Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1978)

[Professor Zoom]

Funnily enough, the topic of this film and "revisions" came up when I had lunch with @Rick Sternbach today, and he reminded me of a line which got whacked after the theatrical release.

As to Roy's decision and Spielberg's saying he wouldn't have done that once he had kids, well, any work of creation is as much about when it was made as who made it, and Spielberg then was a different guy in many ways. Besides, I never thought Roy's decision was anything other than selfish, and for him to have acted differently seems like a different character.

They're showing the film at The Egyptian on Hollywood Blvd. this Sunday with the production designer in attendance, so I might go see that as I'm in LA at the moment. Haven't seen it on the big screen since 1978.

Ooo. I’ve never seen it on the big screen. Don’t know if I can pass up on that chance.

 

[Samurai8472]

I always thought the movie could use a sequel. Roy leaves his family behind and his son looks like he hates his dad now. --

-He watches his mom and dad argue and he's crying and then he's crying when he watches his dad go crazy.
-By the end he's got this look like he hates his dad

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Spielberg loves Father + kid relationship plotlines so I'm surprised he left this hanging

Roy coming back and his kids confronting him 40 years later seems like a logical step

 

[Maurice]

I

Spielberg loves Father + kid relationship plotlines so I'm surprised he left this hanging

Roy coming back and his kids confronting him 40 years later seems like a logical step

As an idea that's really pedestrian and anticlimactic. Generic familial strife.

 

[Mysterion]

Could it have been something the author came up with on their own?

Well the novelization is (it says on the cover) by Spielberg himself, who also wrote the script for the film, so...

 

[JD]

I just looked the novel up on Goodreads and it says that he did have a ghostwriter, Leslie Waller.

 

[Mysterion]

I just looked the novel up on Goodreads and it says that he did have a ghostwriter, Leslie Waller.

Too bad he couldn't get ADF like his pal George did. It's not a bad book, but I'd like to have seen what Foster could have done with it.

 

[Velocity]

The only thing (I think) that I remember about this movie is the mashed potatoes.

 

[theenglish]

This was a real life-changing movie for me. I saw it as an early teen and had not seen anything like it before. The aliens come to earth to play a concert! Truly beautiful.

 

[Marsden]

I also watched this again recently, and I still enjoy it now as I did originally.

I think it would have been highly illogical for Roy not to want to go. His family left him and we don't really know how things were before this all started, they certainly seemed to turn on him quickly enough. They may very well have been heading for divorce before any of this.
Two things stand out to me, YMMV, but:
1. Roy's extensive train set says to me a guy who's more concerned with his own hobby more then spending time with the family. Maybe it's a compromise rather than him spending time at Cheers or Moe's Tavern every night but it still shows a dedication to something else that would really not help the family in any way, unless the people that made the movie don't realize the serious time and money investment a train that size would be.
2. When it's all breaking down, not a single neighbor seems to be a friend to Roy, no one supports him. That really struck me that they were all silent, is it because extras are cheaper or a dramatic effect to show how alone Roy really is. Maybe he has the train set because he can't relate to other people well.

So, summing up, the character of Roy seems like staying with the family would be an illogical conclusion and I'm happy Spielberg didn't mess it up like Lucas did with Han Solo in the cantina. *shudder*

 

[Christopher]

I liked CE3K when it came out in my childhood, and it was always one of my favorite John Williams movie scores, but when I rewatched it a couple of decades later, I found its story deeply stupid and illogical. It's a film driven by pure emotion and sentiment, which isn't intrinsically bad, but it's all heart and no brain, and the plot and the character motivations don't hold up to the slightest scrutiny. None of the characters or institutions behave in anything like a plausible way.

I mean, why was the contact so friendly, when these aliens had been abducting hundreds of people, even children, for decades? It's not the military way to assume that some unknown force is benevolent, especially if they've been kidnapping your people. Realistically, there would've been missiles pointed at these saucers, not just a Moog synthesizer. As soon as the aliens stepped out of the craft, the Special Forces would've come in, held them at gunpoint, and tried to take them in for questioning. No matter how benevolent the aliens' motives turned out to be, it's just not credible that the officials involved in the contact wouldn't have had their guard up at all, wouldn't have demanded some answers to the outstanding questions before they made nice and sent off new guinea pigs with the aliens.

Although I guess the lack of rationality is unsurprising for a film meant to dramatize UFO beliefs, which are essentially a space-age religious cult. CE3K is basically a secular religious epic about faith and devotion -- the story of a man who receives a divine visitation and visions and is compelled by his faith to abandon his worldly attachments, make a pilgrimage, and ultimately ascend to the heavens.

I do at least give it credit for depicting an interspecies contact in which communication was difficult and limited, more a mutual acknowledgment than a detailed exchange. That is more credible than most human/alien first contacts in mass-media fiction (although I doubt that aliens would respond to the same kinds of musical scales and rhythms that we do; there's a lot about music that hasn't even been universal across human cultures and eras).

 

[BK613]

I dunno, maybe the military guys in charge were fans of The Day The Earth Stood Still. Or at least learned its lesson (and the lesson of history) about pissing off the people with the super-advanced technology.
YMMV.

 

[arch101]

I always thought the movie could use a sequel. Roy leaves his family behind and his son looks like he hates his dad now. --

-He watches his mom and dad argue and he's crying and then he's crying when he watches his dad go crazy.
-By the end he's got this look like he hates his dad

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Spielberg loves Father + kid relationship plotlines so I'm surprised he left this hanging

Roy coming back and his kids confronting him 40 years later seems like a logical step

Speilberg has since said that if he had made the film AFTER becoming a parent, he would have never let the Dad leave his kids behind.

 

[Samurai8472]

Speilberg has since said that if he had made the film AFTER becoming a parent, he would have never let the Dad leave his kids behind.

It’s interesting to see his movies in later years


-Elliot’s dad has run off
- Indiana Jones dad is distant
-Ian Malcolm has a strained relationship with his daughter
-Tom cruise is a single dad

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I also wondered bout the ones who got close but did not quite make it. Jillian and Barry witnessed the visitation but did not go.

Jillian probably just thanked her lucky stars she got Barry back. However benevolent the aliens were, I doubt she'd want to go on board the ship that had just snatched her son.

The other guy on the mountain got gassed and did not make it, but he may not have been recovered and may also have witnessed the events. What happened to everyone that got compelled to come and did not end up going?

Are you referring to the military "pilgrims" in the red uniforms? I think they did go. When the aliens depart, the pilgrims are nowhere to be seen, but all of the other scientists and military types are still there.

 

[XCV330]

Are you referring to the military "pilgrims" in the red uniforms? I think they did go. When the aliens depart, the pilgrims are nowhere to be seen, but all of the other scientists and military types are still there.

I meant the other guy that hopped off the huey. He got pretty far up the mountain before he got gassed.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

It’s interesting to see his movies in later years


-Elliot’s dad has run off
- Indiana Jones dad is distant
-Ian Malcolm has a strained relationship with his daughter
-Tom cruise is a single dad

Do we even want to talk about AI?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I meant the other guy that hopped off the huey. He got pretty far up the mountain before he got gassed.

I always assumed the military got him.

 

[XCV330]

I always assumed the military got him.

probably did

 

[JD]

Do we even want to talk about AI?

I don't know if I'd really count AI as a Spielberg movie, he did direct, but I still tend to think of it as more of a Kubrick movie.

 

[Vger23]

This is up there with Field of Dreams, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Alien, Empire Strikes Back, and Gladiator as a favorite all-time movie.

I may need to revisit this soon. It's been an awfully long time.