Close encounters of the meeeellionth time

[dorinda]

I have seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind so many times. SO many times. The first time was when it was originally in theaters! One of my favorite T-shirts as a little child was my Close Encounters shirt

Comments

[dawnebeth]

I remember seeing that in a local theatre that is no more (it's Trader Joe's now) and it happened to be Easter weekend. I was really struck by the religious 'love thy neighbour' vibe that put me in such a warm, hugging mood. Yes, it's one of the happier 'meet the alien' movies there ever was.

[dorinda]

It certainly gives humanity more credit than The Day the Earth Stood Still, another friendly-alien movie! I mean, Klaatu brings a gift for the president, and some trigger-happy yahoo shoots him. No wonder the rest of the universe in that movie thinks we're all a bunch of cavepeople.

[halotolerant]

I think I need to watch that movie again. I saw it when I was about 13 or so, kind of expecting another version of 'Independence Day' and clearly that was not what I got! I think I would appreciate it more now...

[dorinda]

I wonder how it might work, or not, for people who didn't imprint on it like I did. Whether because a viewer expects adversary-aliens a la Independence Day (and despite some misdirection, that's sure not what it delivers!) or because a viewer has seen the science fiction canon evolve so much since then and is like, "...and? So?"

Sort of like all the people who watched Citizen Kane because someone told them it's genius, but they've already seen decades of film evolve since then, and all of the revolutionary lens choices and camera techniques are now old hat to them, so there's nothing inherently interesting there for them. And they go, "Oh, a black-and-white biopic. Yawn."

Come to think of it, one aspect of Close Encounters that I actually think would feel increasingly radical over time--and it's hard to imagine it showing up in a remake (plz no) today: that the main character, a family man with kids, leaves his wife and children behind at the end. It's not the sort of thing that later-Spielberg would do, as I feel he increasingly