SPIELBERG DIRECTOR SERIES: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
“This means something.”
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CONTENT WARNING: Alien abduction, being treated as mentally ill, fear, obsession
Spielberg’s second film was intended to be his motion picture debut, a passion project of his since making an adolescent film in the mid-60’s. In many ways, it’s his personal love letter to sci-fi, and there are moment of sublime beauty and awe in this film. You could probably just watch the last 35 minutes of the movie showing the moment where humans make contact with alien life, and leave a movie theater buzzing with joy. Except there’s an hour-and-a-half of movie before it, and that movie is pretty hit or miss. Steven has no lack of vision, it’s fair to say, but if there’s anything to learn from this film, it’s that Spielberg should stay away from writing movies, and that every director needs to take a couple months away from a film before trying to edit. Add to that technical complications completely unforeseen because, well, they were literally remaking the rules of cinema, and you’ve got one heck of a technical achievement that winds up being a bit of a bore. But wow, those effects - they’re well worth the ride. Pile up the mashed potatoes and watch out for your electronics, we’re watching 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind on Macintosh & Maud Haven’t Seen What?!
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Intro and outro music taken from the Second Movement of Ludwig von Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Hong Kong (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 HK) license. To hear the full performance or get more information, visit the song page at the Internet Archive.
Excerpts taken from “Main Title and Mountain VIsions” and “Theme from ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’” from the Close Encounters of the Third Kind soundtrack, composed and conducted by John Williams. Copyright 1977 Arista Records Inc.
Excerpts from the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind are © 1977, 1980 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Excerpt taken from “Main Title” from the Star Wars soundtrack, composed and conducted by John Williams and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. Copyright 1977 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
