Because of this lack of statistics or comparison to cases similar to Romanek’s, the evidence Romanek provides becomes less believable. With respect to “Extraordinary”, there’s less of a need for overlying statistics due to the fact “Extraordinary” is focused around Romanek’s life only, and ties into the greater idea regarding life outside of Earth. However, having barely any Logos appeal tends to discredit the points being made. The abundant amount of firsthand evidence from Romanek’s own collection does not persuade as effectively as it could with more universal evidence behind it. Because the topic covered in “Extraordinary” is still so new to acceptance, there are obviously more concerns regarding if Romanek is telling the truth about what he has experienced.
In order to convince the viewer that the documentary is worth considering, there are several experts who offer information and feedback to establish a greater sense of Ethos appeal. For example, a psychologist discusses Romanek’s mental state, a physicist examines the validity of some of the equations Romanek had supposedly written down while under the influence of aliens or higher forces, and a few other individuals have dedicated much of their time to researching extraterrestrial life. Stanislav O’Jack is the psychologist Romanek visited to make sure he wasn’t crazy, and was telling the truth about his experiences. In the documentary, O’Jack discusses the process of testing Romanek. From the information O’Jack examined that day, he states he is confident that Romanek is sane. In his own opinion, O’Jack even believes Romanek is more down to Earth than the majority of population. While undergoing hypnotic regression to try to recover memories from previous abductions, Romanek began writing equations that had supposedly been running through his head ever since getting abducted. He had also been writing them in his sleep. Physicist Claude Swanson discusses the meaning behind these equations within the documentary. He brings up the very compelling point that someone who wrote or even picked out …show more content…
these equations would need to have a strong background in physics, because they relate to theories of gravity and travelling at extremely high speeds, theoretically through space. Romanek doesn’t have a history in physics or even a prominent science background, which makes it difficult to understand how he was able to form these equations without the help of some outside force. These two individuals give more Ethos appeal to the film, since both prove that some aspect of what Romanek says is true or relates to aliens. “Extraordinary” also appeals to the viewer through certain scenes containing strong emotions.
Romanek claims that while abducted, he saw another human woman on board the UFO, soon to be known as Victoria Albright. Romanek makes it clear to the viewer that he and Albright had a strong sense of connection to one another. He claims to have seen her multiple times on separate abductions, and one day recognized her while speaking at a UFO convention. From that point forward, they had an immediate bond. Romanek’s wife Lisa is interviewed throughout the documentary as well, but she is interviewed mostly about her feelings regarding Albright and how difficult it was having Albright in Romanek’s life. She becomes emotional while speaking about Romanek and Albright’s connection, saying how she feels as if she had been left behind by the two. Something as common as a marriage struggle is something that many of the viewers can relate to. If not, a viewer can at least sympathize with Lisa Romanek. Moments like that were recorded and integrated into the documentary to give the film a small but strong amount of Pathos appeal. Most viewers watching this scene of “Extraordinary” can recognize that dealing with alien encounters is not always easy or pleasant. In another scene, Romanek talks about meeting some children on a UFO during one of his abductions. After looking at these children for a period of time, Romanek came to the conclusion that they were his own, despite not knowing of
their existence till that moment. He believes the aliens had used some form of technology to create children using his DNA. Romanek talks about one moment in particular that has stayed with him, despite being years ago. After meeting the children for a short while, the aliens nearby had decided that Romanek had spent enough time with them, so they forcibly took him away from the children. While talking, Romanek visibly becomes emotional and has a difficult time talking through that section of the interview. Someone watching doesn’t need to believe that Romanek was abducted or that he has children on a UFO to understand and relate to the pain that he feels in this scene, just like the pain Lisa felt while Romanek and Albright met. Pain is a universal feeling that anyone can relate to, regardless of your beliefs on a topic like aliens, and Extraordinary takes advantage of this. Some of the proof or persuasive tactics admittedly do not work effectively to convince viewers that Romanek’s story is true, but it is important to consider the overall message the makers of “Extraordinary” intended to share. It is stated directly within the film that the intention was not to convince the viewer that aliens are real or that all of Romanek’s evidence is credible; it was to make the viewer consider the possibility of life beyond ourselves within the universe. Finishing the documentary sparks an interest within the viewer and pushes them to question what they know and accept about forms of life. With this purpose in mind, the evidence shown within “Extraordinary” does an excellent job of persuading the viewer.
The four main characters in the book are Drue “True” Robinson, Lee Atkins, Urban “Legend” Donald Sellers, and Mr. Gilbert. Drue is a rising basketball star from New York City. He played in an all-star game, where Mr. Gilbert first noticed him. Mr. Gilbert convinced Drue and his mom to come to the east coast where he would find his mom a job and a nice home. Drue became friends with Lee the first day of school and later in the book he becomes friends with Legend.
All of these definitions are exact and significant to this research because sometimes it is obvious people are unaware of the true meanings of these words. The meanings of extraterrestrials and aliens have been commonly misinterpreted. An extraterrestrial is something, living or nonliving, which is not from earth, while an alien can be something from earth, but is not native to its surroundings. An unidentified flying object is something that has never been officially recorded. In this case, the witnesses refer to th...
Turim, Maureen, and Turim-Nygren Mika. "Of Spectral Mothers and Lost Children: War, Folklore, and Psychoanalysis in The Secret of Roan Inish." Sayles Talk: New Perspectives on Independent Filmmaker John Sayles (Contemporary Approaches to Film and Media Series). Ed. Diane Carson and Heidi Kenaga. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2006. 134-57. Print.
...the predominant theme of disorientation and lack of understanding throughout the film. The audience is never clear of if the scene happening is authentic or if there is a false reality.
Today, we have a lot of veterans who are coming home from war that are being displaced. In this chapter it talks about a Vietnam War soldier named Norman Bowker who arrives home from the war. In the chapter, Speaking of Courage from the book ‘The Things They Carried’ written by Tim O’Brien, Norman feels displaced from the world and everyone there. A returning soldier from the Vietnam War is driving around a lake on the 4th of July in his fathers big chevrolet, but then realizes he has nowhere to go. He starts to reminisce about his father, ex-girlfriend, and his childhood friend. Norman talks about all the medals he had won. He starts to think about his fathers pride in those badges and he starts to have a recollection about how he had almost own the silver star but blew his chance. He continues to drive around the lake again and again. He continues to imagine telling his father about the story of how he almost won the silver star, but failed to do so. This paper will analyze Speaking of Courage with the new criticism/formalism lens.
In this essay I will discuss the way in which the generic marker ‘The visual surface of Science Fiction presents us with a confrontation between those images to which we respond as “alien” and those we know to be familiar’ can be applied to Blade Runner and to what end.
For years Western scholars and novelists have been drawn to the story, yet until now there has been no documentary. Ric Burns's film is a first.
Lazar, Mary. "Jerzy Kosinski's Being There, Novel and Film: Changes Not by Chance." Ebscohost. N.p., Spring 2004. Web. Mar.-Apr. 2014.
A large part of the film has less to do with the communication with the aliens and more to do with the communication that took place between nations. Because of cultural differences and outright fear, communication between nations broke down. This film speaks volume about the modern global political climate where nationalism and anti-globalism are on the rise. It serves a gentle reminder that in many cases, humanity can be its own worst enemy. The film ends on a hopeful note, however, as it shows the potential for the good humanity can achieve when cultural differences are set aside. In the movie “Arrival,” cross-cultural communication does more than establish a baseless conflict, it goes further by illustrating contemporary dilemmas in global communication that directly impact society. It does so by showcasing relevant theories and concepts and applies them throughout the
We may never know what lays beyond our night sky. It may be nothing, or our Government may be hiding everything from us, perhaps our President is behind these cases as well. This is the mystery that will trouble us for generations, but using evidence such as the LA shooting back in World War II, It is easy to gleam that: Aliens, Do, Exist.
Plan Nine from Outer Space, is a heavily debated movie because of the contrast between its endearing and disastrous qualities. It is discussed heavily in the articles by Roy Kinnard, Richard Bojarski, and Joe Leydon. Kinnard express how horrible they believe the movie is, but Bojarski and Leydon share a different outlook by describing it as endearing and ambitious. Kinnard and Leydon have extremely valid points, however I have found my opinions swaying towards Bojarski’s positive outlook on the movie. It is easy to bash things before knowing the full story as Kinnard and Leydon did, but Bojarski’s positive outlook that strays from popular opinion is a form of enlightenment.
There are numerous of different movies, books, and TV shows on how humans think aliens interact, look similar to, and what the media portrays aliens to be like. Occasionally, most will stumble across news articles with a variety of related headings about aliens, UFO’s, or recent known abduction stories. Every person has their own theories and or thoughts on these basic questions: do aliens exist? Could the government be covering up real life “space ships” or encounters? Countless folks have claimed to witness or have fanciful stories that have fascinated countless while several others are turned away. There are Videos, pictures and pieces of physical evidence to support nearly all of these stories. Even more alarming,
The Roswell Incident, which enlightened our minds to the capacity of excepting all, has remained one of the most controversial issues today. In Roswell, New Mexico, 1947, a strange occurrence arises. An alien craft from outer space crashed in an open field. The issue lay still for almost thirty years, until the thought of a government cover-up arose.
Do aliens exist? For eons, mankind has pondered over this peculiar question and a revealing truth has yet to be answered. However, one thing is known for sure, the discovery of intelligent alien life outside of Earth would provide support to prove and/or disprove fundamental beliefs that have been held for centuries. In any case, the discovery would serve as a cornerstone for humanity to make the quantum leap in understanding the purpose of our existence. Based on numerous examples, it is impossible to deny the existence of extraterrestrial life outside of Earth. Reportings of sightings, ancient civilizations beliefs, and scientific proof from scientists and astronomers are all key factors that contribute to this statement.
Trevor Rhone's Old Story Time Today's Jamaica seems overly preoccupied with the issues of class and colour. In Old Story Time Trevor Rhone mirrors a Jamaica struggling with the same subject in the Mid Twentieth century. Discuss these concerns of the play in detail making comparisons/contrasts to the current Jamaican and Caribbean societies.