All Movie Guide

Steven Spielberg followed Jaws (1975), his first major box-office success, with this epic science fiction adventure about a disparate group of people who attempt to contact alien intelligence. Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) is an electrical lineman who, while sent out on emergency repairs, witnesses an unidentified flying object, and even has a "sunburn" from its bright lights to prove it. Neary's wife and children are at first skeptical, then concerned, and eventually fearful, as Roy refuses to accept a "logical" explanation for what he saw and is prepared to give up his job, his home, and his family to pursue the "truth" about UFOs. Neary's obsession eventually puts him in contact with others who've had close encounters with alien spacecraft, including Jillian (Melinda Dillon), a single mother whose son disappeared during her UFO experience, and Claude Lacombe (celebrated French filmmaker François Truffaut), a French researcher who believes that we can use a musical language to communicate with alien visitors. Lacombe's theory is put to the test when a band of government researchers and underground UFO enthusiasts (including Neary) join for an exchange with alien visitors near Devil's Tower, Wyoming. In 1980, a "Special Edition" was released. While its primary selling point was the addition of scenes inside the alien spaceship, Spielberg claimed that he also cleaned up some choppy editing in the second act. Mark Deming

All Movie Guide

Several years in the making and, like Jaws, millions over budget, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) became Steven Spielberg's second blockbuster, confirming his skills at creating visually spectacular popular entertainment. Blending his reverence for the power of movies with a science fiction UFO tale, Spielberg turns an average man's "close encounter" with an extra-terrestrial into an uplifting excursion into fantastic sights. Unlike in Cold War 1950s UFO stories that posit a threat from outside, Spielberg turns the unknown from an initially menacing force that imperils normality into a universal ambassador of transcendent goodwill, providing an escapist note of cinematic hope during the late '70s cultural malaise. Still, 2001 F/X master Douglas Trumbull's pre-digital age visual effects were an even stronger draw, as Close Encounters moves from initial appearances of space pod lights towards the climactic appearance of the enormous and stunningly rendered "mother ship." Praised for Spielberg and company's dazzling craft, amid reservations over the cardboard characters, Close Encounters became one of the biggest hits of the 1970s, helping financially teetering Columbia Pictures and strengthening the late '70s turn towards youth-oriented blockbusters. Beginning with a 1980 "Special Edition," Spielberg re-edited Close Encounters several times after 1977. Lucia Bozzola

Product Details

• UPC: 043396228597
• Source: SONY PICTURES
• Region Code: ABC
• Aspect Ratio: Cinemascope (2.35:1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Language: English, Français, Español
• Subtitles: English, Français, Español, Portugais, Thai, Korean, Arabic
• Time: 6:44:00
• Sales Rank: 26,588

Features: