Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Fresh and Exciting

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This movie is overrated ... surely very well made and still worth watching "for entertainment purposes only!" even today because of its good (but not exceptional) cinematography ... but too overrated no matter what ... yes, a few fine scenes and even maybe a lot of calculated government-approved subversive messages too, but that's about it all ... have seen much better entertaining movies of this director (The Jurassic series for example) and this one barely cuts it even half as much ...

I hate to say it, I swear I'm not a contrarian, but Close Encounters is a mess. The film reeks of a young, overconfident Spielberg coming off the success of his masterpiece, Jaws, and directing his own screenplay, but afraid of editing himself down because he was in love with his script. And a solid idea his film's plot is, filled with interesting characters, an eerie yet hopeful take on alien life. Unfortunately, his film gets bogged down in the final third. Richard Dreyfuss is charming as ever, and his humor hits regularly, Melinda Dillon is also hugely watchable, and the soundtrack is incredible, one of the all-time greats, but a lot of what is setup is never paid off. Dreyfuss' family life is heavily focused on in the first two acts, but the film seems selfish, with Dreyfuss and the film abandoning his children and wife for a fantastical ending that just doesn't want to end, and plays the audience a little too long. It at times feels like Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in how it's so in love with it's giant ships and epic scale, but the humans get waysided by the spectacle. The ending is awe-inspiring, in fits, but overstays it's welcome, with a cynical character decision in the end, that left me angry and dumbfounded. This film is a complete mess, but it's a beautifully directed one, with an incredible score, and some great performances, and it should be appreciated for those reasons alone. It's worth a watch, and maybe it will connect with you more, but for me it seemed like 1977 Spielberg needed to be humbled, which seemed to have happened with his film 1941, with bombed, and brought him back down to Earth.

Movie Review: "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" (1977)In the very first year of dreaming being a director for life, Steven Spielberg, at the age of sixteen, in filmmaking season 1962/1963, when Hollywood Major Productions as "Cleopatra" starring Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton and English Imports as "Lawrence of Arabia" directed by David Lean winning all the glory at the Academy Award Ceremony in Los Angeles, California, a young U.S. American teenager from Columbus, Ohio starts principal photography on Super 8mm, in reminiscence of executive S. Spielberg producing "Super 8" for director J.J. Abrams in season 2010/2011, when images of gathered teenager take all their pride to finish a 140-Minute micro-budget science-fiction film releasing in 1964 under the title "Firelight", making some waves with executives at Universal Studios Hollywood, when legend says that 18-year-old Steven Spielberg from Columbus, OH jumped the visitor train at Universal Studios to make his way into an office of an Universal executive to present a copy of his film "Firelight" (1964).The rest is history, the name of the executive not to be revealed here, presumingly resting in peace, presented a 10-to-12 exclusive picture deal to the young man Spielberg, when first television as an episode of the weekly crime-feature series "Colombo" (season 1969/1970) before hitting an Hitchcockian thriller base with original television feature, exclusively produced for Universal Television, "Duel" starring Dennis Weaver, where Steven Spielberg, at age 24, already shows the visionary eye of connecting several angles into one shot, keeping the suspense going to a clean 85-Minute-Cut finish of ultimate action between a salesman and a truck driver.Steven Spielberg's fourth theatrically-released feature brings the director full-circle with his first "Firelight" endeavors in filmmaking, blowing up to an ultimate cinematic experience, when "Aliens" from outer space fly light-flashing saucers over U.S. American soil, doing magic of physicalities, which hit leading man portrayed by Richard Dreyfuss like an exploding lighbulb. He starts to see visions of an lonely mountain of "title-given" stage of encounter, when a French scientist performed by director Francois Truffaut (1932-1984) in an all-time exclusive favor from a French critically-acclaimed director to an new-age Hollywood blockbuster director that "Close Encounters of Third Kind" reaches the highest heights in cinematic splendor visually, audioable as the galvanizing score by director Spielberg's close-friend through the ages John Williams, recalling the "five notes of eternity" to play as inception of communication between "humans" and "aliens". F.A. Dausend (one-time author exclusive-engagement)Copyright 2018 Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC

I said it before and I'll say it again, but Steven Spielberg is a freakin' movie-making genius. Even in the infancy of his career, you could see he was destined for big things in Hollywood. Well, he struck gold with Jaws (see my review), and now he returns with his science-fiction feature Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Along with Star Wars, you can credit this movie for bringing sci-fi back into the realm of filmmaking. That is just one of the variety of reasons why I love this movie. It is an honest, mysterious movie about extraterrestrial life. The film gives off a sense of aura of mystery and wonder that will stay with you long after the movie is over. Unlike most aliens in movies, I love how Spielberg created these beings as peaceful, friendly aliens, and that Spielberg gave his human characters that sense. In other words, no one is hell-bent on annihilating these aliens. With a wonderful cast and crew behind him, Spielberg created one of cinema's richest, influential movies about aliens.So this movie has two important segments that are interwoven with each other. Each segment is a connective tissue for the other segment, and Spielberg (who also wrote this film) incorporates his magic very well. Our first segment has a bunch of scientists investigating mysterious objects that appear out of nowhere in the desert regions and these scientists are perplexed until French scientist Claude Lacombe (Francois Truffaut) uses knowledge of music as a basis of communication with these objects. The responses they get are confusing until cartographer David Laughlin (Bob Balaban) figures out the meaning of these responses. Meanwhile in the small town of Muncie, Indiana, electrician Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) and single mother Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon) lives are connected when they experience a bunch of flashing lights in the form of UFOS. Their lives become affected in every way as Roy starts having visions about what is occurring and is obsessed with finding out what is going on, and Jillian needs to figure out the connection between these mysterious UFOS and her three-year-old son, Barry.The cast and the crew do a wonderful job in putting this film together. After a huge blockbuster, Spielberg gained the right to make any film he wanted , and he chose this film to do. Somewhat of a passion project for him. Not to my surprise, Spielberg did an amazing job as director. He created a tight, effective story and he leaves the audience clamoring for more. The look of the film is really good, thanks to the amazing work done by cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond. There are two scenes that just show the majesty of his camera-work. The first scene is where Barry opens the door to this orange flashing light of the UFOS, The use of color here is amazing, and in return we get one of the most iconic shots of the film. The final scene I want to mention is when a whole bunch of UFOS fly over the town. There is a high-angle shot of a large UFO shadow hanging over a pickup truck. Brilliant camera-work! Now this film wouldn't have worked as well if it wasn't for the amazing score by John Williams. He previously worked with Spielberg on Jaws and created one of the most iconic scores ever made thanks to the use of only two notes. Well, this time he works with only five notes. These five notes is the main communication method of the mother alien ship and then Williams incorporated it into the main theme. Like many of William's works, this score is an all-time great.Now the film is very well-acted. I really loved Richard Dreyfuss's performance. After his roles in American Graffiti and Jaws, I was not sure that he could have done a better performance. Well he did just exactly that. His obsession became quite enticing to watch even as it was negatively messing up his life. I liked the way he figured out clues-really loved that scene with the mashed potato sculpture of Devil's Tower. The other performances are solid, even if they're not exactly memorable. Sure, we have the likes of Francois Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, and Teri Garr (who played Roy's wife), but I think this was mostly a one-man show for Richard Dreyfuss. Although the kid who played Barry did a good job.Overall, Close Encounter of the Third Kind is a very worthy follow-up to Jaws. I love what kind of science-fiction movie this is. One that delivers a sense of awe and mystery throughout the entire film. See, I love looking up at the night sky and wondering if there is any life out there at all. This film asks that question and more. It also asks if there was life, what kind of beings would they be? Well the film's jaw-dropping finale tells us the answer. I loved how the film introduced us to these aliens, but also how it dealt with first contact in the confines of Devil's Tower. The ending will blow your mind away. Give credit where credit is due, but those visual effects are quite polished for a 1977 feature. I highly recommend this movie because it is one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time. Not many films reach the heights this film does. Thank you for this expertly-crafted movie, Mr. Spielberg.My Grade: A