Close Encounters of the Third Kind Review

Close Encounters of the Third Kind. On paper, the movie is so good that one wonders, “Wow, how romantic and hopeful this man described the first contact with aliens.” First contact, communication through music, government conspiracy, the upheaval of an ordinary man’s life… As a concept, it will be written in golden letters in the history of science fiction. But when it comes to the processing, the transfer of the good idea on that paper into the film…

That’s where things go a little bit wrong. How’s the script? The movie is good on paper, but poor execution. I sat down at the keyboard just to make this sentence. Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) is an ordinary electrician. One night he comes face to face with UFOs, that famous lights scene really shows how visionary Spielberg was at that time. A shape is engraved in the man’s mind. Scenes and Characters Devil’s Tower. He leaves his home, his family, his job and pursues that shape.

In parallel, French scientist Lacombe (François Truffaut) and his team do the same thing; They are trying to communicate through music. Everything connects to each other, in the finale, that huge mother ship lands and we say hello to the aliens. Premis is great. The theme of obsession, the urge to explore, the question “are we alone?”… They are all in place. Here, Spielberg wanted to make a science fiction with a completely different tone, softer, more curious after Jaws.

And that sense of curiosity is truly contagious in the first 40 minutes. But then the movie gets in trouble. The process of destroying Roy’s family… Even though it looks like “the hero is making a sacrifice” on paper, it disturbs the audience in the execution. The man fills his house with toy trains, practically ignores his wife and children, and sometimes even turns into an annoying egomaniac. I don’t know if it was written this way because Spielberg did not have children at that time, but when you watch it today, you wonder “why is this guy so selfish?” Character psychology is not deepened here, it is just labeled as “obsession” and passed over.

Directing The same problem exists on the directing side. Spielberg’s visual mastery is undeniable: the lights dancing in the sky that night, that huge set at the foot of the mountain in Wyoming, the riot of colors in the finale… They are all magnificent. But the transitions in between, those long “waiting” scenes… The movie is 135 minutes long and its tempo slows down in the middle part. It’s as if Spielberg said, “Let me show everything so that the audience will be as amazed as I am,” but as a result, some scenes get longer and repetitive.

The idea of communicating through music is very original, but when that “do-re-mi” scene in the finale is extended a little too long, it makes you say “okay, we get it, it’s nice, but enough.” The friendliness of the aliens, the government’s concealment, everything remains very clean, very naive. In 1977, the same year that Star Wars exploded, this movie was released with the aim of being a “more mature, more realistic” science fiction, but that maturity remains a little on the surface in the processing.

The characters don’t get deep, the conflicts don’t get tough enough. As a result, the movie is etched in your memory as a “good idea”, but you don’t sit back and watch it thinking “wow, what a great movie”. In summary: Close Encounters of the Third Kind is an 8/10 science fiction on paper. But in terms of processing and portrayal of that idea on the screen, I think it’s 6/10. I respect Spielberg’s vision, as well as the special effects of that period…

But when I watch it again today, I say, “I wish it had been a little tighter, the characters were a little more realistic.” However, if you are a classic Spielberg fan who loves geek culture, be sure to watch it once. Because that “first contact” excitement has never been given in such a pure and innocent way in any other movie. But don’t keep your expectations high; The beauty on paper is not fully reflected on the screen.