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"This means something. This is important."

1977 PG / Scifi Drama Directed by: Steven Spielberg Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, J. Patrick McNamara

Tagline

Close Encounter of the First Kind - Sighting of a UFO. Close Encounter of the Second Kind - Physical Evidence. Close Encounter of the Third Kind - Contact. WE ARE NOT ALONE

Summary Capsule

A goofy suburbian chases UFOs after a few too many "close encounters", if you know what we mean

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Justin's Rating: Mom said not to play with your food!
Justin's Review: I don't think we realize how spoiled we are as movie watchers when it comes to our being In The Know (I've said as such in my Donnie Darko review). We expect — NAY, demand — to be following the heroes as they clumsily exposit the main plot, spoon-feeding it to us like breast milk. Hey, you can spoon-feed breast milk, right? If there's a mystery in a film, an unknown factor, we can be fairly sure that it'll be cleared up for us in a matter of minutes. Not being In The Know can drive us absolutely bonking nuts. Yeah, so prepare to go a little nuts.

"It teaches us that aliens like to come down the chimney like Santa Clause, playing with dirt in your living room is sometimes necessary, and alien races have absolutely no musical taste."

Close Encounters of the Third Kind engages that rare cinematic perspective of watching from the sidelines (instead of in the thick of things) that was recently dug up and dusted off for the brilliantly tense Signs. The story's been done before and since about a thousand times — first contact with aliens on earth — but somehow this is so different that you can't even put it in the same league as Independence Day or Star Trek: First Contact. Mostly because it isn't a loud, flashy movie full of ominous bass lines and government officials bustling around looking for one startlingly buff guy to take the fight to them. Instead, we look through the eyes of some fairly average joes who know something's going on, but can't figure out exactly what.

As far as I can figure it, a group of alien teenagers have finally gotten their drivers licenses, and decide to drag race over Earth. Their spaceships' mere presence makes everything go funky — from reappearing World War II aircraft to magically reversing gravity — and certain people single-handedly jump-start the tabloid industry by religiously following the craft sightings. Yet the ultimate irony is that these folks (particularly sideburns-happy Richard Dreyfuss) have a better grasp on what's going on than the various world governments and agencies, who keep racing around like they're the Keystone Cops or something. Bad comparison? Are the Keystone Cops too archaic? Yeah, I thought so. Then why does everyone still compare anything that's bumbling and incapable with the Keystone Cops? Particularly when you've got Congress and TV network executives and all.

After over a decade of MTV-influenced manic filmmaking, which has gotten to the point that only bipolar epileptic telepaths can interpret the fast cutting that goes on, it's such a profound relief to watch a talented filmmaker concentrate more on casually building up a story than immediately jumping to where Things Blow Up. Stephen Speilberg coasts around the globe, touching on the strange world-wide phenomena that has sprung up around the UFO sightings, staying in each spot just long enough to make us believe that, yeah, this could happen, and this is how people from the seventies would react to it.

I never saw Close Encounters before this year (2003), and even over a quarter century since it was filmed, I can easily point to this movie as something special and equally powerful as any that are released today. There's just such a sense of craftsmanship that goes into each scene that makes it interesting to progress through what might be a fairly trite story. It teaches us that aliens like to come down the chimney like Santa Clause, playing with dirt in your living room is sometimes necessary, and alien races have absolutely no musical taste. Five notes? Sure, that might be good enough for kindergarten beginner band, but even my dog can snort something more catchy than that.

Roy (Dreyfuss) shows a warm humanity, see-sawing between E.T. obsession and love for his family. You feel a bit bad watching these naughty aliens pull a family apart, not with phasers and inside-out rays, but by replacing one priority (a man's family) with something entirely new. Yes, that's correct: a supernatural fixation with Captain Crunch. If only Roy knew that these little grey men were just scouts for the approximately three hundred alien races that would be laying waste to the surface of the planet in future scifi films, he might not be as excited.

Darn it! I know what this film is! It means something... if only I could figure it out...

This rave cost a FORTUNE! His parents warned him not to enter the Deadly Closet Passageway to Hell, but since when does Johnny listen? "Yeah, okay. Fine. Yours is bigger than mine."

Didja Notice? [some sources: IMDb]

• The guy scaring himself with his own flashlight
• The dumb cop who drives off the road to follow the UFOs
• I wish I had a globe to bowl around like that
• Don't play with your food!
• The newspaper article: "Canada: A Haven For UFOs?"
• I like how casually Roy drives through the barracades.
• It is possible to see an upside down R2-D2 (from Star Wars, etc) in part of the large spacecraft that flies over Devil's Mountain. The SFX people needed more detail, and so supposedly there are many more such items, such as a shark from Jaws (also directed by Spielberg), etc. R2-D2 is visible as Jillian first sees the mothership up close from her hiding place in the rocks.
• In the scene where Barry (Cary Guffey) says "Toys!" as he looks out the window and spots the UFOs, Steven Spielberg actually pulled out a toy car behind the camera to cause Barry's unexpected "one-take" reaction.
• Real air-traffic controllers were used in the opening sequence.
• The 5 notes the scientists keep playing to get the spaceships attention are G, A, F, (octave lower) F, C.
• During the dinner scene just before Roy piles on the mashed potatoes, you can hear the little girl say, "There's a fly in my potatoes." This was unscripted and almost caused the rest of the cast to laugh. The scene was kept as-is.
• A sign at a McDonalds restaurant in one scene says "Over 24 billion served".

Is It Worth Staying Through End Credits?

Not really.

Intermission! [some sources: IMDb]

Paul Schrader wrote the original script. When Steven Spielberg, changed a great deal of it, Schrader decided to remove his credit. Since the film couldn't be left with no credit for writing, Spielberg claimed it for himself.

The working title was "Watch the Skies", the closing words from The Thing From Another World. These words also can be heard in the cartoon that wakes Neary.

It was one of the first home videos released with NCI Closed Captioning in 1981 by Columbia. When you have your TV set to display closed captions, a closed captioning copyright "Captions Copyright 1981 Columbia Pictures Corporation" is displayed at the end of the movie. That is present in all versions of the movie including the 1998 re-edit.

The film holds the record for most cinematographers on a production (11, counting the Special Edition).

Groovy Quotes

Brad Neary: I don't understand these fractions.
Roy Neary: What's one third of sixty?
Brad Neary: That's a fraction, I don't understand them.
Roy Neary: Alright, let's say that this box car is sixty feet long, OK?, and one third of it is across this switch here, alright... And now another train is coming... Now, how far do you have to move this box car so that the other train doesn't smash it? Quickly Brad, there are thousands of lives at stake... Brad any answer... [train crashes]

Roy: This means something. This is important.

Air Traffic Controller: AirEast 31, do you wish to file a report of any kind to us?
Pilot: I wouldn't know what kind of report to file, Center.

Translator: He says the sun came out last night. He says it sang to him.

[Trying to get his kids to look for UFOs at 4 AM.]
Roy: It's better than Goofy Golf!

If you liked this movie, try these:

• Signs
• Donnie Darko
• Taken