Steven Spielberg is one of my favorite directors who I don’t like to list as one of my favorite directors. It’s like saying, “I like air,” or “I need water to live,” because he has so much credit to his name that not liking him is more surprising than being a fan of his work. That said, Close Encounters of the Third Kind is one of the gaps in my movie history. I’d seen it once when I was too young to sit through it and only remembered Richard Dreyfuss building a mountain in the living room. After finally watching it, I’ve been teetering on where to put this film and it definitely belongs on the Must See list for any film fan.
Roy Neary (Dreyfuss) witnesses a U.F.O. phenomenon along with several other people and is left changed afterward. He feels drawn to them and can’t shake this image of a rock formation that he doesn’t know anything about.
One of the main reasons I wasn’t sure where to put this movie in terms of my rating system is I can’t recall a specific scene or moment that left an impact on me the way I can with Jaws, Jurassic Park, or many other films that I list as Must See. However, I was unbelievable drawn into this film despite suffering from caffeine withdrawals and being extremely tired. In fact, I almost didn’t watch this movie last night because I didn’t know if I could stay awake long enough. Not only did the movie pull me in, but I was generally waiting for the next scene to play out because I wanted to know where the film was going.
I’d seen parts of this film and I wasn’t sure if there would be any answers in this movie or not. Would Roy’s erratic behavior be explained? What was with all the old planes in the desert early in the film? And what about the pilots of those planes? There were so many mysteries opened and I was afraid of both the answers and the possibility of not getting any answers. Spielberg’s ability to tell a story shines in this film and really the film as a whole is a memorable rather than a single moment or scene.
Dreyfuss shines again with Spielberg and his performance really helps bring the story together. Alongside Dreyfuss, is Terri Garr playing Ronnie Neary and Melinda Dillon as Jillian Guiler who also witnessed the U.F.O.’s that night. The idea of skepticism is thoroughly seen throughout the film and the plight of Roy trying to make people believe what he saw is a strong theme.
If you’re like I was and never seen this film I definitely recommend you check it out. It’s a really interesting story that has a few suspenseful moments.
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