Product: Shades Of Gray (2009)
Rating: 4.0
Generally excellent...
...but with a few caveats.My only complaint is the presentation. It is in standard 4:3 mode. I wouldn't complain (much) about this except that it is *shot* in 16:9 mode and presented in letterbox format! So you basically have black bars on top and bottom and both sides if you're watching on a widescreen TV. Now of course with most TVs you could zoom the picture to fill the screen but the producers occasionally use the bottom black bar for a caption! There might be some logic to all this but it escapes me. I deducted a star from my rating for this alone.This is an excellent documentary but it does assume a fairly broad acquaintance with the UFO subculture and its history. The emphasis is on Barker's impact on the UFO field and less so on his personal life. This is just the reverse from a previous documentary "Whispers from Space".The present DVD has much higher production values. "Whispers" is a VHS tape transferred (rather amateurishly) to DVD. Both can be recommended and indeed should be required viewing for anyone with an interest in the field. "Shades" features many of the same people as "Whispers" and it is interesting to see the effect of the dozen or so years between the production of the two documentaries on these folks.Highly recommended in spite of the presentation snafu.