rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States, United Kingdom; 1977
Directed by Steven Spielberg; produced by Julia Phillips, Michael Phillips; written by Steven Spielberg
Starring Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon, Bob Balaban, Lance Henriksen
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
A lot of science fiction films deal with hostile aliens or battles between
human beings and other creatures in future worlds. The funny thing is that
better films from the genre are not about those things. Of course there are
exceptions ('Alien', 'Star Wars', 'Blade Runner', 'Dark City') but movies
like '2001: A Space Odyssey', 'Solaris' and 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'
belong to the best and although there are real science fiction elements
there is no real sci-fi violence.
'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' is another example that belongs to
those movies. It is not that these kind of movie have no suspense, there is
enough, but it is created in a different way. Movies like this are more
interested in characters and a real story and therefore they seem to be more
believable. Of course the events are as unlikely as the events in a movie
like 'Independence Day' but when you can understand the actions of a
character you feel more engaged.
The main character in 'Close Encounters' is Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) who
has a close encounter with space ships not from this planet. He is not the
only one. Jillian (Melinda Dillon) and other people experience the same
thing. Jillian's son is even taken by one of the ships. After they have had
the encounter the people all have visions of a certain shape, which will
lead them to something I will not reveal.
Another important character is Claude Lacombe (director François Truffaut)
who discovers some strange things like a once missing ship in the middle of
the desert. He and his team, of course, also discover the space ships and
these two stories come together near the end when we learn more about the
aliens. The intentions of the aliens are uncertain for a long time. In the
early scenes this is important for the suspense and for the later scenes it
is important for us to stay interested.
Not that we wouldn't be interested anyway. There is so much to like here. Of
course we have the characters and their performers and Steven Spielberg's
direction but there is more. Spielberg has made a lot of movies with great
special effects and this is one of his earlier ones where he proves how to
use them in the right way. They are beautiful to look at and because at
first we only have glimpses of the ships a certain curiosity is created as
well. All this, a perfect story that seems to be about its characters but
goes all the way and even involves the government, and the famous music from
John Williams make 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' a great science
fiction movie.