Sorry, this movie sucks

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

'The Aurora Encounter" is based on a much publicized "airship" that supposedly crashed near Aurora Texas in 1897. This event was no doubt greatly embellished by the press, and eventually became so 'fictionalized" that any trace of believability vanished. Taking the standard U.F.O. plot and placing it back in the old west is a great idea, that unfortunately does not live up to it's potential. "The Aurora Encounter" is badly scattered, and that is it's main problem. Despite the presence of the wonderful Jack Elam, what you get is a part sci-fi, part western, part "Goonies" clone, that is too simplified for the sci-fi fan, too devoid of action for the western fan, and too boring for the "Disney" crowd. - MERK

Apart from the sad facts about the star, and about Dottie West not too much later, I only know two things about this film. First, it's the only movie I know of that's connected with the 1897 "Airship" (a subject I'm very attached to), which was (strangely enough) a wave of U.F.O. stories from much of the country in 1896-97. (Although most U.F.O. and / or Airship believers don't believe the Aurora, TX. story.) The other is this - a rural comedy, or comedy-drama, or fantasy story, cannot possibly be all bad if it has Jack Elam! And the other actors (including Dottie West, not a professional actress) did very well too. I'm sure this has been labeled a low budget answer to a Disney movie, or E.T., as one person put it, but there's nothing wrong with that.

Thirty years ago I read a historical account in UFO literature where a spacecraft crashed into a windmill in a small Texas town back in the late 19th century. The townsfolk found a dead little occupant in the wreckage and gave him a "decent Christian burial". This is the jist of the original story that inspired this film. Everything else in the movie has been added for dramatic effect. One other thing---the place where the alien was supposedly buried has this kind of weird colored fungus or lichen that grows on top of the ground that can't be killed. I saw a picture of the landowner kneeling by the spot. I guess no one ever thought to exhume the grave to find out the truth of the whole matter. And whatever happened to the spaceship wreckage? I thought the movie was very long, dry and boring, the only exception being the little alien scenes.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie - I would like to give some history on this movie - it was not, as some may believe, and exploitation of a sick child, rather it was the granting of a dying wish of a child, Mickey Hays, to be a movie star. For that reason alone, I applaud this movie, and as hokey as it is, I enjoyed the positive message of the little alien coming to Earth and interacting with the citizens (and animals) of Aurora, Texas. Even though it has a sad ending, it also had many laughs, and several positive messages.