Review of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) by Ducknation — 11 May 2014

" If everything's ready here on the Dark Side of the Moon... play the five tones.".

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is marvelous piece of Science fiction wonder, and is my second favorite sci-fi film of all time right behind 2001: A Space Odyssey. This is for sure one of Steven Spielberg greatest film making achievements. Having two feature films under his belt before making Close Encounters one being "The Sugarland Express" a crime/comedy movie and the other "Jaws" a thriller/horror film. Having done this film a sci-fi/drama it shows that even then a young Spielberg was showing off his directing talents.

The films follows Roy Neary(Richard Dreyfuss) a normal guy with a family living a normal life and while on a drive to investigate a blackout occurring around his town and nearby towns. He stops to find out where he is and this is when strange things start to happen around him the mailboxes on the side of the road by him start shaking back and forth, his flashlight turns off, and his car stops working. He even gets burned on one side of his face by the rays of light shinning down on him from the UFO.

From here we see him struggle with what has happened to him as it takes a tole on him and his family to a point to were he might be losing his mind so his wife takes their kids and leaves him. Ill be honest here and say that this does slow the movie down but without leaving a negative effect on it. It is essential to see the breakdown as he tries to figure out what the extraterrestrials left in his mind and why he cant get the shape of a mountain out of his head. Richard Dreyfuss did an amazing performance and I just realized that him and Spielberg have done quite a bit of films together.

The special effects looked stunning and still to this day all the little lights on the UFO's are a wonder to look at. I love that we got different shapes for the UFO and not just the same typical flying saucer type. Some look like cones, some like spheres, and some that look like a little dot also the mothership had a whole city within it I don't think that was done before this but im not 100% on that. Whats even better is that the amazing score by John Williams ties into the special effects especially there at the end were no matter what I always sit in amazement despite having seen it many of times.

Also another great thing that was cool about the movie is that while Dreyfuss is dealing with figuring out the where to go and what to do we see strange things happening around the world like the old planes of flight 19 showing up in the Sonoran Desert and the lost ship the SS Cotopaxi showing up in the Gobi Desert.

Overall I give it a solid 10 Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a Science Fiction masterpiece and is not to be missed by anyone with a ounce of love for its genre or for films in general.