Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Sunday, 10:00 am, Culbreth
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: Steven Spielberg
Cinematographer: Vilmos Zsigmond
Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr
Running Time: 135 min
A series of extraordinary events begins to occur across the globe, prompting an international team of researchers led by the esteemed Lacombe (portrayed by French New Wave auteur François Truffaut) to uncover their mystery. As more and increasingly bizarre events are uncovered, it becomes evident that the phenomena are of extraterrestrial origin.
While the international events unfold in the background, director Steven Spielberg draws the intimate and everyday life to the foreground. At the center of his narrative is Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), a power company lineman in Indiana who, on setting out to investigate a wide-scale blackout, experiences a UFO encounter. Following reports from his radio scanner, he joins in pursuit of the mysterious aircraft. High on a hilltop, he meets Gillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon) and her three-year-old son, Barry (Cary Guffey), fellow witnesses to the unexplained objects.
Following the incident, Roy finds himself unable to continue normally through his routine life. Surrounded by family unable to understand what has happened to him, Roy spirals into depression and crazed obsession, fixated on sculpting any malleable material into a mountainlike shape. He quickly loses his job, his son becomes ashamed of his father’s inexplicable crying fits, and his wife grows more concerned with what the neighbors might think. Left alone in his cluttered and trash-filled home, Roy finally uncovers the secret of his visions.
From Lacombe’s language barrier to the solitude of Gillian’s single motherhood and Roy’s family abandonment, Spielberg crafts a world of solitary, socially disconnected characters, building emotional depth and dimension to his powerful and unconventionally positive message that we are not alone.
