Directed by Steven Spielberg. Starring Richard Dreyfuss and Francois Truffaut.
Though it may not seem fitting at first, Close Encounters is an excellent follow-up film to discuss after Bonnie & Clyde. Let's follow the timeline... Interestingly, the New Hollywood generation of films I talked about yesterday quickly lead to the Blockbuster era of filmmaking. There are some positively classic examples of the early Blockbuster films, all of which I mentioned in my previous post (The Godfather, Jaws, and Star Wars were all key), and Close Encounters is also in the same vein. Just look at the year it was released... 1977. It's hard to think of Spielberg's alien film in conjunction with the release of the game changing Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, and I'm sure one overshadowed the other, but bad timing aside, Close Encounters of the Third Kind remains an intriguing UFO film rivaled only perhaps by Contact.
I had seen Close Encounters before viewing it again in my film history class -- of course. Spielberg is a fantastic filmmaker, and I'm sure I wasn't the only kid who grew up with E.T. then graduated to this as a more adult film version of a film about humans meeting aliens. Amazingly, this film really stands the test of time... We watched it in class on Blu-Ray on our nice large projection screen and it was *almost* like it would have been seeing it in theaters. To be honest, I was actually surprised how good even the spaceship and aliens at the end look... a little aged, perhaps, but in general, the special effects were quite well done for the 70s.
I find this movie interesting because it's particularly memorable to everyone who's seen it. Ask anyone what they remember, and I bet you'll hear a whistled version of the theme music, a joke about mashed potatoes, and a comment about the Devil's Tower. These things just stay with you. But there is more to the film than that, of course. Close Encounters is about believing in the impossible, and having others not believe in you. It's about children and adults seeing the world differently (as many of Spielberg's films are), and I think the film encourages a certainly childlike openness and wonder in the audience. In the end, it's wonderful to see a science fiction film that can hold its own in the annals of film history.
Though perhaps this film falls into the beginning of the era when Hollywood began caring more about Box Office returns than the quality of every storyline, I DON'T think Close Encounters is an example of a film or filmmaker that sold out. Okay, sure, this was a film that was made for roughly $19 million and made $300+ million, but this isn't a popcorn film like today's Transformers franchise... it's imaginative and creative. It made money, I'm sure, because people thought it was new and intriguing, and well-made. It's one of those movies where all of its pieces come together brilliantly -- from the special effects to John William's wondrous soundtrack to Richard Dreyfuss's manic acting. So, instead of seeing it already as a Hollywood Blockbuster, I think this film -- and others of the same period, like Star Wars -- mark the transition between "New Hollywood" and the Blockbuster era. Spielberg was still trying something new, like others in the 60s and 70s in Hollywood, but he was beginning to see that he could make money doing so. Still, he's aware of what came before... sci fi like 2001: Space Odyssey and even film history. (Fun fact: In an interesting nod to the French New Wave, which inspired many of the "movie brats," including Spielberg, it seems, the French scientist in Close Encounters is played by French filmmaker Francois Truffaut.)
Close Encounters is the best of both worlds... a smashing hit that is also an entertaining thrill. It's a film with a little bit of melodrama, some romance, a conspiracy theory or two, and plenty of eerie "close encounters" with flying saucers. This is a timeless hit that's worth seeing at any age.
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