Chariots of the Gods Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Chariots of the Gods Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 30, 2021

Back in the ostensible Dark Ages, meaning circa 2009-10, some of my first reviewing duties at this site were for A&E and History releases, including a veritable glut of Ancient Aliens outings. I was frankly pleasantly surprised by some of the content in the series, at least in the early going, but by the time my Ancient Aliens: Season 7 Blu-ray review was published, I was urging any and all aliens to please arrive as soon as possible to hopefully put the series the bed. Ancient Aliens of course owes its genesis (no pun intended) to the work of Erich von Däniken, as evidenced by my joking "deck" (the little subtitle under the review title, where I personally often offer cheeky comments) in our The Best of Ancient Aliens Blu-ray review. Now, Chariots of the Gods is perhaps a bit more ponderous than any given episode of Ancient Aliens, and some may be pining for the outré sensibility of someone like Giorgio Tsoukalos*, but for an "old school" documentary about provocative but probably scientifically questionable data points, this 1970 documentary is frequently rather interesting, and my hunch is it's one of the few releases from VCI which can tout that it was an Academy Award nominee (for Best Documentary Feature).

*Kind of hilariously, though I'm pretty sure one of my Ancient Aliens reviews jokingly suggested that Tsoukalos needed to wipe that crazy smile off his face, I couldn't remember his name as I was getting ready to write this review. Simply asking the Google machine to identify the "crazy guy on Ancient Aliens" provided me with the answer.

It's probably unsurprising that my reaction to revisiting Chariots of the Gods after many years was pretty similar to my reaction to at least various episodes of Ancient Aliens, where I was frankly kind of intrigued by various data points even if I wasn't signing on to the underlying thesis. This is a globe trotting documentary that offers a host of putative "facts" about ancient cultures and especially their depictions of what the documentary keeps insisting must be extraterrestrial life.

Perhaps surprisingly given how jaded people have become in an era of multibillionaires blasting off into space for a few seconds, Chariots of the Gods was a huge hit back in the day, as was its source book, of course. That may strike some as impossibly quaint, but it perhaps at least may indicate that there are people out there asking questions about life and its sources, even if their answers may strike other people as being patently ridiculous.

There's one kind of funny sidebar in this piece that plays into headlines from just a couple of days ago. It wasn't until the often quite funny Alexandra Petri wrote a Washington Post piece about the Epic of Gilgamesh and Hobby Lobby that I became aware of the controversy surrounding certain historical artifacts that allegedly made it to this side of the pond illegally. There's a whole Gilgamesh segment here, for those who want a little background.

Chariots of the Gods Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Chariots of the Gods is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of VCI Entertainment and MVD Visual with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.69:1. The back cover of this release states this is a "new 2K restoration from the original 35mm negative". The source element here does show occasional problems, including noticeable fading and at times pretty significant scratching (see screenshot 3), but on the whole this is a rather nice looking presentation that is generally very organic looking and which is able to segue from some ragged stock or source footage to footage shot expressly for the documentary fairly seamlessly. Because of the wide variety of source videos on display at times, there are definitely variances in clarity and grain thickness, but this is a good effort from VCI, who have sometimes struggled with their high definition releases.

Chariots of the Gods Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Chariots of the Gods features an LPCM 2.0 Mono track that offers capable support for what is often either narrated or is featuring on screen talking heads. It may amuse some to see Peter Thomas' score advertised as being available on Polydor Records, and while there may be a bit too much underscore for some, it is rendered here cleanly. All spoken material is similarly easy to hear and understand, though optional English subtitles are available for those who need them.

Chariots of the Gods Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Mysteries of the Gods (HD; 1:23:06) was the follow up to Chariots of the Gods and frankly may play to some like the later seasons of Ancient Aliens played to me.

Chariots of the Gods Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kind of interestingly perhaps it may not matter if you take the underlying thesis of Chariots of the Gods seriously to enjoy at least parts of what this documentary presents. While there are some source limitations and variances at play, technical merits are generally solid. Recommended.