Close Encounters

I was lucky to see this in a theater when Columbia brought their selections from the 100 greatest films back for a week in 1999, and I was really surprised at what a well put-together film it is, and how refreshing it was to see a movie that is NOT from the 90's!

The first thing apparent about this film is that it takes its time -- a la 2001-- to really set up effects and atmosphere. And you can really admire Spielberg's way with composing shots to convey information -- and it seems so masterful and exciting, rather than the rather lifelessly formulized direction he often gives now (though I do remember being startled at certain shots in Amistad). You think: "Wow, he really was a very talented, personal filmmaker at one time." Sometimes I feel like now he's become more of a public figure, afraid to offend anyone.

Of course I had seen this movie a thousand times as a kid, and this was the first time I had watched it since then. Two other aspects really stood out on re-viewing: I was surprised how masterful the shocks are in the first half. Certain aspects of the aliens visits are very scary, and these scenes were terribly exciting. I still love the scene in which Richard Dreyfuss' truck is scanned by the UFO -- leaving him twitching with terror afterwards. The trademark Spielbergian "sense of wonder" really does seem scary/wondrous here.

The other really striking thing is how real and nasty the scenes of domestic disintegration are. I was shocked at the nastiness of the scene in which Richard is looking at the paper while the kids are screaming, Teri Garr is nagging him, and in the background one of the kids is banging a human doll against a baby hamper until the head falls off. Teri Garr does a good job at playing a truly hateful, bitter and disappointed wife. Most movies nowadays are so respectful of both sides that you don’t see something this raw in anything mainstream anymore. At one point Richard is saying to his wife "I'm scared, just hold me" while she's screaming "I hate you!" It's really intense and shocking. And when Richard is playing with his mashed potatoes and looks up to realize his entire family thinks he's gone insane -- and his son starts crying at seeing him like that -- it's a scene that might be too intense in a flat-out tearjerker drama, and it adds a great weight to his wish to just get off the planet once and for all. I had heard rumors that Speilberg was getting divorced just before this film… well, there ya are.

In the second half of the film, Richard hooks up with a similar looking but different wife figure. I think the key scene here is when he says to the surrogate wife "I have to [leave you and] go down there [to the spaceships]" and she says "I know," and wishes him well, where his real wife would have said "but what about me?" It's about being trapped in a marriage with a person who inhibits your life and dreams, rather than encouraging you to pursue them.

The special effects are also amazing -- much more amazing, I think, than modern, computer-generated special effects, because there’s still a sense of “how did they do that?” as opposed to “oh, it was all on the computer.” Even when you can actually see lightbulbs and stuff -- the spaceships here really seem incredible. For some reason the realism and detail of modern computer generated spaceships seem very mundane by comparison. Here they found a way to make a bunch of lightbulbs seem really otherworldly -- now that you can show anything you want, that touch of creativity and wonder is gone forever.

Anyway, it's too bad people can't always see this on the big screen. It's so nice to watch a film all the way through without answering the phone or talking out loud, and it's wonderful to be with a big audience who is really into what the movie is doing to them. This movie is prime early Speilberg, everything is in place, and it makes a wonderfully complete entertainment with just enough depth and subtext. Anyway, nice work, Steve!