Sunday 26 February 2017

Review: Close Encounters of the Third Kind by Steven Spielburg (1978)

Figure 1 - Devils Tower
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a thriller/adventure film directed by Steven Spielburg in 1978. The film follows a man named Roy, as he discovers supernatural events occurring all across his town. We see him become obsessed with finding the answer to all of his questions, but loses his family as a consequence. We also follow Jillian, a woman that went through the same experience, lose her little boy to the aliens, not retrieving him until the final few scenes in the film. ''The movie follows three seperate but related characters whose storied all converge at the climax. It opens with French scientist Claude Lacombe and his team investigating the appearance of a lost group of intact World War II aircraft in the Sonoran Desert and a lost freighter that suddenly appears in the Gobi Desert'' (Max, 2013). 

The film is hugely based around family. As an audience we are presented with the idea that family is getting in the way of dreams. This is mostly seen around Roy, and how his family, especially his wife, constantly reject his ideas, and begin to block him out, and in the end, completely taking away his children. Roy's family didn't want to believe what he saw in fear of public embarrassment, and his wife constantly blames him for loss of friends, this can be seen in the scene in the final third of the film in which Roy is found in the bathtub. The film was clearly made when Spielburg was a single man, as no director with a family would have just made Roy leave Earth at the end, completely forgetting about his family, leaving them all behind. 

Figure 2 - The boy gets kidnapped
Throughout Close Encounters of the Third Kind, we are presented with the idea that the aliens are not friendly, we expect them to kill everyone at the end. This is due to the scenes in which Jillian's little boy is taken from her, and the overall intrusive nature of them throughout the film. Furthermore, the symbolic 'Devil's Tower' makes the audience associate with hell, perhaps it's even religious in nature. ''Spielberg invoke the spiritual immediately in Close Encounters, framing the entire narrative within divine creation and revelation. ''The film opens with a transformational moment which suggests both the Biblical instant of creation and the birth trauma.'' observes Andrew M. Gordon. ''Spielberg as director plays God, opening his movie by announcing 'Let there be light!'' (Marcy, 2015). 

The ending is completely unexpected. With the aliens being friendly and communicating with the humans in the universal language of music, it creates the sense of a world in which things are moving forward, humans are accepting strangers. Furthermore, all of this is taking place all across the world, not just in America. The whole world is being embraced by the aliens. 

Figure 3 - The aliens visit
The use of music throughout is non-diagetic and diagetic creating a sense of the surreal within the film. Furthermore, the use of music as a way of communication with aliens is very interesting in the way that it creates this universal language between all. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Marcy, E. (2017). An Unlikely Knight of Faith: Roy Neary’s Religious Journey in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' - Christ and Pop Culture. [online] Christ and Pop Culture. Available at: https://christandpopculture.com/an-unlikely-knight-of-faith-roy-nearys-religious-journey-in-close-encounters-of-the-third-kind/ [Accessed 3 Mar. 2017].
Max, C. (2017). Close Encounters of the Third Kind. [online] Observationdeck.kinja.com. Available at: http://observationdeck.kinja.com/1-star-movie-reviews-close-encounters-of-the-third-kin-1478541028 [Accessed 3 Mar. 2017].

ILLUSTRATIONS:
Retroland. (2017). Close Encounters of the Third Kind. [online] Available at: http://www.retroland.com/close-encounters-of-the-third-kind/ [Accessed 3 Mar. 2017].
Singer, M. (2017). Match Cuts: “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. [online] IFC. Available at: http://www.ifc.com/2011/06/match-cuts-close-encounters [Accessed 3 Mar. 2017].
Street Food Cinema. (2017). Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Street Food Cinema. [online] Available at: http://www.streetfoodcinema.com/close-encounters-of-the-third-kind/ [Accessed 3 Mar. 2017].

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