The Filmography of James Fox: A Retrospective - Part 4: The Phenomenon

Over twenty years of hard work, three films, and a National Press Club conference finally led to The Phenomenon, James Fox's most recent film and undoubtedly a crowning achievement in the world of UFO documentary films. On top of it being a top-notch production, it has also managed to breach the mainstream. In his numerous interviews and podcast appearances, including on the hugely popular Joe Rogan Experience, Mr. Fox has mentioned that officials in both the Trump and upcoming Biden administration were provided copies of the film in advance of its October 6th, 2020 release date. It also reached the top spot on iTunes' list of most popular documentary films. The film is still one of the hottest topics in the field today, and if you're interested in the subject and haven't seen it yet, you're missing out.

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Anyone who has listened to Mr. Fox's interviews knows that he is a talented speaker and storyteller. His pacing and delivery of information is methodical and effective. I've listened to many of his podcast appearances in preparation for writing this retrospective, and I never get tired of hearing the same stories of his time in the business of film production. This is also why I Know What I Saw is my favorite film of his, because he narrates his journey preparing the 2007 disclosure conference. 50 Years of Denial and Out of the Blue, on the other hand, lack that narrative flair and end up feeling more like educational films.

While Mr. Fox is back behind the camera for most of The Phenomenon, the film strikes a balance of information and narrative in a perfection of the formula Fox developed in his previous films. The historical information is relevant and accurate, and it is interspersed with credible eyewitness reports, most of which are brand new---a definite improvement over the previous films, which re-used a lot of material.

I especially love how the eyewitness interviews tie directly into the historical information. While I feel that Fox's earlier films are a bit scattershot, moving from story to witness interview to historical information without much connective thread, it seems like there was a real effort to make sure that the witness's story is still relevant to the historical information being presented even if they weren't directly involved.

Speaking of Fox's earlier films---I hope it's clear now that I adore them---they are not without their flaws, especially from a production quality standpoint. The Phenomenon is a vast improvement in this department: the visuals are bright and crisp, the B-roll cinematography solid, the graphic design is sleek and modern, and the recreations are watchable and not at all cheesy. I would also be remiss not to talk about the sound design, a point of pride for Fox as he's mentioned in his various interviews. The Dolby surround sound track is gorgeous and best appreciated on a high-quality sound system.

The UFO cases presented in the film are top-notch as well. As much as I love The Phoenix Lights and Rendlesham, I was happy to see that they were mostly left out of The Phenomenon, as they were covered in great detail in Out of the Blue and I Know What I Saw. I was unfamiliar with the Westall school UFO landing incident covered in the film, and I found it to be incredibly compelling, especially with the addition of the science teacher's anonymous testimony. 

I was especially impressed with the background story behind the famous Balwyn UFO photo:

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This is a picture any UFO enthusiast should recognize, I've seen it printed in books countless times. Personally, it always struck me as a silver bowl thrown up into the air---but the witness' testimony and it's uncanny similarity to the object described by the Westall school students has led me to re-evaluate that assessment. It certainly seems like it may be a genuine photo of a flying saucer, undoubtedly one of the clearest ever taken. 

The infamous Ariel School close encounter in Zimbabwe that the film closes on is another one that I've since changed my mind on after seeing The Phenomenon. I always thought it to be an interesting case, but I didn't put too much stock into the children's testimony and I never thought their drawings were terribly similar. It's clear after seeing them stick to their story so many years later that something incredible and profound occurred there in 1994.

 I don't want to spoil too much of the content of the film because I feel that, out of all of Fox's films, this one is the most important (so far). I think it's a film that total skeptics could watch and come out thinking, "Maybe there's something to this..." There's also plenty of great content for seasoned UFO enthusiasts as well. James Fox has cemented himself as one of the great modern UFO investigators with this film, and I cannot wait for his next project.