The Making of Bigfoot: The Inside Story

I live in washington state and since I was a kid I remember seeing the footage of "bigfoot" that patterson shot. Long's book goes into exhaustive detail about the man who shot the film. As the book states, never has anyone really looked into the details around the filming itself (dates, timeline of film processing, and so on.) Had someone done this work in the early 1970's this film would not have taken on the "cult" status that it attained. I am a reasonably open minded person, but the book does a good job of proving this film to be a hoax beyond a reasonable doubt in my opinion.

This book shows why the Bigfoot film taken by Roger Patterson in 1967 is of no value to anyone trying to prove the existence of Bigoot. Scientists require solid evidence. The author shows that the film evidence is not reliable because it could be a film of someone in a Bigfoot costume. The author also shows that Patterson was not a good witness because of his history, behavior, and motives. The likelyhood that the Patterson film portrays a live Bigfoot is totally negated by the possibility the film was a hoax. The writing style of the book keeps the reader interested in the subject; however, there are typos and an appendix with technical matter should have been included.

In this book Greg Long has presented an overwhelming array of evidence that, to an unbiased and impartial reader, will finally put the so-called "Bigfoot controversy" in its proper place as perhaps the greatest hoax of the last century. Mr. Long does this by detailing the life of the chief perpetrator of the hoax, Roger Patterson, by painstakingly interviewing most of the principals involved--or, at least those willing to talk--and by presenting a carefully reasoned analysis of the "holy grail" of Bigfoot evidence, Roger Patterson's October 20, 1967, 16mm film. Mr. Long's book might very well have been titled "The Unmaking of Bigfoot," because that is precisely what Mr. Long has accomplished in the 466 pages of his narrative. This book took six years to research and write, and although there are times when I'd rather not care to know what kind of soft drinks and snack food Mr. Long prefers, this books holds the interest of the reader like the well-crafted detective story that it is. The public seems to be divided into two camps regarding the existence of Bigfoot: those who believe and those who don't. A look at the Internet sites devoted to Bigfoot will demonstrate that the "believers" are many. This book may sway some of those Bigfoot "believers" to the truth, but it will probably not convince those whose minds are closed by the over-riding need to simply "believe" in Bigfoot or those with a financial interest in feeding and perpetuating the controversy. To those folks, Mr. Long and his book will become objects of hatred and derision. In defending their "faith," the wrath of the Bigfoot cultists will surpass that of Tomas de Torqemada in his pursuit of heretics in fifteenth century Spain. After all, Mr. Long's book has, in effect, destroyed their Bigfoot-based "religion." This book is noteworthy not for its findings--after all, the evidence has been out there all the time--but that it took so long for someone to dig out the facts and publish them. One simple and devastating truth emerges from a reading of this book: the Bigfoot cultists have never been able to produce one single shred of indisputable, physical evidence proving that Bigfoot exists in the 37 years since the Patterson film was shot. In spite of this inconvenient fact, their "faith" in the existence of Bigfoot is undiminished, if not downright fanatical. How sad that there are people out there who have built their lives around sixty seconds of grainy and amateurishly done "home movie" film. These people are Roger Patterson's true victims. One wonders how much richer the lives of these people might have been had they devoted the same amount of energy and passion to more worthwhile pursuits. Oh, well...different strokes, as a great philosopher once said. Read this book if you have an open mind on the Bigfoot controversy. Even if you don't, read it anyway and then attempt some critical thought. It won't hurt a bit and you might even enjoy the experience.

A fascinating book, well researched, and eminently convincing unless cherished beliefs must be clung to no matter how high the stack of facts. The book is based primarily on interviews with a host of people connected in one way or another with Roger Patterson, the maker of the (in)famous Bigfoot film. Long taped his interviews with these people, and the transcripts bring the witnesses to life far better, and far more convincingly, than paraphrasing. There are a lot of interviews, and naturally there is a lot of redundancy in their stories. I don't consider this a drawback, I consider it a preponderance of evidence.I liked Long's format. He puts the results of his research in the context in which he collected it-in the car with his wife heading over the mountains yet again, sitting in someone's living room or a roadside restaurant, sorting through piles of papers, starting yet another manila folder of info. You find out he drinks coffee and diet pop, he is crazy about his wife, it rains a fair bit in the Northwest, and he is baffled by how Patterson could rip off so many people with such style that they forgave him and often came back for more of the same treatment. It was interesting to read about his own thoughts yet still have the actual evidence in the interviews remain inviolate. I especially liked Long's investigation of the film processing angle and Patterson's preposterous claim that the footage was shot on a Friday and viewed two days later. The evidence is quite convincing that the film was shot earlier and processed within a typical timeframe. (And I daresay if the results had not been satisfactory another filming excursion would have been in order. Who knows how many trial sightings ended up in the trashcan because the fakery was too obvious.)In future editions, I think a map of the Bluff Creek filming area (in addition to the Yakima area map already in the book) would be helpful, as I had to pull out an atlas for a couple of the chapters. A visual timeline would also be useful-once I plotted the events chronologically, the degree and depth of the scamming was nothing short of amazing. For folks without blind spots about Patterson and Bigfoot, this book is a tremendous resource. I recommend it highly. Lastly, in response to some other reviewers comments and questions -- > Why didn't Patterson confess on his deathbed if the film was a hoax?<p>A small guy, Patterson apparently had a whopping big ego. The pro-Bigfoot claim that Patterson not revealing the hoax before he died is proof that the film is valid just doesn't wash. Would Patterson prefer to be immortalized as the Great White Cinematographer of one the wonders of the world, or a con artist? Would he cut off the cash cow for his widow by confessing? Sorry, unlikely. That secret he would reasonably take to his grave.<p>> Was the suit made of horsehide or synthetic? <p>Bob H's claim that Patterson said the suit was made from horsehide can't carry much weight, given Patterson's t

I started reading this book after my husband threw it down in disgust. He's an avid bigfoot enthusiast. He and his friends really, really hate Greg Long. I wanted to find out why. So I read the book. I liked Mr. Long's personal style. I felt as I were going with him as he tracked down details about this story. He made the people come alive, as if I were right there during the interview. I had seen the PG film many times before. My husband and his friends (in person and online) talk about arm length ratios, stride, musclature and stuff like that. It's pretty convincing, and the film looks so real. But when I read about the kind of man Roger Patterson was, and the details of the story, I began to have real doubts about whether the film is real or not. Anyway, the book was a quick read, provided lots of interesting interviews, and brought up many questions about the film. I had to laugh at the bigfoot hunters that my husband and his friends admire so much. They came across as men who really need to get a life. But that doesn't surprise me at all, knowing the bigfooters. So many of them are just grown-up adolescent geeks who need something to care about.So, read this book. If someone you know is a bigfoot enthusiast, Mr. Long will give you questions to drive them crazy. It's fun to do. They're so emotional about the sasquatch. But then again, as I tell my family and friends who laugh at my husband's obsession, bigfoot is not just a creature, it's a religion.