Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Directed by Stephen Spielberg
Written by Stephen Spielberg
1977/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation/EMI Films/Julia Phillips and Michael Phillips Productions
Repeat viewing
#618 of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die
IMDb users say 7.7/10; I say 9.5/10

[box] Barry Guiler: You can come and play now.[/box]

What better way to get back into the swing of my “must-see” movie viewing than with this practically perfect science fiction/fantasy?  This would have received full points from me if the aliens had been left a mystery at the end.

I have always preferred this film to Star Wars, which came out the same year.  The plot of Star Wars could have, and had, taken place in the Old West, medieval Japan, or a fairy-tale kingdom – anywhere, indeed, where good guys fought bad guys.  Close Encounters only works as a collision of every day reality with the Unknown.  The audience can identify with the befuddled everymen and share their sense of wonder.

I love the delight of tiny Barry Guiler when an unseen delegation from a UFO marches through his house like a whirlwind.  And I can only sympathize with Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) and his entire family as a force no one can understand takes over his will and life.

That is why I would have preferred to have let my imagination create aliens wonderful enough to create this kind of awe.  I don’t think any kind of physical representation could have done the trick.  As it is, the aliens look all too much like E.T.   I was amused, however, at a shot that clearly shows the resemblance between big-eyed toddler Cary Guffey as Barry and the faces of the smaller aliens.

But this is nitpicking.  Until the end, I was totally engrossed in the story, which has held up admirably all these years later.

Original Trailer