Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

[Jonathan Mock]

Watched this a while back, its a film I generally used to enjoy until I was struck with the realisation of what a really stupid film it is. I mean, stupid as is "bad stupid" rather than say "good stupid" (like "Meteor").

The actual plot, visual effects and acting are great, I'm a big fan of Doug Trumball's work (trivia note - his movie "Brainstorm" was Natalie Wood's last film) and there are some nice sequences that I enjoy greatly.

But.

But I think the biggest sticking point for me with the film is how totally evil these supposedly "benign" and "intelligent" aliens are supposed to be.

Where to start? Ok, for one thing they kidnap people! Old ladies, school kids, Flight 19, you name it, ET has whisked them away without a by-your-leave. And not only do they kidnap a small boy, they also terrorise his single mother in the process bring toys to life, the washing machine to go ape-mental, screws to unscrew and generally wreck up the place for added fun. Cheese and crackers , what kind of "friendly" aliens act like that?!

(Note: the sequence did scare the braunviolet out of me as a kid, but then I assumed the aliens were evil!

Secondly, the also cause power cuts - that's not very socially responsible is it? They also play a "funny" prank on Richard Dreyfuss at a crossroads (the lights coming up behind) before terrorising him and giving them some kind of radiation induced sunburn in the process. They also cause traffic accidents and don't pay state toll fares. THEY DON'T PAY STATE TOLL FARES.

They also drive Dreyfuss' character (Roy Neary) to the point of insanity, losing him his job and breaking up his family before they invite him to come aboard their spaceship - note they invite him, rather than just snatching him. The perps don't even have a consistent MO.

But hey, its OK because at the end of the film the aliens return the abductees - and that's what they are folks, people who have been forcibly taken away against their own will - who range from US Navy pilots and 1950s teenagers to old people and small toddlers and the whole thing is played out with a sense of awe and joy as the returnees (read VICTIMS) are ticked off the missing persons lists.

Sorry, rewind a little there, a sense of awe and joy?!

These people were abducted!! What happened to the families in the meantime? Grieving over loved ones who went missing, perhaps passing on not knowing what happened? Imagine seeing mom again only she's still 21 and you're now pushing 70! Sheesh! And yet everyone in the movie treats the return of these people as something wonderful and benevolent! Thank you ET, thank you for returning my daughter after 40 years, her father isn't around to see her, he topped himself in '58 unable to cope with the loss, but still, its nice of you to return her and oh, she hasn't aged a bit...

I wonder if Patty Hearst's kidnappers were ever treated with the same geniality? And surely these "intelligent" aliens must realise the anguish and suffering they have caused. And yet the whole thing is treated lightly, that these people are our "friends - eh?! Worse still, these aliens seem to have been doing this and the government knew all about it. They. Knew.

Then we come to perhaps the films dumbest piece of dumbery when its decided to clear a huge area around the Devils Tower in anticipation of ET putting in an appearance. Its not a bad idea except that ET's idea of discretion is to turn up in a spaceship the size of a small town and all lit up like a Christmas tree, making big farty sounds that break glass, not to mention all the other little Tinkerbell's zooming around. Now, with a media scrum surrounding the area given the "nerve gas" cover story, having ET lighting up the sky for tens of miles around might not go unnoticed.

And then we have the aliens themselves. Now, for a supposedly superior race that can build huge spaceships and travel billions and billion of miles, you'd think they'd make the hatch to their ship a bit bigger so that the chief alien (the one with the long legs and arms) doesn't have to get down on all fours in order to climb out. They can build a faster-than-light drive, but not a decent door way. I can only imagine they kidnapped a builder from England who promised to come round Monday to fix the door and never did.

At least you know where you are with the aliens in "ID4", "WotW" or even "Alien", they are evil and don't muck about letting us know that, whereas the ET's in "CE3K" seem to wrap their totally unacceptable terrorist behaviour up in some benevolent coating that mankind swallows - check out Lance Henrikson looking all doughy-eyed in one of the film's final pull-back shots. We need Frank Black's cynicism at that point! You want final proof? When the big alien stands before assembled crowd he gives a Hitler salute!

Heck, we even give these kidnapping, irradiating, house wrecking, family destroying ET terrorists more people for their troubles - sadly Spielberg never showed the smile on Neary's face dropping when he saw the probe machine heading towards his butt, or how his wife, reduced to a single mother on limited means, became hooked on painkillers and booze to numb a string of meaningless relationships while the kids end up in care and or prison, its only a matter of time and its all because daddy fruitloop would rather go live with the space aliens than his own family. Son of a b....

It could be argued that Spielberg's aliens are meant to be naive and childlike, that's why they look a little like Cary Guffy (the kid in the film), and that perhaps they don't realise the consequences of their actions. Maybe, but you'd hope that a race advanced enough to build flying chandeliers might show us apes a thing or two when it comes to emotional development and evolution. I can only imagine that on the way to earth, they were all saying "are we there yet? Tell him to sit on his side of the spaceship. I want an ice cream."

Sorry, but "CE3K" is just such a totally stupid film. "ID4" is a totally stupid film as well, but at least the aliens intentions are clear, we get cool dogfights between spaceships and aeroplanes and the film has no pretensions other than lots of spectacle. "CE3K" tries to present contact between us and 'friendly' aliens as being a really cool thing, but clearly these aliens are no more friendly than a shark with Hilter's brain, and you have to ask what do we get out of the relationship?

A huge ARP synthesiser.

We wanted a MOOG with Taurus pedals, dammit!

Edited January 16, 2010 by Jonathan Mock

[tomr]

Quite the dissertation on a classic film.

To be honest, I never considered all the points you make about the movie.....I can't disagree with you, now that I look at it thru your revue. And this was one of my favorite movies. I have 3 different versions (what?) of this film. On VHS....Close Encounters. On DVD....Close Encounters: Silver Edition, and Close Encounters: Director's Cut. Each has scenes not shown in the others. (The Director's Cut supposedly has scenes not seen in the theatre, yet I remember seeing them in the theatre!)

Some CE3K scenes for your enjoyment:

[B-17 guy]

:D :) :) Thanks for that, I was about to get upset about you bashing a classic flick till I figured out the funny!

[Aaronw]

I always kind of thought the aliens were scientists, you know grabbing critters out of their homes, experimenting on them, then sticking a tracking device on them and turning them lose. In some cases snatching them up and putting them on display somewhere, then after decades releasing them back into the wild. :D

[Wayne S]

I have been looking for this in the Wallmart bin and have not found it yet.

Definitely one of the most memorable films of the 70s, along with Jaws etc.

I do have to make note of something here.

"but you'd hope that a race advanced enough to build flying chandeliers might show us apes a thing or two when it comes to emotional development and evolution."

Emotion "Intellectual?" and Evolution I can see it as two separate things. When one looks at Poets and Musicians hundreds years ago. We are by no means ahead of that mind set in 2010.

I guess what one could say, chalk it up-to " Semiotics "

Keep in mind even we, as a "species" pretty much only look at other Mammals and maybe Birds as having Emotion.

With study, Fish or Insects etc. Does one look at Emotion as being high on the priority list?

Edited January 16, 2010 by Wayne S

[Trigger]

I always kind of thought the aliens were scientists, you know grabbing critters out of their homes, experimenting on them, then sticking a tracking device on them and turning them lose.

Ahhhh... so that explains it...

[toadwbg]

You want final proof? When the big alien stands before assembled crowd he gives a Hitler salute!

Dude- that kills me!

[JasonB]

I always kind of thought the aliens were scientists, you know grabbing critters out of their homes, experimenting on them, then sticking a tracking device on them and turning them lose. In some cases snatching them up and putting them on display somewhere, then after decades releasing them back into the wild.

The rectal probing WAS getting a bit out of control, don't ya think???

Come to think of it, I seem to have a lot of dreams where I am at the zoo, but looking out instead of in. Hey, what the...???

[PNW_Modeler]

The rectal probing WAS getting a bit out of control, don't ya think???

DUDE! HE'S FARTING FIRE!

[JasonB]

ZOO, not the circus!

[C-130CrewChief]

Well, remind me not to go to the movies with you! Good job pointing out the silliness! I didn't like the aliens even after they set free the victims! Now I hate them!

Curt

[GreyGhost]

Quite the dissertation on a classic film.

To be honest, I never considered all the points you make about the movie.....I can't disagree with you, now that I look at it thru your revue. And this was one of my favorite movies. I have 3 different versions (what?) of this film. On VHS....Close Encounters. On DVD....Close Encounters: Silver Edition, and Close Encounters: Director's Cut. Each has scenes not shown in the others. (The Director's Cut supposedly has scenes not seen in the theatre, yet I remember seeing them in the theatre!)

<....>

Tom, Close Encounters was re-released in 1979 with 'never before seen' scenes in theaters, maybe you're remembering that run ?

Gregg

[Scooby]

Ahhhh... so that explains it...

That cannot be explained.

[Wayne S]

That cannot be explained.

Self-inflicted birth control :shrugs shoulder:

[Andy Gudbergsson]

Hey that movie is a classic, how dare you put it down in that way. I love that movie.

Sure Hollywood, but a great movie none the less.

The premise of the movie is, there are others out there and they are not all bad. They want good will and relations with us the stupid humans that don't have a clue about anything that is relevant to whatever is relevant, whatever that relevant may be or mean.

So the relevance is somethere in outerspace floating somewhere in relativity, and we have to figure out what is relevant.

And as we are pretty much stupid human beings we have to figure out what is relevant to our relevance and figure out our own relativity.

Cheers

Andy G

[Steve N]

As I've gotten older, my enjoyment of CE3K has been tempered by just the points you bring up. We're supposed to root for Dreyfuss' character, because the aliens give him a chance to "escape" his boring family in suburbia and go persue his Peter Pan syndrome (John Williams' music score even weaves in strains of "When You Wish Upon A Star" as Dreyfuss boards the ship.) Pure 70s counter-culture claptrap. I saw an interview with Speilberg (he was on the set of Private Ryan, so this would have been in 1997 or so) and he admitted that he would never make the movie today..not because of any cultural changes, but beause he's now married and has kids of his own. Remember, when he made CE3K he was still only about 30 and emotionally inmmature, and like many of the kids who went to college in the late 60s/early 70s (especially in California) he saw the "traditional" family and career path as something to rebel against.

A quick disclaimer: without going into too much detail, my views of the movie now are probably influenced by the fact that my own father abandoned our family when my brother and I were in our teens so he could "find himself."

Interestingly, the Flying Chandalier still exists. It's on display at the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy center. I snapped these pics a couple years ago.

The museum guide pointed out a number of interesting tidbits, on the model, including a little R2D2 (a nod to Speilberg's friend George Lucas, and actually visible in the film in a closeup shot as the ship comes over the mountain,) a VW bus, and a tiny cemetary. It appears the aliens also didn't return all the aircraft from Flight 19...

I remember reading in Starlog Magazine that for all those night shots of the miniatures, each frame of film had to be exposed for over a minute. The lights had to be kept fairly dim, and they had to use the tightest aperture setting possible to get the maximum depth of field.

Oh, as long as we're picking nits..there are no toll gates I'm aware of on the Indiana/Ohio state line, other than Interstate 80, which runs far north of where the first act of CE3K takes place. Also, central Indiana and east central Ohio are dead flat..there are no tunnels or mountainous terrain as seen in the film (which was shot in Alabama.)

SN

Edited January 16, 2010 by Steve N

[tomr]

Tom, Close Encounters was re-released in 1979 with 'never before seen' scenes in theaters, maybe you're remembering that run ?

Gregg

I don't know about that, Gregg...I did see it first in 1979, while I was stationed down in Ft. Polk, La. However, checking the IMDB website, they say that the movie was re-released in 1980 as a Special Addition. I was out of the service by then. And that makes sense because ( as I remember things) a Movie would premier in the US, stay in theatres for several months (in the bigger venues), then several more in the smaller venues and drive-ins, then go overseas.

It'd would take almost 2 years to get into the movie theatres on base.

When Star Wars first came out, (the same year, by the way), I couldn't see it because I was in Basic training. It premiered in Germany while I was stationed there, but I would have had to see it with subtitles! I finally got to see it when it "premiered" at the base theatre!

[GreyGhost]

Yeah, I was wrong about the year, okay, 1980 ...

First time I seen the film was in the drive in ... "Family Night" sort of thing we use to do ...

I was about 10 and a half in late 1977 ...

Gregg

[tomr]

First time I seen the film was in the drive in ... "Family Night" sort of thing we use to do ...

I was about 10 and a half in late 1977 ...

Gregg

Ah yes, the drive in.....went to see many movies....never did watch them, tho, as me and my date was having our own "Family Night" kind of thing, if you know what I mean!

:D

And I wasn't 10 1/2 either!

OMG... I just realized I passed 1000 posts! Hurray for me!

Edited January 16, 2010 by tomr

[GreyGhost]

Yeah, I know what ya mean ... :D

That came later for me ...

Gregg

[Tony P]

My fav scene from the film:

What an unexpected find seeing that deleted scene of Air East 31!

Edited January 16, 2010 by Tony P

[Aaronw]

Tom, Close Encounters was re-released in 1979 with 'never before seen' scenes in theaters, maybe you're remembering that run ?

Gregg

No, I agree with Tom, I remember seeing it when it first came out, and then seeing it again a short time and they had cut some of the slow scenes out (apparently it was too boring for regular crowds). Then later they brought it out again with "new" stuff (probably just the stuff they had cut earlier).

I specifically remember it in that order because my Dad and I talked about some stuff we remembered and he said something about it being re-edited. If stuff had been put in the conversation wouldn't have been wasn't there a part with...

We saw it right when it came out at a (then) "big" theater in San Francisco so its possible it was one of those limited market releases. Then when we saw it a second time at a regular theater closer to home perhaps they had made changes for the mass market.

[aircommando130]

When that movie came out I was 20 years old and went to see it about 10 times because I thought Terry Gar was HOT!!!! Oh yeah...it also solved the Flight 19 issue!!

[Steve N]

What an unexpected find seeing that deleted scene of Air East 31!

Wow..and a Convair 880 no less! I remember that scene from the novelization, but never knew it had actually been filmed.

SN

[Cloggy]

I'm not surprised the scene was cut, it's so cheezy that it looks like a scene out of 'Airplane'. Great to see an '880 though! Loved the ATC scene before it however, it's the first time I can remember seeing 'layered dialogue' i.e. people talking over one another - made it seem so real at the time.

Here in the UK when CE3K was released it was a huge hit. However on re-release, the CE3K 'Special Edition' was the only one you could see either on video / DVD or whenever it was shown on TV for a long, long time. This version had extra effects scenes such as the aerial shot of Neary's truck with the shadow of the UFO passing on the ground, and crucially the extended ending where you see Neary inside the mothership. For me, that never worked.

This version also cut out a number of the family scenes, and seriously trimmed the important scene where Neary throws all the garden materials into the room prior to his making the big version of Devil's Tower.

I remember at the time feeling perfectly comfortable with the 5-note contact theme that the aliens use and the 'invited' witnesses hear along with their visual image of Devil's Tower, but I found the big musical section when the synthesizer is taken over by the mothership to be ridiculous. What didn't help was that the mothership 'music' was somehow performed using an earth-based symphony orchestra (IIRC the woodwind & brass sections) so the sounds weren't even synthetic!

As for the aliens, I couldn't understand the big spidery alien we see briefly inside the mothership when the door opens - it looked like it had stitched-on arms like Woody from 'Toy Story'. It also looked very uncomfortable as though it didn't fit properly in the mothership...

Carlo Rambaldi designed the final alien (the one that does the Zoltan Kodaly 5-note musical gesture at the end - part of which has been likened here to a Hitler salute) using puppet/robotic technology that was top-notch in it's day. He went on to build ET - an even cheezier looking alien creature!