Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr

Roy Neary, an electric lineman, watches how his quiet and ordinary daily life turns upside down after a close encounter with a UFO.

Judging by the box office takings, ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ must have been fascinating over four decades ago. Unfortunately, by today’s standards, it is pretty bland.

Steven Spielberg might be an amazing director, but he certainly is not a good writer. This script is so bland with equally bland (and many dispensable) characters that it probably would not have made it to a production company’s desk if it was written by a no-namer. There’s just so little interesting happening here, and none of the characters stand out as interesting. Terri Garr is an incredibly annoying character, and we later see Roy (Dreyfuss) kissing Jillion (Melinda Dillon) but there’s no pay-off, so why bother adding the kissing scene?? And halfway through the movie Roy’s family just disappears from the movie (going to her sister) when they are no longer needed. (When I did a script writing course, they specifically warned us about characters ‘disappearing’ from a story. But hey, I suppose it doesn’t matter if Spielberg does it…).

I could go on forever about the boring characters, but lets focus on the visuals for a moment. Wow, incredible! The visuals are very realistic considering how long ago the movie was made. Spielberg certainly is a very visionary director with a knack for bringing the (almost) impossible to screen. The film looks good. Sadly, though, I found the film very boring. I mean, there really wasn’t much happening. And at times I was convinced the movie was meant to be a comedy…

The final (long) act had great visuals, but it was dragged out and went on forever to the point where it, too, became boring. If you’re looking for an alien movie (with aliens), then this is definitely not the right choice, because you won’t find any aliens here (oh, apart from the minute or so towards the end…).

So, what’s the point of the movie? What’s the message? Never throughout the movie did they mention about people that were abducted or went missing, yet there’s a scene where people returned to Earth and the officials even had pictures of the missing.  Why did the aliens choose Roy at the end? Why did he simply abandon his family by going with them?  What’s the conclusion? Nothing important happened here…

For some reason, ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ was a huge box office success, earning nearly $307 million on a $20 million budget (!!!). It received several award nominations, including Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Sound, Best Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Actor, Best Make-Up… It won an Oscar for Best Cinematography.

Would I watch it again? No.