 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2016) |
| The Legend of Bigfoot | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Harry Winer [1] |
| Written by | |
| Produced by | Stephen Houston Smith |
| Starring | |
| Narrated by | Ivan Marx |
| Cinematography |
|
| Edited by | Paula Labrot |
| Music by | Don Peake |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Filmcentralen Palladium |
Release date |
|
Running time |
|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Legend of Bigfoot is a 1976 American pseudo-documentary film directed by Harry Winer.
Animal tracker Ivan Marx opens by mentioning the film is the culmination of 10 years of research. He says that the Eskimos called the creature "bushman," the Colville Indians "Sasquatch," and the Hoopa "Om-mah," but is most commonly known as Bigfoot.
Marx's brother-in-law takes him to the land of petrified wood, showing him rock carvings of creatures with big hands and feet. The carvings tell the story of the creature stealing children, causing a village to be abandoned.
Marx finds large tracks in the snow and later a dead bear with similar tracks nearby. He finds strange hair between the bear's teeth and sets out to track the creature. He finds tracks in the mud beside a river and something moving nearby. He intends to inform others but rain washes the tracks away.
Marx investigates tracks in several states only to find they're not bigfoot tracks. He visits the Oh-mah bigfoot redwood statue in northern California and the Oregon coast, continuing to search.
Marx takes a job in Washington state to film a Cinnamon bear. While there, he films Bigfoot walking through a field. He mentions that his footage of Bigfoot has been questioned by science and used by others on lecture circuits to make money.
Marx shows footage of an injured squirrel, goats eating dirt, and glaciers melting. He mentions the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and visits Yukon Frida, who paints pictures of Bigfoot.
Marx travels above the Arctic Circle, showing footage of the Northern lights while relating Bigfoot tales. He visits an Eskimo who promises he'll see Bigfoot. Later in the evening, he films what he describes "the shining eyes" of the creature, but when dawn comes, he says Bigfoot disappeared behind a rainbow.
Marx shows footage of salmon spawning, geese migrating, caribou, and Alaska moose defending their territory. He searches from a plane and films a young Bigfoot near a river. He lands, but Bigfoot runs away.
He films hunters with their kills and beavers gathering wood for their dams. He then shows footage of Bigfoot at another river and a second Bigfoot close by, mentioning a related strong musky odor. Bigfoot is shown eating grass and Marx mentions he must be a vegetarian.
Marx ends the film by saying he has determined Bigfoot's migratory and eating habits and that he'll continue his search to document more of Bigfoot's behaviors.
It has been claimed that Ivan Marx was the first to find handprints of Bigfoot. [2] Much of the film is wildlife and nature footage.
The film was created by Ivan Marx, [3] the majority of which he filmed himself. [4] Marx did the narration for the film himself [2] and also served as the executive producer. [5]
The Legend of Bigfoot was released to theaters in 1976. [1] Ivan Marx made two follow-up documentaries: In the Shadow of Bigfoot and Bigfoot: Alive and Well in '82.
The Legend of Bigfoot was released to the home video market on VHS tape by World Premiere Home Video in 1985. [6] In 2009, the film was released on DVD, along with Snowbeast, by Alpha Video. [7]
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2016) |
Like Marx himself, his film polarized critics, audiences and Bigfoot hunters alike.[ citation needed ] Praise focused largely on the nature footage and the new information about cryptozoology, but criticism largely focused on Marx's rambling voice-overs (seen by some as self-promotion) and the poor-quality Bigfoot footage, that most have accepted as a hoax.[ citation needed ] However, to this day, there are many supporters of Marx,[ who? ] who consider him a true explorer and pioneer in the field of cryptozoology.
Don Peake composed the music for the film. [8]
Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, is a large and hairy human-like mythical creature alleged by some to inhabit forests in North America, particularly in the Pacific Northwest. Bigfoot is featured in both American and Canadian folklore, and since the mid-20th century has grown into a cultural icon, permeating popular culture and becoming the subject of its own distinct subculture.
Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that searches for and studies unknown, legendary, or extinct animals whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, particularly those popular in folklore, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Yeti, the chupacabra, the Jersey Devil, or the Mokele-mbembe. Cryptozoologists refer to these entities as cryptids, a term coined by the subculture. Because it does not follow the scientific method, cryptozoology is considered a pseudoscience by mainstream science: it is neither a branch of zoology nor of folklore studies. It was originally founded in the 1950s by zoologists Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan T. Sanderson.
The Patterson–Gimlin film is an American short motion picture of an unidentified subject that the filmmakers have said was a Bigfoot. The footage was shot in 1967 in Northern California, and has since been subjected to many attempts to authenticate or debunk it.
The Mongolian death worm is a creature alleged to exist in the Gobi Desert. Investigations into the legendary creature have been pursued by amateur cryptozoologists and credited academics alike, but there has been little evidence found to support its existence. It can be considered a Cryptid or a mythological animal.
Grover Sanders Krantz was an American anthropologist and cryptozoologist; he was one of few scientists not only to research Bigfoot, but also to express his belief in the animal's existence. Throughout his professional career, Krantz authored more than 60 academic articles and 10 books on human evolution, and conducted field research in Europe, China, and Java.
Loren Coleman is an American cryptozoologist, author and television personality who has written over 40 books on a number of topics, including cryptozoology. He is also the President, Founder and leading Director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Harry and the Hendersons is a 1987 American fantasy comedy film directed and produced by William Dear and starring John Lithgow, Melinda Dillon, Don Ameche, David Suchet, Margaret Langrick, Joshua Rudoy, Lainie Kazan, and Kevin Peter Hall. Steven Spielberg served as its uncredited executive producer, while Rick Baker provided the makeup and the creature designs for Harry. The film tells the story of a Seattle family's encounter with the cryptozoological creature Bigfoot, partially inspired by the numerous claims of sightings in the Pacific Northwest, California, and other parts of both the United States and Canada over three centuries. In conjunction with the film's setting, shooting took place at several locations in the Cascade Range of Washington state near Interstate 90 and the town of Index near US 2, as well as Seattle's Wallingford, Ballard and Beacon Hill neighborhoods and other locations in or around Seattle.
Jon-Erik Beckjord was an American paranormal investigator, photographer, and cryptozoologist interested in UFOs, crop circles, the Loch Ness Monster, and Bigfoot. Throughout his life, he owned three separate, small-scale museums that featured displays, mostly photographs, of alleged UFO, Nessie, and Bigfoot sightings. He made guest appearances on national radio and television shows, but was criticized by skeptics and fellow cryptozoologists alike for not providing substantive evidence to back up his claims of the existence of paranormal beings.
The Mummy's Curse is a 1944 American horror film directed by Leslie Goodwins. Produced by Universal Pictures, it is the fifth entry in Universal's original Mummy franchise, serving as a sequel to The Mummy's Ghost (1944). It marks Lon Chaney Jr.'s final appearance as Kharis, an Egyptian mummy.
Bossburg is a ghost town in Stevens County, Washington, and is located on the east bank of the Columbia River just south of the Canada–US border. Bossburg had a maximum population of 800 in 1892. The town was once named "Young America," although in 1896 it was renamed in honor of the town's first citizen, C. S. Boss. It is currently best known for the 1969 discovery of the footprints in the snow of a supposed Sasquatch known as "Cripplefoot," and subsequent hi-jinks.
Raymond L. Wallace was an American amateur Bigfoot hoaxer.
The giant penguin is a creature allegedly seen in Florida during the 1940s and is at least partly documented as a hoax. This legend has no scientific merit, despite there having been giant penguins that became extinct millions of years ago.
Bigfoot is an alleged human or ape-like cryptid in North America. Since the mid-20th century, Bigfoot has become increasingly relevant in popular culture and is the subject of film, television, advertising, music, literature and more.
Track of the Moon Beast is a 1976 horror film directed by Richard Ashe and written by Bill Finger and Charles Sinclair. It concerns a mineralogist who is hit in the head by a meteor, which subsequently turns him in to a vicious, reptilian creature during the full moon.
MonsterQuest is an American television series that originally aired from October 31, 2007 to March 24, 2010 on the History channel. Produced by Whitewolf Entertainment, the program deals with the search for various monsters of interest to the cryptozoology subculture and paranormal entities reportedly witnessed around the world. A spin-off show, MysteryQuest, which focuses on unsolved mysteries, premiered on September 16, 2009.
Snowbeast is a 1977 American made-for-television horror film starring Bo Svenson, Yvette Mimieux, Robert Logan and Clint Walker, and follows the story of a bloodthirsty Bigfoot-like monster terrorizing a ski resort in the Colorado Rockies. It was directed by Herb Wallerstein from a teleplay written by Joseph Stefano. The film originally premiered as the NBC Thursday Night Movie on NBC on April 28, 1977.
Carmine Thomas Biscardi is a cryptozoology enthusiast, Las Vegas promoter, internet radio host, and film producer. He describes himself as the "Real Bigfoot Hunter". Biscardi has been centrally involved in several hoaxes regarding Bigfoot that have garnered widespread international media attention.
Mountain Monsters is an American cryptozoology-themed reality television series airing on Travel Channel. It originally premiered on June 22, 2013, on Destination America. The series follows the Appalachian Investigators of Mysterious Sightings (A.I.M.S) team, a band of six native West Virginian hunters and trappers, as they research and track unidentified creatures in the Appalachian Mountains. There is also a side-series titled Mountain Monsters: By The Fire that features extra facts and never-before-seen footage from different episodes of the series.
