My quest for finding the best Bigfoot film continues with the hilarious The Legend of Bigfoot, a documentary shot, narrated, starring and researched by the infamous hoaxer Ivan Marx, a man claiming he’s a professional tracker and Bigfoot researcher since the fifties. But to be fair, he shot the whole movie himself and the nature footage isn’t half-bad. So he had some talents. This is the story of how he found and filmed the reclusive man-ape, some kilometers from his house in 1970, and how this inspired him to solve the mystery of Bigfoot!
You know, there’s not much to write about The Legend of Bigfoot, except it’s unintentionally very very very fun. Lets take a look at the first Bigfoot footage he took, which is totally insane. It looks like a dude, quite slim, in a cheap suit, stumbling around on a field - overacting like there’s no tomorrow. There’s absolutely nothing realistic with this stuff, nothing at all. It’s SCREAMS hoax all over! I’m sure he just put the camera in his wife’s hands and went out there in his suit and did what he had to do himself. Next time we see the creature it looks better, and Marx is wise enough to hide it a bit more, behind bushes and in the shadows.
One odd sequence up in the north sees him filming some weird lights (almost like a BIG black head with two glowing eyes) far far away in the bushes up on a mountain. Maybe I fell asleep there, but I don’t remember a logical explanation of it - except it looked like an optical effect created in the editing room.
I haven’t seen his two other documentaries about Bigfoot, but a collection of his Bigfoot footage is available on YouTube - and he continues to hide the creature behind bushes or in the darkness. BUT IS IT ENTERTAINING? I’m writing that with capital letters because I’m sure you’re tired of my word-pooping. My answer is yes and now. The nature footage is often very nice and the documentary moves along in a brisk pace (I’ve seen the shorter version, which might have helped the entertainment value) and it makes me wanna become a man of the wild myself, in checkered shirt and a brutal aroma of sweat and smoke. Maybe.
What makes the documentary extra hard to take serious (except that first footage of Bigfoot of course) is the very awkward and self-indulgent narration by Ivan Marx himself, which make us believe he’s some kind of superman, mega-explorer, the world’s best tracker and a macho man with his foxy wife Peggy by his wife all the time. He even shows us his house, his dogs, lots and lots of footage which just is there for him to make a joke (or probably more to pad the doc with more stuff). It was more than one instance where I thought I was listening to Adam West doing one of his absurd monologues in Family Guy!
After watching The Legend of Bigfoot my man, G, asked me if I believed in Bigfoot. I know he does. I still feel it’s a bit too extreme that no one have found one single proof that this animal exists during all these years, considering every citizens of the United States have seen it - or at least his or her friend’s friend, or grandma or whatever. Yeah, there’s a lot of wilderness, but in this day and age, with the technology….nothing at all. Except hoaxers who desperately trying to sell their story to everyone and their mother. In all honesty, I believe more in the Yeti! At least it’s said to live in a place which is very hard to explore...
(you can read an interesting article about the original footage here, not to Ivan Marx favor I can say)
"starring and researched by the infamous hoaxer Ivan Marx, a man claiming he’s a professional tracker and Bigfoot researcher since the fifties."
Never heard of him.....but he sure sounds serious!
"What makes the documentary extra hard to take serious (except that first footage of Bigfoot of course) is the very awkward and self-indulgent narration by Ivan Marx himself, which make us believe he’s some kind of superman, mega-explorer, the world’s best tracker and a macho man with his foxy wife Peggy by his wife all the time."
hahahhahahahhahha...now, now.....Marx just tells the truth....sort of...?
"It was more than one instance where I thought I was listening to Adam West doing one of his absurd monologues in Family Guy!"
That hilarious huh..?
"I know he does. I still feel it’s a bit too extreme that no one have found one single proof that this animal exists during all these years, considering every citizens of the United States have seen it - or at least his or her friend’s friend, or grandma or whatever. Yeah, there’s a lot of wilderness, but in this day and age, with the technology….nothing at all. Except hoaxers who desperately trying to sell their story to everyone and their mother. In all honesty, I believe more in the Yeti! At least it’s said to live in a place which is very hard to explore..."
Yeah, could be a hoax....but what the hell....some species gets caught late.
Just look at West Indian Ocean coelacanth......but of course cryptids are more belief than science for the most part.
No...I belive in Bigfoot...you never know.
Good review and thanks, never seen it.
Posted by: Megatron | October 31, 2014 at 23:43