| Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) | |
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Rating: 7.6/10 (215,833 votes) Director: Steven Spielberg Writer: Steven Spielberg, Hal Barwood, Jerry Belson Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr Runtime: 138 min Rated: PG Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi Released: 14 Dec 1977 |
| Plot: Roy Neary, an Indiana electric lineman, finds his quiet and ordinary daily life turned upside down after a close encounter with a UFO, spurring him to an obsessed cross-country quest for answers as a momentous event approaches. | |
This was one of those films that I caught as a child, and it impacted on my love of the big screen as a result, whilst also expanding my sci-fi adoration from just the action-adventure of Star Wars to something more thought provoking.
The tale is simple – UFO sightings and events are increasing, and a blue-collar worker (Dreyfus) finds himself drawn into events after a close encounter. He becomes obsessed with UFOs, and starts to have mental visions of something – which he begins to try to create to get the image out. At the same time Melinda Dillon as Jillian sees her son abducted by aliens, and also becomes obsessed with the same image – like a signal is contacting them both to guide them. That image is of a location where the aliens will finally reveal themselves to the world…
I’ve seen people gripe that nothing happens in the film, and complain that there is no excitement – but to say so would be to miss the whole point – this is a film about obsession with the unknown, where the thrill is in the discovery that you aren’t going crazy, and that you will get to touch that which you believe in.
This is the simple tale of ordinary people affected by extraordinary events! And Spielberg tells it so perfectly.
Richard Dreyfus is engaging as the typical family man, struggling to raise his kids, whose life is turned upside down after his encounter. His home life starts to suffer as his sanity is called into question, and he plays it perfectly. It is easy to like him, and root for him, whilst also easy to see how to the outside world he appears to be going crazy.
Small glimpses of lights and craft early in the film tease at the wonders to come, and Spielberg knows what to show and when – indeed Roy Neary’s encounter is played out from inside the truck with him as it is lifted and affected by a beam – we see lights and that is all. Spielberg saves the full reveals for the spectacular end – and boy is it spectacular! The detail on the craft that arrive is wondrously beautiful, and the musical language to communicate adds a further wonder to it all. Then the mothership arrives, and it’s expanse looms over the staging area in full glory, and you can’t help but gasp in wonder when you see it for the first time. Even on repeated watch, the sheer scale is magnificent.
Add to it a John Williams score, and the film is sheer perfection – especially when seen in the Directors Cut version which added a few scenes, and removed the forced upon ‘inside the mothership’ ending that Spielberg was pressured to include in the Special Edition.
