Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Name: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Genre: Adventure, Sci-Fi, Drama
Released: November 16, 1977
Duration: 135 min
Rating: 90
Cast: François Truffaut, Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr

1977

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Universal acclaim based on 10 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 247 Ratings

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7.9

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7.9	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 247 Ratings

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Close Encounters Of The Third Kind

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Movie Details & Credits

Columbia Pictures | Release Date: November 16, 1977 | PG

Starring: François Truffaut, Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr

Summary: Power repairman Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) has an extraordinary encounter with a strange spacecraft while out on a call. Recurring visions of a mountain fuel an increasing obsession that drives him to an emotional breaking point. Desperate to understand what he has experienced, he finds an ally in Jillian (Melinda Dillon), a single motherPower repairman Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) has an extraordinary encounter with a strange spacecraft while out on a call. Recurring visions of a mountain fuel an increasing obsession that drives him to an emotional breaking point. Desperate to understand what he has experienced, he finds an ally in Jillian (Melinda Dillon), a single mother who believes her son has been abducted by the aliens. Meanwhile an international group of scientists led by French expert Claude Lacombe (Francois Truffaut) search for a breakthrough in human-alien communication. Their collective quest culminates in a remote Wyoming rendezvous and an event of unequalled importance in all of human history. [Sony Pictures]… Expand

Director: Steven Spielberg

Genre(s): Adventure, Sci-Fi, Drama

Rating: PG

Runtime: 135 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Arthur Knight

The visuals here...are never less than stunning in their impact, yet always seem well within the realm of possibility. It is also to Spielberg's credit, however, that despite all of this visual opulence, his actors are never dwarfed. Read full review

100

James Berardinelli

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is unquestionably a great movie. Read full review

100

Roger Ebert

It's one of the great moviegoing experiences. Read full review

Gary Arnold

It must weather some bummy mid-passage exposition, but the movie survives its flaws triumphantly, evolving into a uniquely transporting filmgoing spectacle. Read full review

Vincent Canby

Steven Spielberg's giant, spectacular Close Encounters of the Third Kind...is the best—the most elaborate—1950's science fiction movie ever made, a work that borrows its narrative shape and its concerns from those earlier films, but enhances them with what looks like the latest developments in movie and space technology. Read full review

Charles Champlin

It is a warm celebration, positive and pleasurable. The humor is folksy and slapstick rather than cerebral, as if to confirm that our encounter is with a populist vehicle. Read full review

A.D. Murphy

Steven Spielberg's film climaxes in final 35 minutes with an almost ethereal confrontation with life forms from another world; the first 100 minutes, however, are somewhat redundant in exposition and irritating in tone. Read full review

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User Reviews

eva3si0n

Oct 3, 2021

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a great film from Steven Spielberg. One of the best UFO movies. A very rare case when contact with UFOs is not invasion or aggression. A great good story about contact with another intelligent being. Classics that will be relevant for a very long time.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

nestoryavith

Aug 27, 2017

The movie that made everyone fall in love with space and aliens. Amazing and beautiful story telling makes this movie one of the best the ever was. A legendary classic

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

geewah

Jan 31, 2021

One of the best from 1977 and one of Spielberg's more cereberal movies.
A slow burn sci-fi drama, that has a refreshingly positive take on UFO's and life beyond our own planet.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

moviemaniacs

Mar 6, 2016

In this age of "special editions," it can be a maddening ordeal to sort out precisely what people mean when they say they've seen Blade Runner (narrator or no narrator? director's cut or final cut?) or The 40-Year-Old Virgin. (The 116-minute theatrical cut, or the 133-minute "unrated"In this age of "special editions," it can be a maddening ordeal to sort out precisely what people mean when they say they've seen Blade Runner (narrator or no narrator? director's cut or final cut?) or The 40-Year-Old Virgin. (The 116-minute theatrical cut, or the 133-minute "unrated" version?) Sometimes the changes are substantial, other times merely cosmetic, but nowadays, no cuts are final, and hammering out the differences between one version and the next is just another part of the discussion. Credit Steven Spielberg and the producers of the new 30th-anniversary DVD edition of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind for at least giving viewers a choice; unlike with, say, George Lucas' hideous Star Wars trilogy facelifts, no one version has been banished for the sake of another. Even though Spielberg rightly disavows the tacked-on sequence inside the spaceship, which he included on the 1980 "Special Edition" reissue, it's still there for those who would prefer their imagination be supplanted by a laser-light spectacular.

The new DVD includes all three cuts of Close Encounters—the original 1977 theatrical cut, the "Special Edition," and the 1998 "Director's Cut"—and better still, a mini-poster-sized map detailing what scene are changed, extended, or missing from each version. Of those, the one that plays best is the most recent cut, which includes the amped-up family melodrama added to the 1980 version, while removing all those insidious shots inside the ship. The film now seems just as awe-inspiring for its scenes of domestic turmoil as it does for its wholehearted embrace of the idea that we aren't alone in the universe. Does Richard Dreyfuss' Everyman hero obsess about UFOs because of a shared psychic vision, or because he can't stand to be around his family any more?

At the time, Spielberg insisted the film wasn't science fiction, but "science speculation," and he believed that unexplained cosmic phenomena had occurred in the 20th century, and that the government was perhaps active in covering it up. Though he's since retreated into skepticism, Close Encounters benefits from the awestruck vision of a true believer; the pie-eyed reaction shots alone suggest depths of curiosity and wonder that no special effect could ever muster.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

amheretojudge

Nov 17, 2018

this drama deserves the emotions it goes through..

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind Spielberg's head scratching sci-fi milestone accounts in the most humane emotion over this two hours of Williams's symphony. Driven by an obsessive vision, the characters float around an honest mundanethis drama deserves the emotions it goes through..

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind

Spielberg's head scratching sci-fi milestone accounts in the most humane emotion over this two hours of Williams's symphony. Driven by an obsessive vision, the characters float around an honest mundane life in this Spielberg's sci-fi. Not for a split second, he gives away his true intentions of the tone of the feature. It is as much as a family movie, as it is about mankind exploring beyond the boundaries. Your usual household activities, government policies, the means of communication, thirst for knowledge and a self driven persona that it brings out, all these elements polishes this drama into an honest one. The ingenious procedure of Spielberg's fiddling with the props and utilizing the entire frame for the narration, amps up this visual galore that makes you think more than twice.

The stunning background score of Williams, meticulous art designing and decent visual effects decorates the tale into an alluring one. Dreyfuss is at charge in here. His obsession communicates widely but what you will take away the most, is his equation with his family and the emotions he goes through in that house. Truffant is literally the supporter and Dillion is a survivor. Tagging each other the plot tracks, this character driven tale passes on the torch with nothing kept prior than the storyline itself.

Personally, I'd prefer Dreyfuss obsessing over the uncertainty and the horror that he goes through in its initial stages over the latter stages. Just as he asks for Truffant for some answers, Spielberg makes sure that you too will leave the screen with that amount of thirst. Despite of raising general life changing questions, it delivers a much more personal bold tale of confrontation. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind is a real deal on terms of the maturity it contains, this drama deserves the emotions it goes through.… Expand

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FilipeNeto

Jun 4, 2022

Steven Spielberg is considered, in an almost consensual way, as one of the best film directors of the 20th century, one of the introducers of CGI and one of the main responsible for the great popularization of sci-fi cinema. His record is vast, his list of successes is well known, and hisSteven Spielberg is considered, in an almost consensual way, as one of the best film directors of the 20th century, one of the introducers of CGI and one of the main responsible for the great popularization of sci-fi cinema. His record is vast, his list of successes is well known, and his talent and creativity are recognized and acclaimed. This film was one of the biggest hits of his career and is one of the most important alien films ever made. Critically acclaimed, it was a huge box office success and received several awards: in addition to a special Oscar, it won the Oscar for Best Cinematography and was nominated for seven other statuettes, also winning a BAFTA for Art Direction and two Saturn Awards.

Personally, I am not an ardent admirer of Spielberg, nor a believer in the idea of UFOs and life outside our planet. It is not for me, and I think it is beside the point, to discuss whether it exists, or whether Spielberg is as good as some say. To me, he's a good director, but he's also made bad movies. In this film, he manages himself quite well, with great personal commitment and great attention to detail. His direction, methodical and attentive, knows how to get the best out of each one involved and guide the cast in the best way to obtain everything they want. Still, I felt at various points that the film suffers from a nagging sense of self-importance, and that it feels more aimed at believers in extraterrestrial life than at a more neutral audience or with more mixed opinions on the matter.

The strongest point of the film is, without a doubt, the technical aspects: the cinematography was used with great skill and intelligence and the filming is so well executed that this film seems more actual than it really is. The colors are vibrant, vivid, and not washed out like many other films from this epoch. The special effects and CGI used, although in relatively primitive formats when compared to what we can do today, look incredible and authentic. The melody used to communicate with the alien spaceship has probably become one of the most recognizable in sci-fi, and the entire soundtrack, composed by John Williams, is extraordinary and memorable.

The cast is led by Richard Dreyfuss, who offers us, here, one of his most relevant and well-achieved performances. François Truffaut is also impeccable in his role, and his difficulty with the English language made his character and his role in the ongoing plot even more believable. Melinda Dillon was also up to her challenge. Unfortunately, everything else is sketchy, underdeveloped characters for actors who really have little to do or add.

The script writing is the weakest part of the film and the one that I was least satisfied with. Instead of inserting the visit of the aliens, and all the associated phenomena, in a well-written and coherent plot, the film does the opposite, drawing around the extraterrestrial visit a series of sub-plots of poor quality, sometimes pulling too much to cheap sentimentality. The movie is very slow and takes a while to gain our attention, and I felt like it didn't really need to have almost two and a half hours with so little story to tell. One of the most surreal moments of the film, for me, is the way that the mother reacts so calmly to the abduction of her young son, but the protagonist himself seems to lose his mind at several moments, and doesn't even get the sympathy and solidarity of his mother. Own family.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

obenbenol1988

Aug 4, 2016

The film was technically ahead of its time but Spielberg's story writing not better than an amateur. It could have been an interesting film if Spielberg didn't fill the plot with unnecessary scenes. He should have tried to create better connections between the events and characters. SomeThe film was technically ahead of its time but Spielberg's story writing not better than an amateur. It could have been an interesting film if Spielberg didn't fill the plot with unnecessary scenes. He should have tried to create better connections between the events and characters. Some scene goes one forever and then story jumps into a completely different scene. Spielberg doesn't want to answer many question about the aliens ,thing it would make the film sophisticates.However it fails that intellectual touch in 2001:Space Odyssey.… Expand

3 of 3 users found this helpful30

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