Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Cast
Richard Dreyfuss as Roy Neary
Fran�ois Truffaut as Claude Lacombe
Teri Garr as Ronnie Neary
Melinda Dillon as Jillian Guiler
Bob Balaban as David Laughlin
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Rater #2 has description and Review
Rater #1
Has not seen movie
Rater #2
7/10. Steven Spielberg wasn't really famous until Close Encounters. Sure,
Jaws was out, but this made him famous. The same happened with
Richard Dreyfuss.
Close Encounters has Roy Neary as a regular married man who sees
strange lights in the sky. Soon he starts building strange structures
out of shaving cream and mashed potatoes. His wife (Teri Garr) thinks
that he is crazy. But, Roy can't stop making things to resemble that
structure. And soon he is on a hike out to the West for no apparent
reason.
Close Encounters really plays like two movies. The first one is a
tense sci-fi about spaceships and strange callings. The second is an
adventure of running away from the army. It didn't seem to fit well
together. Maybe if I wasn't half-asleep (and who knows, maybe I did
sleep), I would have liked it more. The "adventure" part seemed too
far away from the true plot of the film.
It is wonderous of it's achievement of aliens and UFOs. It takes a
subject used too often and puts it in a whole new light. The aliens
don't want to harvest us a la Signs. They came out the same reason we
would want to go out there-for discovery. Which is what the film is
about. The discovery of your true calling and what to do about it.
Roy goes out to the West not for a vacation or to see what it's like.
His intuition tells him to go there, and that's what he does. But
that's where some of the problem of the movie is.
As you may know, I like movies that leave us guessing at the end.
They make you think. But this left a few too many. Such as: what
happened to Roy? Did he go back and get back with his wife? And why
were the callings made? Were they just so Roy could find a reason to
go out there and meet the aliens? But then what about the other
people who did have callings but left? And why am I asking so many
questions? The ending scene is truly amazing in my point of view. It
doesn't rely on special FX (that musical-light board was awesome-I
need one of those) or computer tricks. It's a guy dressed up in a
suit, except he doesn't look like that. He looks like a real alien.
Except he had to be so stereotypical. Maybe Spielberg didn't feel
like thinking very hard that day.
So, see it if you like alien movies. See it if you like sci-fi
movies. See it if you like Steven Spielberg or Richard Dreyfuss. And,
see it if you like movies in general. No movie buff should go without
seeing this extraordinary achievement of movie magic.
Rater #3
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #4
6.5/10 I probably should have given a worse rating to this movie, but I decided not to just because. It was a good movie for all those seventies geekazoids and the veteran moviegoers, but to me it was just plain boring. I mean the plot didn't seem very original, but then again, when it was made I'm sure it was. The part with all those dead gassed animals was funky and so was the part where the guy goes nuts and sculpts a model of a rock formation in Wyoming. And then the idiot deserts his wife and kids to go to Wyoming, with another woman the whole audience knows he's dying to have an affair with. After that we meet those aliens with their enigmatic language that is only musical sounds. I don't mean to diss Spielberg. He's a Hollywood legend, but I don't know how the heck this flick made him famous. Ok so maybe the movie isn't that bad, but to 21st century movie buff, Spielberg's 70s shows just seem, well, not that interesting.
Rater #5
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rated PG for aliens and some language.
Running time: ? minutes
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