Crop Circles: Quest for Truth
February 2004 Reviewed by: Josh Barber Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Some "supernatural" phenomena are hard to take seriously: the idea that a giant plesiosaur may be living undetected in a shallow Scottish lake, for instance. Some, on the other hand, are hard to discount. Academy Award-nominated documentarian William Gazecki has looked at this second type in Crop Circles: Quest for Truth.

For decades now, mysterious shapes have been appearing in the cornfields of England; circles, boxes, lines, and swirls seem to appear overnight. The plant stalks are not broken, but are bent over to create the patterns. The edges are crisp, and most designs involve complex mathematics. Are these crop circles evidence of alien intelligence, dedicated pranksters, or something else entirely?

When Hollywood tries to turn its eye on unexplained events, the results are usually less than scientific: Signs and The Mothman Prophecies are two recent overblown examples. Fortunately, there's now a levelheaded, grounded look at one set of natural mysteries.

Crop Circles does not take the supermarket-tabloid approach of trying to pin the crop circles on aliens, UFOs, pranksters, the government, or some sort of new-age consciousness. In fact, the movie doesn't seem to favor any single explanation, presenting the various hypotheses to the viewer without trying to force facts to fit the theory.

The focus is on facts and science rather than little green men, which is more likely to sway viewers than some flight of X-Files-ish fancy. Nearly all the interviewees point toward some terrestrial (or at least natural) origin for the circles, ranging from dropping water levels to ambient microwave energy. Gazecki wants viewers to think about the unknown themselves, rather than offering an oversimplified E.T. theory.

The documentary does suffer from a lack of opposing viewpoints. Interviews with those who claim that the circles are indeed complicated hoaxes would have given a bit more balance to the film, and ultimately could have strengthened the case of the believers. There is scarcely any mention of the obvious fakes over the years or how they differ from the "real" circles.

While much of the film comprises current interviews, a lot of it contains archival footage or personal handheld home video, so the image quality varies throughout. The video segments sometimes looked as though they were plagued with tracking problems, which could either be a flaw in the original tape or a stylistic choice meant to convey the "amateur" nature of the film. Gazecki shot his own parts well, giving the new footage a very nice visual kick.

The audio is never astonishing, but it does its job adequately. As with the video, the source material makes all the difference: A built-in microphone on a camcorder doesn't produce the same quality of sound as a boom mike operated by a sound technician. Still, nothing is ever terrible. There aren’t any major complaints about the sound.

Perhaps because Crop Circles: Quest for Truth is not a big blockbuster film, it doesn't receive many flashy extras. The special features include four additional sequences, a highlight montage, five interview clips with Gazecki, and the film's trailer. The deleted scenes are interesting, but none would have made a big difference in the final film. In particular, one interview about a cereologist's encounter with the CIA a number of years ago is quite intriguing, but would have seemed far too paranoid in the body of the film.

Crop Circles: Quest for Truth is not going to answer any questions about the creation of these big works of grainy art, but that is not its purpose. It is, instead, about the quest for those answers. Director William Gazecki does a fine job of presenting the facts without making the participants look like crackpots in tinfoil hats. Though he's not likely to win over anyone who's dedicated to the notion that crop circles are a scam, the film is entertaining and likely to make you think.

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