Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)
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For the last 20 or so years, Steven Spielberg has been one of the few directors who can virtually guarantee a film being a box-office hit, merely by his name appearing on the poster. Back in the 1970's however, he was just another young director who had just had a successful film in the shape of “Jaws”. In 1977 he had his second major hit, and his first foray into the lucrative science-fiction genre, in the form of this alien encounter movie.
Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), a repairman for an electricity board has an encounter with a UFO which flies past him late at night, whilst he is working out in the countryside. After the encounter Neary, as well as others who have had similar encounters, finds himself drawn to an isolated mountain for reasons he cannot describe. As the compulsion to go there becomes an obsession, taking over his life, he feels he has to try to get to the mountain, but finds the way blocked by government forces who are investigating the incidents as part of a project led by French scientist Claude Lacombe (Francois Truffaut) who has discovered a number of strange events around the world he believes the aliens are responsible for. With the help of fellow encouteree Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon) he finds a way past the government cordon to the mountain, where is treated to the site of a group of alien spacecraft performing a slow fly-by and attempting to communicate with the government scientists.
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The movie’s biggest fault is that when the UFOs aren’t on screen, the movie isn’t really all that interesting. The characterisation is rudimentary and none of the characters are really all that interesting, the only attraction here is the shiny lights of the alien spacecraft. Similarly, the plot meanders along and after the initial encounters it’s just a matter of enduring Neary’s slow progress towards the spectacular final encounter scenes. The end of the movie offers some great special effects and a real sense of wonder but it’s questionable whether the good ending fully justifies sitting through the interminably dull rest of the movie.
The script’s lack of characterisation is compounded by some average acting which doesn’t manage to overcome the script’s mediocrity. Apart from Truffaut’s entertaining scientist there’s not much of interest here that isn’t shiny and flying.
In summary, this a reasonably dull movie with a poor script but good special effects whose main redeeming feature is one of the best endings in sci-fi cinema.
Rating : 6 / 10
All content ©2003 William Marnoch.
Comments? Agree/Disagree with the Reviews? Suggestions? Random Ramblings? Whatever you might want to say, feel free to e-mail me at william@wmarnoch.freeserve.co.uk .