Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

[steve12553]

I believe I saw it in the theater in 1977, although I don't have a vivid memory of it like the first Star Wars flim or Star Trek The Motion Picture. It definity was a product of its time. It was a tear jerker and did not have a meaningful plot. On the other hand I am still partial to Non CGI special effects. CGI tends to either run the action so fast you can't see what is going on or else they'll make a slight mistake and I'll see an action that tells me I'm watching a cartoon and it breaks my suspension of disbelief. Very few of the newer ones pass both tests for me. Maybe Avatar and that had a story that's been told so many times I know it by heart. I enjoyed CE and I'll drag out the DVD every so often but it was a product of the UFOscares of an earlier age.

( By the way where did all the UFOs go?)

 

[Dave]

I am still partial to Non CGI special effects.

Steve - watch again the part when the three aliens ships race down the road, and round the corner where everyone has been camped out waiting for them. Tell me if you feel the same way still?

( By the way where did all the UFOs go?)

I'm not sure if this was the intention of the film or not, but one explanation for all the abductees was that the aliens were searching for a person who was suitable and never found them yet - someone who had a particular psychic connection to them. The pilots, the young child, all the other people returned with names on the board - they were all unsuitable. All the army officers prepped to go - they were not chosen either. Only Richard Dreyfuss measured up and so he was taken away forever.

None of which explains cattle mutilation

 

[clovis-man]

None of which explains cattle mutilation

The "dead" livestock in the film were just part of the gov't cover-up. But if you mean the"real-life" incidents which appeared in the news some years ago, then we're just comparing non-facts to fiction, i.e., (1) nobody has a proper explanation for who (or what) messed up the cattle and (2) the fictional story line in the film of benevolent, although picky, aliens is just that: a story. But you knew that and you're just messing with me.

Maybe I'm missing something? Crop circles, maybe? Nope. M. Night Shyamalan and Mel Gibson have that covered, even though their aliens aren't very nice (just incredibly stupid).

( By the way where did all the UFOs go?)

They tend to come and go. Maybe now is a quiet period or there's a recession out there in the stars which cuts down on the tourist trade.

 

[Dave]

Sorry, I did mean it as a joke.

The more I think about this film though, the more unsatisfying it is. There is a lot of information in this thread that I wasn't aware of. Back in 1977, I imagined that we were downloading masses of information from the aliens in the form of those musical sequences. Information that would take years to decode but provide cures for cancer and engines for faster than light travel. If the hand signal merely meant H-E-L-L-O then the equivalent 5 notes meant the same. Then all we really learnt was how to say "Hello" at high speed, lots of times.

It wasn't the start of a meaningful relationship with the aliens, it was the end of the relationship.

Someone else said that it was all a love story - between who and who? Not Dreyfuss and his wife. It could have been written in a 'love conquers all way' much like ET later was, but it wasn't. Dreyfuss' dysfunctional family was probably going to break down anyway, given more time, but as someone else mentioned, it is a pity that his children will grow up without knowing the truth about their father.

Dreyfuss and the other woman - the connection they had wasn't love, more desperation, relief, comfort, consolation.

Dreyfuss and the aliens - please, no.

 

[clovis-man]

Sorry, I did mean it as a joke.

Understood. Me too.

It wasn't the start of a meaningful relationship with the aliens, it was the end of the relationship.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Dreyfuss and the other woman - the connection they had wasn't love, more desperation, relief, comfort, consolation.

Pity, that. I thought Melinda Dillon was pretty hot back then. But that would have ruined the story.