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 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)Rated: PG Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children. Runtime: 137 mins. Director: Steven Spielberg Writer: Steven Spielberg (screenplay) Cast: Richard Dreyfuss; Teri Garr; Melinda Dillon; Shawn Bishop... complete cast Tagline: We Are Not Alone. Genre: Science Fiction Memorable Quote: "He says the sun came out last night. He says it sang to him. "
By Jason Fowler
Roy Neary, played by Richard Dreyfuss with an almost manic glee, is a blue collar family man in a small town out on a late night work order when he sees mysterious lights in the sky and is shaken up (quite literally) in his truck. Roy becomes obsessed with the incident much to the confusion of his boisterous family who begin to think he's lost his marbles. As the movie progresses, we wonder if he's lost them too. We know that he's had a very real encounter, but as his behavior becomes more and more erratic, we wonder at what cost. Soon, Neary is overwhelmed by his obsession of the incident and has an involuntary need to create a model of a mysterious mountain out of inanimate objects in the family's living room. This is where his wife played by Terri Garr (has she ever been this good before or since?) draws the line and takes their three kids and leaves. Another local, a single mother (Melinda Dillon) has had an even more harrowing encounter and has also become obsessed with the mountain. Eventually she and Roy discover that it is Devil's Tower in Montana that they are both drawn to and as they make their way towards it together, they soon learn that the powers that be do not want them there. Fleshing out the stellar cast is the French director Francois Truffaut as a UFO investigator who learns to communicate with the UFO's through an indelible five note musical phrase, which lends the film a surprisingly effective sweetness to signal to the audience that maybe the aliens aren't out to hurt anyone. We don't really know until the final twenty minutes of the film if the aliens are malevolent or benign, but Spielberg directs the film with such a wide-eyed wonderment of his subject matter, we are on board for wherever he decides to take us. When the Mother Ship finally ascends (yes, it ascends) I had the same "gee-whiz" expression as Dreyfuss and Dillon. The one thing that bothers me slightly about the film is it's dismissal of Roy's family. The scene in which Garr takes the kids and drives away at the height of Roy's hysteria feels very authentic and I didn't blame her for it at all. But one doesn't get the sense that this marks the end of this family as an intact unit, though the film never mentions them again and Roy makes a couple of choices later in the film that suggests otherwise. Spielberg mentions in the 'making of' documentary that if he'd made the film in 1997 as opposed to 1977, it would be a different movie altogether as his world view has changed considerably, so I'll have to chalk it up to his vision being more idealistic back then. It is also interesting to ponder if perhaps War of the Worlds is that such movie. Dreyfuss's Roy has an enthusiastic, child-like sense of discovery that aside from the alienization of his family, plays well as a parable of following your dreams, no matter how "far out" they may seem. We see much of him in the wonderful little boy who plays Dillon's three-year-old son who has an integral part in the film, and in fact, they just may be kindred spirits. Certainly, when at last we do meet the aliens, the film suggests that maybe they and Earth's mankind are, if not quite kindred spirits, then at least friendly. It's hard to pull off true emotional resonance in a film like this without heading to Sentimentalville, but this film does it with mythic grace. A truly great motion picture. Jason Fowler 
Screen formats: Widescreen Anamorphic 2.35:1
Number of discs: 2 - Cardboard folder with over/under disc trays all in a slip sleeve..
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