Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Directed by Steven Spielberg

Film Review

1977 was a vintage year for science-fiction.  Since Stanley Kubrick's groundbreaking visionary masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the sci-fi genre had languished in something of a limbo for almost a decade.  There was little interest in the genre, either amongst filmmakers or cinemagoers, and for two good reasons.  No sci-fi film could live up to the spectacle of the lunar landings of the early 1970s, and when interest in these faded, it would take someone of exceptional courage and imagination to tackle a sci-fi film of any kind.   Also, for most people, sci-fi was synonymous with the low budget fantasy B-movies of the 1950s, embarrassing spectacles of mediocrity in which mad scientists and unconvincing monsters engaged in an implausible spectacle of low grade entertainment.  Two films were to change all that - and for ever.  Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind and George Lucas's Star Wars, released within a month of each other, would reinvent the science-fiction movie and bring the kind of production values and artistic integrity to the genre that we now take for granted but which were, at the time, unheard of.

After Kubrick's 2001, Close Encounters was the first serious big budget science-fiction film.  It has become one of the best-known and most highly regarded offerings in a genre which had previously been scorned with derision, if not outright contempt, by most critics and film historians.  In almost every way, this is the complete antithesis of every sci-fi film that preceded it and Spielberg's genius is to take some very familiar  B-movie concepts and fashion them into something that is nothing less than a cinematic revolution.  An engaging and meaningful work of art, the film has also been cited as providing a quasi-religious experience. 

Instead of the tired old parable of Cold War paranoia in which evil aliens  (usually in not very convincing rubber suits) come to destroy us in our beds, Spielberg offers a radically different vision, in which highly intelligent beings come merely to establish peaceful contact.  Out go the ridiculous two-dimensional characters, who are merely ciphers in a badly constructed B-movie plot, and in come solid, believable characters that we can identify with, real people who have real lives and real feelings.   By making the characters and their world so convincing, Close Encounters is well and truly anchored in reality, so that we have no choice but to believe what we see, fantastic as it is.

What made Close Encounters of the Third Kind such a phenomenon when it was first released was its mind-blowing special effects, which are impressive even by today's standards.  These were orchestrated by FX genius Douglas Trumbull, who had previously worked miracles on Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, and contribute greatly to the awesome spectacle of the film.  The spaceships are particularly well realised and put to shame even the best efforts of the 1950s B-movie, convincingly showing us a civilisation that is way in advance of our own for possibly the first time in cinema history.

Interestingly, this was not Spielberg's first foray into science fiction.  He had previously made a similar film, Firelight (1964) when he was just 18, and this provided the basis for Close Encounters.   Riding high on the success of Jaws (1975), Spielberg was granted creative control of the film by Columbia Pictures, who gave him a budget of 2.7 million dollars to realise his dream of a sci-fi extravaganza.  As it turned out, Spielberg completely lost control over the budget and the film ultimately came in at 19.4 million dollars.  The director would happily have continued spending and working on the film for another six months had not Columbia called time and insisted the film be released in late 1977. 

The studio need not have worried: the film earned Columbia around 300 million dollars, its biggest ever success.  By way of recompense, the company gave Spielberg a budget of 2.5 million dollars to make a special edition, with the proviso that he shows us the interior of the mother ship (something which the director was opposed to and would later cut from the 1998 Collector's Edition).  With various scenes excised and some new scenes added, the Special Edition was released in 1980, a few minutes shorter than the original and a marginally better film.

The part of the French scientist is played by none other than François Truffaut, one of the foremost directors of the French New Wave.  Himself an avid science-fiction enthusiast, Truffaut had previously directed an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.  Other notable French actors (Lino Ventura and Jean-Louis Trintignant) were also considered for the part.  Another key ingredient of the film is John Williams's score, which turns out to be integral to the plot and beautifully complements the stunning images.

Close Encounters was not only a major box office hit, it was also well-received by the critics and won almost universally positive reviews (in comparison with Star Wars, which earned mixed reviews, for all its hype and popularity).  The film was nominated for eight Oscars in 1978 but won just one, for its cinematography, although a Special Achievement Award was given to Sound Effects Editor Frank E. Warner.  Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a cultural phenomenon and would have been the biggest science fiction event of the year, if not the decade, had a certain other sci-fi film not come along to steal its thunder.  Send in the Droids...

Film Synopsis

The scattered inhabitants of Muncie, a small rural community in Indiana, are visited by strange lights in the night sky.  One evening, a mother watches in horror as her small child is abducted by a flying saucer.  Electrical linesman Roy Neary is on his way to deal with a power blackout when his vehicle stalls and he is bathed in a blinding white light.  When Neary becomes obsessed with UFOs and the mental image of an unusual mountain, his wife is panic-stricken and flees with their children.  By chance, Neary discovers that the image implanted in his mind is the Devils Tower, a volcanic structure in Wyoming.  Without a moment's delay, he sets out for the monument, not knowing that thousands of others are being drawn to the same spot.  Meanwhile, a large international team of government scientists, led by Frenchman Claude Lacombe, is investigating the sudden discovery of ships and planes that have been missing for decades.  Lacombe deduces that this is the work of extraterrestrials who, he is certain, now wish to establish contact with mankind...