Rent Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Keep the memory - don't go back! - Close Encounters of the Third Kind review by CP Customer

Is it me getting older, or has this film that had us on the edge of our seats in the '70s begun to be dated? Or does it rely too heavily on special effects that we now see through? Characters are looking a little threadbare now, and the scene changes take us away from the human interest. Still a great film, but maybe I would have been better off just bathing in the memory...

Fantastic SciFi - Still Brilliant - Close Encounters of the Third Kind review by GI

One of Steven Spielberg's best films and a science fiction epic that posits that visiting extraterrestrial life would be friendly rather than have nasty designs on the Earth. Spielberg, who also wrote the screenplay, avoids his over sentimentality that he often dripped into his films and tells a remarkable two pronged story which run in parallel and eventually converge. The main one is that of Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), an electrical engineer, who is called out one night after a series of strange power cuts. Whilst out in the road he has a strange experience with what he believes to be a UFO and whilst his chaotic family don't believe him they become angry and fearful when he begins to obsess over a strange shape he sees in his mind. Alongside this the film intersperses a scientific investigation led by Lacombe (François Truffaut) into the appearance of strange lights seen in the sky and the discovery of formerly missing aircraft found in bizarre locations. Eventually the characters converge on a remote American location at a landmark mountain site the shape of which mirrors Neary's visions. There they experience the arrival of visiting aliens. A remarkable film brilliantly directed and edited to bring the two story lines together, the special effects are excellent for the time and this is a film that deserves recognition as one of the best science fiction films. It's a lovely story too, a family film that is has mystery, excitement and a feel good ending. It's one to sit down with your children and enjoy today. Interestingly there are three versions available, the original theatrical, a 'Special Edition' and the Director's Cut. I recommend the last one which allowed Spielberg to refine some scenes he was unhappy with in the original release and to remove a new ending that appeared in the Special Edition, an ending that was a step too far and was unnecessary.

The Shape in His Head - Close Encounters of the Third Kind review by griggs

Early Spielberg — hungry, weird, willing to let a utility worker dismantle his entire life over a shape he can’t get out of his head. Dreyfuss is brilliant: an ordinary dad who starts mashing potatoes and ends up in Wyoming, while the film is honest enough to show how ridiculous that looks from the outside. Funny at first. Then the joke curdles.

I hadn’t seen this in nearly forty years — a rewatch prompted by Disclosure Day — and yes, parts of it now look slightly dated, especially when the soundstage work announces itself. No matter. As a film about awe, obsession and first contact, it is superior by some distance. Spielberg shows little interest in explaining anything, so the mystery keeps its power. Zsigmond’s photography makes the everyday Midwest feel touched by something otherworldly, and the special effects still work because they create wonder with weight and scale. Truffaut gives the whole thing a quiet warmth: his Lacombe meets the unknown with curiosity, patience and basic decency.

Roy can be hard company, and the family dynamics are more than messy — he chases transcendence while leaving real damage behind him. Even so, the ending lands, the five-note motif lodges itself permanently in your brain, and that final sequence is magical, unsettling and oddly moving.

Lots of films give us aliens. Close Encounters captures the vertigo of discovery — the terror, the surrender, the sense that something vast just noticed you. Here, first contact becomes a miracle, and somehow, impossibly, it still works.