Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

[tokyogirl]

i know that his wife left him and all, but it still kind of bugged me just the slightest bit when he left at the end. now his kids will never know what happened to him.

 

[Tabitha]

Sorry if this thread has become a little disjointed - I merged a bunch that were very similar - but the posts are ordered by date posted. Hope you all can make sense of it!


ps - I loved this movie when I was younger, but haven't seen it since I was a nipper. All I remember is the mashed spuds mountain...

 

[tokyogirl]

see? someone else liked the mashed potato mountain!

 

[Tabitha]

hehe

I am irish though - so I suppose potatoes are like mother's milk to me

I must watch this film again - I might try and track down the special edition that came out a few years back.

 

[tokyogirl]

i used to get mashed potatoes just ti build my own little mountain. i didn't like them, i just wanted my own alien-meeting ground (i do like them now though, but sometimes i still do that....)

 

[Tabitha]

OT --> Did you also stare at tv snow? Mimicking Poltergeist? I scared the XXXX out of my mother by doing that when I was younger.

The potato mountain has got to be one of the most memorable scenes in recent scifi history.

 

[tokyogirl]

'they're heeeere'! i totally used to do that! my mom would be like 'you're going to ruin your eyes doing that!'. i didn't believe her. now i have to wear glasses. oh well

 

[Genocide]

The Potato Mountain.

Ok this may seem like a weird request but i dont suppose anyone could furnish me with a picture of the mash mountain i dont seem to be able to find a decent one anywhere.

Bigger the better

Ta

Andy

(email: ablueman@demon.net)

 

[tokyogirl]

here's a couple interesting factiods about the movie:

The Mothership is in the Smithsonian Institution. Visible on it are a miniature R2-D2, a mailbox, a cemetery, and models of the airplanes that were abducted by the ship.

It is possible to see an upside down R2-D2 (from Star Wars (1977), etc) in part of the large spacecraft that flies over Devil's Mountain. The SFX people needed more detail, and so supposedly there are many more such items, such as a shark from Jaws (1975) (also directed by Spielberg), etc. R2-D2 is visible as Jillian first sees the mothership up close from her hiding place in the rocks

The federal agent-types on stage with Lacombe during the auditorium scene where he teaches the hand signals were real federal agents. Similarly some of the extras who played scientists in the end sequence were real scientists.

The film holds the record for most cinematographers on a production (11, counting the Special Edition).

During the dinner scene just before Roy piles on the mashed potatoes, you can hear the little girl say, There's a fly in my potatoes. This was unscripted and almost caused the rest of the cast to laugh. The scene was kept as-is.

The Jaws (1975) theme can be heard when the mother ship is communicating with the base at the end of the movie, right before the release of the human prisoners.

When Barry, Cary Guffey, gets pulled through the doggy door by the aliens, it was actually Mrs. Guffey on the other side pulling her sone through.

 

[Cloud]

This is one of my favorite movies. There are so many wonderful moments in it. I've been watching it a lot, and here are a couple of things I've noticed:

Spielberg often has a very strange twist on family and the relationships between children and adults. Roy Neary's family is very dysfunctional--the kids are horrible brats and not portrayed sympathetically at all. Kind of the opposite of the adult/child dynamic in E.T.

I'm struck by all the hide and reveal imagery throughout the film--they are tricks of seeing and believing which build more suspense.

--the sandstorm hides the planes until the are right there.
--the aliens darken the landscape; then the spaceship lights reveal Roy in his truck.
--Roy talks on the phone to his wife, not seeing the tv showing the Devil's Tower while standing next to a replica of it in his living room--until the very last minute.
--Roy and the chick's first glimpse of the real Devil's Tower in Wyoming as the climb the hill.
--and of course, the reveal of the Mother Ship and the aliens inside.

 

[roddglenn]

I liked the mashed potato scene too!

 

[Huttman]

Just watched it recently again, and while I consider this a brilliant movie, does anyone else have a problem with the near violent way the little boy Barry was abducted from his mother? These are supposed to be benevolet aliens, albiet a little mischievious with putting the ocean liner in the middle of the Sahara desert, but to rip that boy away they did seems less than friendly. I know it was cinematically a great scene....but really? Still, it does not detract me from thoroughly enjoying this masterpiece, I was just curious on your take on it. By the way, did you know the hand jesture thing with the musical 5 note thing means h-e-l-l-o?

 

[Venusian Broon]

I suppose a response to the abductions is that they are aliens therefore why would they would do human benevolance, or assume that they understood these the ins and outs of our emotions or our way of living.

Also the boy is shown not to be frightened when the experiences occur and appears to willingly go out and meet them. Of course the destructive effects of these actions on the mother (and what happens to Richard Dreyfuss) are bad - perhaps they don't realise or understand.

Also they return everyone at the end and don't seem to do anything with the people they've taken. So that's sortof of benevolant

 

[steve12553]

Close Encounter was a visually stunning film but many of the concepts were a little bit childish or naive. I can still watch it and enjoy it now and again but it's not one of the heavy classics.

 

[Gordian Knot]

At the time of its release CE was a darn good movie. Up to this point his only blockbuster hit was Jaws. As time went by though I started to see the pattern he has since become famous (infamous?) for. Pulling, I mean, hauling on the viewer's heart strings.

Not that there is anything wrong with the concept, it makes a great many movies, well, great! But Spielberg became so outrageously blatant about it, it became a terrible gimmick.

It reached its pinnacle in decrepitude in the Gawd Awful E.T.

All of which is a long winded way of saying looking back on Close Encounters and seeing the heart string tugging kinda ruins the movie. For me.

 

[clovis-man]

Hindsight is always 20/20. How many people here saw it in a theater in 1977? Much different than seeing one of the "updated" copies today. Not that the difference in the film versions was all that significant. Just the time that it was intoduced to the world.

 

[Dave]

I saw it at the cinema, and strangely, though I may have caught it on TV once or twice since, I don't own it on DVD or VHS and haven't sat down and said 'I'm going to watch this again properly'. As you say, it probably wouldn't live up to me memories. I didn't realise that Spielberg made that many retrospective changes to his films though - I know he just released a new version of 'Jaws' this year - but he is on record at criticising George Lucas for his endless tinkering with 'Star Wars', and that comes over as a little hypocritical now if he has done the same.

 

[megamaniac]

Well, first of, you must know what 'Close Encounters' are; then what 'Close Encounters of the 1st, 2nd, and finally 'Third Kind' are. The differences between them, etc.
Watching the movie by itself with no knowledge of UFO history or myths or lore wouldnt do much for anyone.

Ifcourse, 2001:A Space Odyssey is still the best sci-fi movie ever made. Yes, it's confusing, and slow, and doesnt make sense at first; what's the big black thing, why are the monkeys fighting, why does HAL kill all onboard, what is the white room, why does the old man turn into a baby which then somehow floats in space above planet Earth, etc.

But, Close Encounters of the Third Kind was in fact surpassed by Star Trek, Star Wars, Blade Runner, ET, and many others in popularity.

 

[Gordian Knot]

Hindsight is always 20/20. How many people here saw it in a theater in 1977? Much different than seeing one of the "updated" copies today. Not that the difference in the film versions was all that significant. Just the time that it was intoduced to the world.

Ummm. I saw it in the theater in 1977.

Yes hindsight is 20/20. That was not really what I was alluding to though. For me it was more like when you see a magic trick the first time, don't know the secret of the trick and it looks impressive as, errr, heck. But then you find out what the trick was and the next time you see that magic trick you are disappointed.

Spielberg's "trick" of tugging heart strings to the point of tearing them loose was still mostly still an unknown back in '77.

 

[Dave]

I've just watched the special version on TV. It is the first time I have seen it again since 1977. I'd say it really was a product of its time. The special effects no longer seem "masterly" but more "youtube".

I'm glad the mud and rubbish mountain part was pared down but it still goes on too long. I get the obsession with the image. I get their need to be at the Devil's Tower. I actually don't think his wife was very understanding though. Maybe if she believed him and not what they neighbours thought he wouldn't have needed to go so far. The other woman with the missing boy - she would have been locked up if they didn't believe her story - and apparently no one did. And all the others in the helicopter - their obsession wasn't so great then - they weren't prepared to die for it anyhow.

I'd say the begining and ending are the best parts, but extending the ending spoils that too.

I thought this film to be absolute pants. Every time I glimpse this film it makes me cringe all over.

It is pants, but I think it is something you need to watch once as it is a part of cinematic history. Just fast forward through the middle portion. 2 hours and 12 minutes is just too much.