Close Encounters Of The Third Kind tribute

1977 was a great year for movie lovers. We were treated to such films like Kentucky Fried Movie, The Good Bye Girl, The Spy Who loved Me, Saturday Night Fever and two science fiction films that literally changed the way movies were made forever: STAR WARS and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. While STAR WARS became a phenomenom and went on to become at that time The highest grossing movie ever made, beating the record of JAWS, the 29 year old director of JAWS, Steven Spielberg, was hard at work trying to complete his long delayed ultra top secret film project. At that time it was unheard of a movie production being so secretive. No one knew what the heck the title meant or what the film was about except that Spielberg was directing it, Richard Dreyfuss was the star and it was filmed somewhere in a huge aircraft hangar instead of a Hollywood studio. By the time STAR WARS was released some tibits info was leaked to the press: the movie was about UFOs and two or three photos of people looking at the sky or extras engulfed in bright light were released. The mystery still remained, but now it was going to be compared to STAR WARS particularly in the special effects department. Douglas Trumbull, the special effects director (2001: A Space Odyssey, Silent Running) watched Star Wars and came back to Spielberg asking him to reshoot ALL the special effects and make the ufos brighter. Spielberg and the producers agreed. The studio honchos became more nervous since the film was already over budget and way past its initial schedule (the film had an original budget of $11 million, but ended costing over $19 million and was supposed to be released the prior Xmas of 1976). Some studio suits were resistant to continue postponing the film or investing more money thinking (incorrectly) that they already miss the boat when Star Wars came out first in May and became a gold mine. The movie was finally rushed to theaters in November 1977. There was no preview screening for critics. Some of those critics resented so much that they had to watch the film surrounded by the rest of us, mere mortars, that they shredded the film in their reviews. But for the most part the film earned glowing reviews and became a blockbuster hit, the second highest grossing of that year. The movie earned Steven Spielberg his first Academy Award nomination as director even though ironically the film itself was not nominated as Best Picture, an omission that even today is criticized by film critics. This was the only film Steven Spielberg ever wrote and directed. The film is considered one of the greatest scifi films ever made.

First CE3K photos released

 

:bears:

One ofthose movies that, if it comes on one afternoon/evening - I can still easily settle down and watch it throughout.

 

:bears: Cool. Most young people I know find it too slow and boring (it has no action scenes, no villains and nobody dies).

Do you know that the mothership originally was going to be this huge black cigar-shape ship, but after Spielberg saw at night the lights of these oil refineries in India while on location shooting of a key scene, he changed his mind and asked Trumbull to change totally the look of the mothership so it can have this kind of look? That is why you see a giant black shadow moving over the secret base in Devil's Tower. They shoot this scene before Trumbull changed the model of the mothership.

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My favorite sequence of the film (bad quality video, but the only one I found).

Barnstorming: the arrival of the ufos

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Still one of my favorite films and I always thought Spielberg's most under-rated movie next to "Empire Of The Sun".

Special effects were subtle but top notch, even by today's standards, and have stood up well through time, unlike Spielberg's later E.T..

It seems to have gained more admirers as time has gone by. It helps that it also has a great grown-up storyline that actually encompasses human nature and psychology. The space aliens were just the red herring to set the story in motion.

 

Steven Spielberg reminiscences making CE3K

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Interview with Cary Guffey

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:bears:Well said. I agree 100% with you. CE3K is probably my all time favorite film. In 1977 I first watched Star Wars and enjoyed it enormously. It delighted my inner kid with the sweeping space opera and fun fast action packed pace. But then in November of that same year I watched this film and it really touched my heart and my mind. This was the first film that made me think about the implications of the plot, its characters dillemmas, the conspiracy, etc. It brought a unique sense of wonder very different from Star Wars. While Star Wars was a great Buck Rogers-like mindless fun film, this one was set in the real world, with real people from the middle class with their own real situations that suddendly are affected by this extraordinary events. Like you pointed out the film main focus is not so much the aliens or the great special effects, but the people. How Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) is affected by the mental image implanted in his mind that turns into obsession and eventually this obsession affects everyone around him, particularly his wife & children. Jillian Guiller (Melinda Dillon) has an even worst situation when her toddler son is abducted. Her journey is not of enlightning like Roy, but to get her son back. The scene near the end were mother and child reunite at last always touches an emotional nerve that can bring a tear to your eyes. The film has less special effects than most films of this era. The special effects are briefly seen in the first part of the film and then are not displayed again until the last 25 minutes. And these last 25 minutes were the event unfolds at Devils Tower ranks among the most memorable in cinema history and this is mainly because of the human drama that preceded it.

 

great movie

Always fun to watch