#640- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Plot Summary: In the middle of the night in Muncie, Indiana, young Barry Guiler awakes to see his toys moving on their own. He finds someone or something in the kitchen and follows it outside, leaving his mother Jillian to follow him. At the same time, electrician Roy Neary is investigating a city-wide power outage when a UFO hovers over his pickup truck and departs. After nearly running over Jillian and Barry with his truck, Roy forms a friendship with Jillian connected by their fascination with UFOs. Roy begins to develop erratic behavior much to the dismay of his wife Ronnie, who leaves him and takes their children with her. Jillian's home is terrorized by these outer world visitors again, this time abducting Barry. Meanwhile, French scientist Claude Lacombe learns of a five-tone musical phrase as the basis of communication with the aliens, and after his American interpreter David Laughlin has figured out how to properly map their coordinates in the codes, the United States Army evacuates the area and secretly plans to have the UFO land and communicate with them.
Did you know that 1977 gave us TWO groundbreaking science fiction films? I'm sure most people know of one (Star Wars...duh), but for the casual moviegoer, Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of a Third Kind I'd imagine goes under their radar in comparison. Is there even a need for comparison? Both films have similar qualities (John Williams score, the fact that Spielberg and George Lucas are buddies), but not as many as you'd expect. Spielberg takes the space adventure to Earth and creates a story that seems to fit his imagination like a glove. Now, here's where I put a gigantic HOWEVER, I will acknowledge that there is a lot of bits in this film that to me were BORING. Of all the Spielberg movies I had seen before starting this career retrospective, Close Encounters was the one I was looking forward to the least in terms of talking about it, but I made sure to keep an open mind when revisiting it for this review. So, what was I able to appreciate from a film of this magnitude, when I will publicly admit that it hasn't aged gracefully in terms of Spielberg's other films? Let's find out.
The movie follows three main character narratives, so we will begin by looking at Rob Neary, played by Richard Dreyfuss. After making contact with the aliens, Rob begins to undergo some strange side effects, which makes his family, specifically his wife Ronnie, played by Teri Garr, uneasy (maybe she just needs a good "roll in ze hay"). Dreyfuss does a really great job of capturing Rob as a curious but determined everyday man. We really feel for the guy, especially when his family takes the high road to get away from him, since we know he isn't insane. We clearly saw a UFO fly over his pickup truck, but no one else did and that's what's so tragic about his mental deterioration. Still, many of the scenes of his "breakdown" are humorous, making mud, shaving cream, and other household items the punchlines for his eccentricities (Mark my words, some of you will never look at mashed potatoes again without thinking of Richard Dreyfuss...MARK MY WORDS!!!).The next character to look at is Jillian Guiler, played by Melinda Dillon (yes, she IS the mom from A Christmas Story). Like Rob, the audience absolutely empathizes with Jillian. We not only see the aliens take her son Barry, played by Cary Guffey, but we see her have to watch it all happen. Then, we feel for her even further when, surprise, surprise, not many actually believe her. Her bond with Rob is actually very enjoyable and doesn't range on obvious forced love interest territory. Here, the two seem like very platonic friends that have formed from a common goal, to prove their sanity. The scenes where her home is affected by the alien visitors are particularly creepy since their presence causes many household objects to go berserk, from doors opening, to devices turning on. Her early scenes create a very threatening tone and establishes the creatures without informing the audience of whether or not they're friend or foe.
Of course an alien movie like this is incomplete without government involvement, so let's look at the French official in charge of UFO-related activities Claude Lacombe, played by Francois Truffaut. Not much is known about Truffaut, but he is played as a highly intelligent man who has more answers in his head than he is willing to give out to Rob and Jillian. It's thanks to him that we have the iconic scene where the government communicates with the UFOs via light and sound on a gigantic electric board. It's the film's biggest highlight, thanks to the wonderful combination of special effects and the beautiful score from John Williams (it made me tear up...it's THAT good). So yeah, there's not much done with Lacombe, but he's a solid enough edition to the side characters and he's involved in the film's biggest scene.
The film's realistic approach (which I'll get to later) is also accompanied with many different examples of Spielberg's trademark whimsy. Some of it comes from the family lives of the main characters, including the use of child actors (even if they aren't exactly the greatest Spielberg has ever used), and of course a brilliant musical score from John Williams. Also, if you look really close you can see early glimpses of Spielberg's love for spotlights (or as the Nostalgia Critic calls it, his Spotlight Fetish). Actually, the more I describe it, the more I realize that Close Encounters is a blueprint for a lot of Spielberg's films that also introduced a wide array of these filmmaking techniques (I already mentioned E.T., but also Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Hook).
Close Encounters of the Third Kind introduced the world to a Spielberg subgenre: his science fiction movies. Spielberg loves delving into the realm of science fiction in a lot of his films, particularly involving contact with aliens. Some of it works (Close Encounters and E.T.), and some of it doesn't (War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), yet all of them offered something different. War of the Worlds tried from a perspective of fear and peril since those aliens were hostile, E.T. chose a more family friendly environment that made the government the threat instead of the aliens, and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull used aliens as an attempt to completely jump the shark (I couldn't resist). Close Encounters goes somewhere between all of these and creates many points of view that range from pessimistic about the existence of aliens, to the optimistic of trying to establish communication and contact with them. It's a very realistic approach to the existence of aliens that I'm sure was overdue thanks to some of the science fiction movies that were churned out during the '50s and '60s. It brought forth the idea of how we would really respond to alleged contact with beings from another planet and created a legacy for Spielberg and science fiction that surpasses the context of the film itself.Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Close Encounters of the Third Kind can drag a little bit, and not all of it has aged well over the years, but it still has some charm to it and is a very important film to watch. It's the film that introduced Spielberg into the sci-fi genre, and I'd recommend all moviegoers check out this film at least once as a rental. Fans of science fiction and Spielberg, however, should add this film to their collection (specifically the 3 Disc Special Edition that has the original theatrical, digitally remastered, and director's cut all on one set).
Close Encounters of the Third Kind and movie images are copyrighted by Columbia Pictures
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