Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Starring
Richard Dreyfuss
Director
Steven Spielberg
Awards
Academy Awards
Best Cinematography - Vilmos
Zsigmond
Best Sound
Academy Award Nominations
Best Director - Steven Spielberg
Plot Synopsis
Roy Neary, an Indiana utilities employee, becomes obsessed with
meeting extraterrestrials after encountering a UFO on an abandoned road one night. Plagued
by visions of an oddly compelling but unexplained shape, Roy eventually realizes, via a
news broadcast, that the image is pointing him to Devil's Mountain in Wyoming. After
teaming up with a woman whose young boy was abducted by the alien creatures, Roy leaves
his family behind for a rendezvous with these visitors from outer space. The pair's dogged
determinedness finally brings them to majestic Devil's Mountain, where, amidst a
scientific operation run with cool efficiency by the military, they make contact with the
aliens at last.
Film Notes
"Anybody who has written him off because of his string of
stinkers, or anybody who's too young to remember The Goodbye Girl, may be shocked
at the accomplishment and nuance of Richard Dreyfuss's performance in Close Encounters
of the Third Kind. Here, he plays a man possessed; contacted by aliens, he (along with
other members of the "chosen") is drawn toward the site of the incipient
landing: Devil's Tower, in rural Wyoming. As in many Spielberg films, there are no
personalized enemies; the struggle is between those who have been called and a scientific
establishment that seeks to protect them by keeping them away from the arriving
spacecraft. The ship, and the special effects in general, are every bit as jaw-dropping on
the small screen as they were in the theater (well, almost). Released in 1977 as a
cerebral alternative to the swashbuckling science fiction epics then in vogue, Close
Encounters now seems almost wholesome in its representation of alien contact and
interested less in philosophizing about extraterrestrials than it is in examining the
nature of the inner "call." Ultimately a motion picture about the obsession of
the driven artist or determined visionary, Close Encounters comes complete with the
stock Spielberg wives and girlfriends who seek to tether the dreamy, possessed
protagonists to the more mundane concerns of the everyday. So a spectacular, seminal
motion picture indeed, but one with gender politics that are all too terrestrial".(Miles
Bethany, Amazon.com)
Estimated budget of close to $20 million. Filmed in Panavision;
color by Metrocolor, in Wyoming, Alabama, California and India. Additional cast: Philip
Dodds (as Jean Claude); Shawn Bishop (as Brad Neary); Adrienne Campbell (as Sylvia Neary);
Justin Dreyfuss (as Toby Neary); Merrill Connally (Team Leader) In 1980 Steven Spielberg
issued a re-edited version of the film entitled "The Special Edition." He
shortened some scenes and added a sequence at the end showing the interior of the
"mother ship." A close encounter of the first kind is when you spot a UFO. Close
encounters of the second kind involve the discovery of physical evidence. And close
encounters of the third kind are contact with extra-terrestrials. Was on the National
Board of Review Awards list of 10 Best Films in 1977. Although actor Richard Dreyfuss, who
starred in this film, won the Oscar for Best Actor that year, he got it for The Goodbye Girl, rather than this film. When Close Encounters was released in
1977, it quickly became Columbia Pictures' most profitable film. Because Spielberg really
wanted the story to surprise spectators, he kept a closed set during production, and
requested that the actors stay mum about the film's content.
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