Review of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) by Steve M — 24 Feb 2012

Since there are three versions of this film I did some research on what was suppose to be the best cut and the answer that came up mostly was the directors cut, i'd seen this film once before and it was the speical edition I saw at first and it was allready great. But one problem Speilberg had since the film was first realeased was the ending, Seeming as ive never seen the theriatical cut i'm not sure what the difference is but I think he felt there was a little too much spoon-feeding at first all I can say is the ending of the Director's Cut couldn't have possibly been more perfect whilst revealing something he left alot to our own imaginations and this is quiet possibly the greatest Alien film ever made. Maybe even better then Alien allthough it's been a while since I saw that.

Incase you didn't know this film revolves around the average suburbian family following Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) who is a Cable Worker, who one night experience's what would best be called a "Close Encounter Of The Third Kind", several other's witness this too. UFO'S are flying around the sky and also up-close to the bystanders, after this happens Roy becomes paranoid and fascinated by what he saw. He continue's to see visions of a random object resembling that of a mountain and becomes truly haunted, as the film goes on his character devolop's flawlessly as his marriage soon reaches a breaking-point. The film goe's on to be a susepsful, and downright entertaining film whilst also managing to be truly deep I won't go much more into plot details but that's a brief summary but what's most fantastic about this film is how it's revolving in "the real world" and it takes in time with great pacing before you "see" anything.

Teri Garr plays Roy's wife (Ronnie Neary) and her and Dreyfuss both gave truly great performence's, both are completely beleiveable and have so much depth I was convinced throughout as there relationship escalates from being,happy,confused to convincingly domestic. The superb perfomence's don't stop there either the whole cast all managed to be good-great even those hardly focused on managed to all stick-out in one way or another. Melinda Dillon plays (Gillian Gueller) who is a mother whose son was abducted by a space shuttle, she had also witnessd the Close encounter at the start. Her portrayl earned her a well deserved oscar nomination, French director Francois traffuant gave a superb performence as(Claude lamcombie) who played a UFO expert as did Bob Balaban (David Lauglin) with the same occupation. The child actors were also somehow very convincing aswell, the overall characterization in the film was simply perfect.

Speilberg's direction was extremely in-depth and masterful, his infmaous "Speilberg Close-Up" was used in this film probably more then any other of his films and each shot was equipped with deep meaning, his ability to tell a story thorugh his camrea is truly something to admire so many of his best overall shots are in this film. Douglas Trumball's visual effects were amazing and really could hardly be topped, just flawless if you have seen the film you would have to agree. The cinematography from Vilmos Zsimong A.S.C was stunning and is clearly influential to a generation of filmakers. John Willam's score was epic and fit the film perfectely (as expected). It will leave you keep you engaged and in the end most proabaly amazed as It's one of the greatest sci-fi's ever made and is influential and important in cinema, essential vieiwing imo just be sure to see The Drectors Cut...