Rob’s Retro Review: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

In the spirit of seeing “new to me” movies, I decided to watch Close Encounters of the Third Kind for the forty item in my life.

Okay, that may not be entirely true. I distinctly remember seeing parts of this movie as a young child. That may have been watching it on TV. I may have actually seen it in a movie theater. In any event, I don’t recall ever actually watching the movie from beginning to end enough to have any actual thoughts on it.

I must admit that I have shocked myself. This movie came out in 1977, the same year that the original Star Wars did. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are/were very much professional contemporaries – even friends in fact. Both Star Wars and Close Encounters… deal with the idea of extraterrestrial life. I’ve been interested in outer space for as long as I can remember, and yet somehow, I’ve never seen Close Encounters… from beginning to end. Until last night.

Incidentally, a “special edition” of CEOTTK – which included more scenes – was released in 1980. In 1998 a “directors cut” – which included more additional scenes and remove some of those that were added during the special edition – was released in 1998. for this review, I watched the 1977 theatrical release of the film

And if you don’t understand what the title Close Encounters of the Third Kind means, don’t feel bad. I had to look it up HERE

The plot

The movie opens with a French scientist Claude Lacombe (Francois Truffaut) and his American cartographer/interpreter David Laughlin discover numerous airplanes that were presumed lost decades earlier. They find the planes to be completely intact, with fuel and flight ready.

Meanwhile in Indiana, three year old Barry wakes up one night to find his toys by themselves. he wanders outside during a massive power outage, only two eventually be picked up by his mother Jillian (Melinda Dillon). Roy (Richard Dreyfus’s) a line worker sent out to investigate the power outages has a direct encounter with a UFO and eventually crosses paths with Jillian. In separate instances, both Roy and Jillian become subconsciously obsessed with a mountain shape. The path of these four characters will converge in Wyoming, where the military is making preparations for a potential encounter with a UFO.

I don’t remember actually seeing the movie as a child, but this shot is absolutely iconic

My take

I know that the movie is trying to get on the Insta task themselves. The question “are we alone in the universe?”. But for some reason, I really had a hard time getting too invested in any of these characters, besides a little Barry.

Roy’s obsession with the mountain shape (it’s the Devil’s Tower in Utah), and just his UFO encounter in general are not really discussed in any detail. He just wakes up acting weird one day. It’s no wonder that his wife and kids leave him. At least in the case of Julian, her obsession is a little bit more understandable. After all, her three year old son wonders out into the wild one night. Later on during a more direct encounter, he is actually abducted. Jillian has motivation for solving this mystery. Roy just wakes up one day really, really interested in UFOs. There’s actually a scene where he’s trying to make amends with his wife and starts removing clippings about UFOs from various points around his house. It’s never even established when he even puts these articles up in the first place. maybe this is something that is more clearly established in either the special edition or Directors cut of the movie.

I know that I am looking at this 1977 movie from a 2024 perspective, but I would’ve liked a little more exploration of the ramifications of these events on the general public. We don’t really see people talking about what it happened. And Laughlin‘s, along with those of the military are rather obvious. But how did the general public react to this stuff happening? Even is one didn’t see the UFOs themselves, such news would have everyone in the country, if not in the entire world, talking about aliens and UFOs. Even even the lights in the sky and experiencing massive widespread power outages would be enough to get the proverbial rumor mill up and running. Again, maybe this is something I could’ve been explored in a little bit more depth with a longer running time.

But as a movie go or going back and watching this nearly 50-year-old film, it was a pleasant experience to see some vintage “Spielberg bits” on display. Whether it’s aliens, sharks in Jaws or the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park, Spielberg’s characters views the wonders of the world with the eyes of a child. Likewise, composer. John was on his way to becoming one of the greatest composers of the 20th century here. There’s even homage to the Jaws theme when scientists are discovering the musical notes created by the UFOs.

Final analysis

Lukewarm. If you are a film, UFO or Steven Spielberg buff, I don’t think you can pass up this movie. However, I don’t think the movie says or establishes anything that we haven’t already seen duplicated in the years since its release. It’s not nearly a cerebral as 2001; nor does it have the heart of ET or the action of Independence Day. While the movie held a greater culture impact in the late 70s, I feel as if it falls into the middle of the pack overall in terms of UFO stories released in the nearly 5 decades since.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video

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