What Makes "Close Encounters of The Third Kind" Great.

A film that Steven Spielberg himself wanted to make ever since he was a kid, "Close Encounters of The Third Kind" is one of the most personal of his career. I don't think there is another film that has defined Spielberg as a person and filmmaker more than Close Encounters.

A group of Scientists are investigating strange events that are happening across the world such as WW2 planes and ships thought long lost beginning to appear in random places in the middle of nowhere. At the same time, electrical lineman Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) has a close encounter with a UFO and begins to have versions of a tall mountain like object afterward and obsesses over finding out what it means in order to see this mysterious visitors again. At around the same time single mother, Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon) sees this UFOs as well and later sees them again when they come to her house and seemingly abduct her young son (Carry Guffey). This events soon bring the two together and both join up to find what this versions their seeing mean which eventually leads them to "Devil's Tower".

In one of his few films that Spielberg wrote himself, there is definitely a lot of connections to the film and himself. The film's protagonist Roy perfectly exemplifies this with his obsession and love for things he doesn't fully understand, almost like a young child wanting to find real magic in a mostly mundane world. Another major part of the film is Roy's child-like hobbies. He has a model train set which he regularly plays within his basement, he wakes up his family late at night to show them the UFOs he just saw, much like a young excited child waking his parents up for Christmas, as well as his love for the Disney Classic "Pinocchio", in fact, near the end, you can briefly hear a short rendition of "When You Wish Upon A Star" at the end. This, however, has drawbacks with his obsession with the fantastical rather than reality has caused him to become somewhat distant from the rest of his family, which reaches a breaking point when his obsession with finding out what these versions mean lead to his family eventually leaving him. This is true of any artist obsessed with his work, including in this case Steven Spielberg, who not long after this film divorced his first wife actress Amy Irving, somewhat due to the stress of their individual careers in the business.

Another theme in the film that is present in many other Spielberg films is creating a sense of wonder over mysterious things. Many of the scenes involving the Aliens are shot with various uses of bright colors in order to create a sense of wonder and mystery in the scene. While most films use darkness to signify the unknown, Spielberg uses bright lights, and it is at it's best in this film. Spielberg is also brilliant in creating emotional responses in this film, one of my favorite scenes in the film is when the UFOs come to Jillian's house and abduct her son. The uses of color and the sound help create a sense of both wonder and fear, similar to how Jillian shows fear over the course of the scene because of her obsession with protecting her son, the young boy shows nothing but smiles as his innocents make him feel nothing but joy and excitement. Speaking of the emotional core of the film, I would be a fool to not talk about the amazing music by John Williams in what I think is his best score to date, in which he balances mystery, thrills, and beauty in one of the best film scores of all time.

The eventual climax at Devil's Tower is one of the best climaxes in film history. From the initial communication with the UFOs with the different tones, the amazing visuals that the UFOs bring, and the arrival of the huge mother ship where we finally see the aliens. I always get shivers down my spine whenever I watch that sequence. I had the privilege of seeing Close Encounters on the big screen for the first time for its 40th anniversary a couple of years back and seeing that sequence on the big screen brought some tears to my eyes. It's that sequence alone that makes this film worth seeing on the big screen.

Close Encounters is one of Spielberg's most essential films. There are few films that have captured the imagination of a filmmaker as perfectly as this one.