Review of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) by Filipeneto — 04 Jun 2022

Steven Spielberg is considered, in an almost consensual way, as one of the best film directors of the 20th century, one of the introducers of CGI and one of the main responsible for the great popularization of sci-fi cinema. His record is vast, his list of successes is well known, and his talent and creativity are recognized and acclaimed. This film was one of the biggest hits of his career and is one of the most important alien films ever made. Critically acclaimed, it was a huge box office success and received several awards: in addition to a special Oscar, it won the Oscar for Best Cinematography and was nominated for seven other statuettes, also winning a BAFTA for Art Direction and two Saturn Awards.

Personally, I am not an ardent admirer of Spielberg, nor a believer in the idea of UFOs and life outside our planet. It is not for me, and I think it is beside the point, to discuss whether it exists, or whether Spielberg is as good as some say. To me, he's a good director, but he's also made bad movies. In this film, he manages himself quite well, with great personal commitment and great attention to detail. His direction, methodical and attentive, knows how to get the best out of each one involved and guide the cast in the best way to obtain everything they want. Still, I felt at various points that the film suffers from a nagging sense of self-importance, and that it feels more aimed at believers in extraterrestrial life than at a more neutral audience or with more mixed opinions on the matter.

The strongest point of the film is, without a doubt, the technical aspects: the cinematography was used with great skill and intelligence and the filming is so well executed that this film seems more actual than it really is. The colors are vibrant, vivid, and not washed out like many other films from this epoch. The special effects and CGI used, although in relatively primitive formats when compared to what we can do today, look incredible and authentic. The melody used to communicate with the alien spaceship has probably become one of the most recognizable in sci-fi, and the entire soundtrack, composed by John Williams, is extraordinary and memorable.

The cast is led by Richard Dreyfuss, who offers us, here, one of his most relevant and well-achieved performances. François Truffaut is also impeccable in his role, and his difficulty with the English language made his character and his role in the ongoing plot even more believable. Melinda Dillon was also up to her challenge. Unfortunately, everything else is sketchy, underdeveloped characters for actors who really have little to do or add.

The script writing is the weakest part of the film and the one that I was least satisfied with. Instead of inserting the visit of the aliens, and all the associated phenomena, in a well-written and coherent plot, the film does the opposite, drawing around the extraterrestrial visit a series of sub-plots of poor quality, sometimes pulling too much to cheap sentimentality. The movie is very slow and takes a while to gain our attention, and I felt like it didn't really need to have almost two and a half hours with so little story to tell. One of the most surreal moments of the film, for me, is the way that the mother reacts so calmly to the abduction of her young son, but the protagonist himself seems to lose his mind at several moments, and doesn't even get the sympathy and solidarity of his mother. Own family.