“A Spielberg sci-fi classic that holds up 50 years later as a testament to all those it has influenced in the genre”
After the global success of 1975’s JAWS, Steven Spielberg was the most celebrated man in Hollywood and could have made anything he wanted. It turns out he had been working on a pet project for some time, which would turn into the 1977 smash hit Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This genre-bending classic was presented in spectacular restored format on the BFI IMAX screen- the UK’s biggest- coinciding with the release of Spielberg’s latest sci-fi epic, Disclosure Day.
A family drama at heart, Close Encounters ostensibly follows three main characters whose lives are woven dramatically by the arrival of Unidentified Flying Objects. Roy (played by Richard Dreyfus) is an electric lineman in Indiana whose encounter with UFOs whilst driving sends him spiraling for its deeper meaning, at the cost of his relationship with his wife and children. Meanwhile nearby single mother Jillian’s (played by Melinda Dillon) son Barry is inexplicably abducted by the UFOs. This is all interspersed with scientist Claude Lacombe (played French New Wave auteur François Truffaut) whose job is to investigate UFOs in the USA.
The first half of the film plays out like a paranoia thriller, filled with lush suburban detail, a lived in feel to people’s domestic lives and a genuine connection to the townspeople who try to come to terms with witnessing something so strange and significant in their small-town world. This is textbook Spielberg alongside his other earlier works including E.T. and JAWS. If you were not aware of the action packed nature of his scripts, you’d think you were watching another neorealist kitchen-sink drama. The suburban milieu and Roy’s obsession are amplified as part of the subsequent payoff in the film’s second half thematic shift. All at once the exceptional practical effects take over in such a sustained and believable way that each character’s response feels perfectly natural to what they are witnessing and trying to explain (or hide, in the case of the US government). Credit to Douglas Turnbull’s design and the film’s spectacular use of tangible props, set, engineering, animatronics, puppetry, movement, models and more are utilized to provide spaceships that feel analogue and livable, and not a CGI façade full of pixels actors have to pretend exists in post production. Even the matte paintings of the night sky and cloud design were mesmerizing. The reveal of the main spaceship is utterly breathtaking, combined with John Williams’ ageless score providing a sense of scale, wonder and anticipation for the unknown. The BFI IMAX screen truly is the perfect way to experience such a scene.
A perfect combination of striking moments full of humanity in incredible circumstances, as well as fantastical representations borne out in perfect visuals and music as the film progresses from family drama to fantastical sci-fi epic is a perfect example of Spielberg’s love letter to the genre he helped define. The pacing is pitch-perfect and the production design is spectacular, from all the realistic clutter in Roy’s Indiana home to the unbelievably creepy grey skin texture of the aliens encountered right at the finale, when the scientists are ecstatic to have simply made contact (the “third kind” encounter from the film’s title), only to be rewarded with the beautiful payoff at the film’s conclusion. This classic film is enjoyable for all ages looking to share a sense of cosmic wonder from a pioneer of Hollywood filmmaking.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind played for one screening at the BFI IMAX as part of its Close Encounters with Steven Spielberg season