Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977/80)

A feast for the eyes, this opulent special effects story explores encounters with mysterious spaceships and even communication with the intelligent, peaceful alien creatures. Lineman Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), investigating a power shortage in rural Indiana, encounters a UFO when his truck comes to a halt with the spacecraft hovering over it, bathing it in blinding light. Signposts and postal boxes jiggle, his car instruments go haywire, and he is burned beet red when he tries to look up into the light, which vanishes in seconds. Speeding into the hills, Roy meets two others, Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon) and her son, Barry (Cary Guffey), who have undergone similar "close encounters." They sit atop a large hill, and their vigilance is rewarded when a squadron of small UFOs suddenly appears, darting about and sailing over them. Roy returns home obsessed with what he has seen. He cannot work, sleeps to excess, and disrupts his married life with wife Ronnie (Teri Garr). Jillian's farmhouse is later surrounded by UFOs searching for the little boy, who playfully invites the aliens inside. Jillian locks up the house, but alien power intrudes through electrical outlets, appliances, and vents. Her son is finally dragged by unseen hands into a UFO and whisked away.

Roy, meanwhile, has been sculpting with his childrens' clay, attempting to build a strange-looking mountain. Others who have seen the UFOs frantically consume their time by sketching the same mountain. Scientists from around the world gather under the leadership of Claude Lacombe (François Truffaut) and begin to discover missing ships and planes in unlikely spots. In the middle of a desert, they find a huge cargo vessel and later a squadron of U.S. fighter planes that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle decades earlier. They also begin to piece together a musical code from tribesmen all over the world who have heard certain notes played by the visiting aliens. Roy, Jillian, and others who have encountered the aliens inexplicably make their way to Devil's Tower in Wyoming: this is the rendezvous arranged between the aliens and world scientists. Although quarantined—the area has been put off limits under the guise of protecting residents from poisonous gases—Roy, Jillian, and others manage to get into the district. They are captured and ordered home, but they escape from a helicopter and run into the mountain area, climbing to the other side of Devil's Tower by nightfall to witness a secretly prepared landing strip where scientific crews await the aliens' visit. Congregation of spaceships First a group of smaller UFOs appear, then an enormous spaceship. It is so gigantic that it dwarfs the Devil's Tower, hovering above the landing strip. The scientists communicate with the mother ship through musical codes they have learned, and the ship answers. Then a cargo door opens and hundreds of people missing for decades are released, along with Jillian's small son. Oddly, the long-gone people have not aged a day. A slender alien, shaped like a human embryo, appears and communicates with Lacombe via sign language, gesturing peace and love. Adventure ahead Roy has by this time joined the team chosen to go with the aliens on a space expedition. The humans are led aboard the huge spacecraft by childlike aliens, and the craft roars upward into darkness and unknown adventure. (In the special edition of this film, outtakes were reinserted to show Roy entering the craft and beholding a blinding inner universe of marvelous lights and machines, more of a fantastic light show than an explanation of how and why the aliens visited tired old Earth.)

Of all the UFO films ever made, this is the most edifying, a wonder of superb special effects—from the cleverly designed spaceships to the manipulation of elements, weird cloud formations, winds, lightning, all heralding the approach of the UFOs. What sets the film apart from others of its popular genre is that the aliens are loving and beneficent, not the raging creatures lusting for human lives as found in The Thing or War of the Worlds (1953). Close Encounters is outer space turned good and godlike, ending on a wonderful optimistic note instead of fatalistic gloom and doom. The film's appeal was enormous and still is. Writer-director Steven Spielberg took a simplistic attitude toward UFOs and approached the subject as would a naive and accepting child, as did the millions of viewers who look to the skies in sanguine awe and wonder. His magnificent vision, expanded upon in a more prosaic manner in E.T. (1982), resulted in staggering box-office returns. The original version grossed more than $77 million; another $6 million was added in 1980 when Spielberg inserted footage cut from the original production and released the extended version under the title Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Special Edition (1980) .

Spielberg had long envisioned this film, even before making Jaws (1975), and he originally thought the lead should be a middle-aged man. He wanted Jack Nicholson for the part, but Dreyfuss, who had appeared in Jaws (1975), pleaded for the role and got it, proving himself to be a major talent. Spielberg drew his material from Dr. J. Allen Hynek's book, The UFO Experience, published in 1972, and Hynek himself served as a technical advisor and appears in the movie during the final landing strip encounter (smoking a pipe and looking on knowingly). French director Truffaut plays a role based on French UFO expert Jacques Vallée, who had worked with Hynek. Awards Close Encounters was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Direction, Best Supporting Actress (Dillon), Best Art Direction, Best Sound, Best Original Score, Best Film Editing, and Best Visual Effects. It won Oscars for Best Cinematography and Best Sound Effects Editing.

Performer/Character

Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Neary

Francois Truffaut, Claude Lacombe

Teri Garr, Ronnie Neary

Melinda Dillon, Jillian Guiler

Cary Guffey, Barry Guiler

Bob Balaban, Interpreter

Laughlin J. Patrick, McNamara Project Leader

Warren Kemmerling, Wild Bill

Roberts Blossom, Farmer

Production Credits

Producers: Julia Phillips, Michael Phillips

Assoc. Producer: Clark Paylow

Director: Steven Spielberg

Writer: Steven Spielberg

Editor: Michael Kahn

Musical Compose:r John Williams

Production Designer: Joe Alves

Special Effects: Roy Arbogast, Gregory Jein, Douglas Trumbull, Richard Yuricich, Matthew Yuricich

Cinematographer: Vilmos Zsigmond (Metrocolor)