Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Anybody who has written him off because of his string of stinkers--or anybody who's too young to remember The Goodbye Girl--may be shocked at the accomplishment and nuance of Richard Dreyfuss's performance in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Here, he plays a man possessed; contacted by aliens, he (along with other members of the "chosen") is drawn toward the site of the incipient landing: Devil's Tower, in rural Wyoming. As in many Spielberg films, there are no personalized enemies; the struggle is between those who have been called and a scientific establishment that seeks to protect them by keeping them away from the arriving spacecraft. The ship, and the special effects in general, are every bit as jaw-dropping on the small screen as they were in the theater (well, almost). Released in 1977 as a cerebral alternative to the swashbuckling science fiction epics then in vogue, Close Encounters now seems almost wholesome in its representation of alien contact and interested less in philosophizing about extraterrestrials than it is in examining the nature of the inner "call." Ultimately a motion picture about the obsession of the driven artist or determined visionary, Close Encounters comes complete with the stock Spielberg wives and girlfriends who seek to tether the dreamy, possessed protagonists to the more mundane concerns of the everyday. So a spectacular, seminal motion picture indeed, but one with gender politics that are all too terrestrial. --Miles Bethany

Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi
Production: Sony Pictures Releasing
  Won 1 Oscar. Another 14 wins & 38 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.7
Metacritic:
90
Rotten Tomatoes:
95%
PG
Year:
1977
138
9,979 Views

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1 Comment
  • Greg St Pierre
    Greg St Pierre
    Favorite film of all time. The impact on my 10 year old mind was staggering. To this day many of the effects still look better than CGI. In an interesting connection, my uncle's friend, Phil Dodds, was the guy at the keyboard in the final scene. 
    LikeReply 45 years ago
    • Steve Ponchaud
      Steve Ponchaud
      check out my page! www.facebook.com/closeencountersfans :)
      LikeReply4 years ago
    • Greg St Pierre
      Greg St Pierre
      Steve Ponchaud I shall!
      LikeReply4 years ago

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