ReWatch: Close Encounters of the Third Kind

1977, Steven Spielberg () -- download

I quickly browsed back through the "rewatch" tag to see how I handle a first-post about something I haven't watched in forever, like maybe decades. Unfortunately, there were not enough examples to form an opinion. But I will keep the "rewatch" as I have seen it before, just not rewatched since the days of VHS probably.

Why rewatch this? Because the terrible YouTube app on my Android TV decided I should be exposed to clips of it. Every month or so, this app chooses a new keyword that barely connects to my interests & previously-watched and lambastes me with repeated examples of the keyword. Its not very good at refreshing the content, so for about a month I was exposed to the least-effort type YouTube posts that are essentially short clips of older, popular movies. I guess the algorithm worked?

I wonder what the YouTube legalities are around "clips" because as soon as a movie or TV show is available digitally, said low-effort clips will begin appearing.

When did I see this originally... I am not sure. I would have been 10 when it hit the cinemas, and while I was probably deep in my UFO phase (before D&D and fantasy took over all other interests), I likely would have been too afraid to convince someone to go see it with me (a parent, uncle, or friend's older brother) so waited the two or so years for it to appear on VHS? Production notes in Wikipedia say otherwise, but I know I saw the original cut long before I ever saw any special edition. Either way, as an adolescent, I know I would have been simultaneously enraptured and terrified out of my mind. I probably spent a few years convinced I was going to be abducted. I only realize now that the anxiety I carry with me now, ever present and constant, was present then as well; it only needed a trigger.

Three paragraphs in and they are almost entirely referential, not about the movie. I am thinking this blog does as much as a diary of All Things Toasty as it does as a "movie review" site. But that's nothing revelational. 

The movie begins with my favourite bits, actually the clips I saw on YouTube, the finding of WWII era war planes in the Sonoran Desert of Mexico. They are in pristine shape, fuel still in the tanks, old photos stuck onto the consoles. The old man sitting nearby tells the investigators how the sun came out at night, how it sang to him. He is sunburned, but I distinctly remember something about him having grown back a full head of teeth from the encounter; false memory or something buried in one of the subsequent editions perhaps. Whichever, this opening sequence still thrills me; it is chaotic and confusing and explains nothing while opening us to so so many possibilities. 

But really, who are these guys? Obviously they have resources, and are international, but they have authority to cross borders. They are led by Claude Lacombe (François Truffaut; apparently of French New Wave filmmaker fame -- didn't know anything about him then, still don't now) who needs an interpreter, and are supported by American military. This rewatch doesn't really give me any more insight, but I assume something Project Blue Book related?

The opening bit is followed by something likely inspired by those "reality reenactment" TV shows about UFOs -- an encounter between a number of commercial airplanes and... something. I love this scene, its almost-non-digital technology and the monotone just-doing-their-jobs statements & confusion between the air traffic controllers and the pilots. In the end, the UFO buzzes them and everyone refuses to make a report, and would rather just forget the encounter happened. This is exemplary director directing actors, to get a tone he wants.

Then we meet our "main characters", or at least our more relatable people. We have Barry Guiler (really, I only know his name from WP) and his mom Jillian (Melinda Dillon, Reign Over Me). In a paradigm making scene, aliens come to their remote country house, wakeup Barry and his toys, and shine bright lights everywhere. Barry almost gets abducted. This visit leads to power outages which drags Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss, Red) into work as a linesman, driving out onto a remote country road to find the source of the blackouts.

I cannot stress how iconic these scenes have become. With Barry and his mom, through the simple use of toys coming to life, Spielberg established an otherworldly intervention that would be reused over and over in coming movies. And that's just this encounter; later, when they aliens terrorize Jillian (Barry seems oblivious) and abduct the boy, the bright lights, intense coloured beams, also established something that would be mimicked in film & TV for ages to come. And let's not forget the strong light over Roy's truck, the ding ding ding of the activated railway crossing and the haunting, albeit amusing "car" pulling up behind him. So so much of these scenes were unlike anything we had every seen before, and not just that, they established so much: fear, wonder, mystery, technological advancement. And yet, even with ages of subsequent comparisons, they still work.

Roy gives chase and ends up on a bluff above the city where the UFOs are being observed by... a family of rednecks? Never understood the "mountain folk" characters, but I can only imagine its related to the idea that its usually dumb rural hicks who reported seeing strange objects in the skies, that nobody gets on camera of course. But a lot of people see these things, even a trio of police cars give chase after the "ice cream!" balls of light. What are they? Piloted vehicles? MicroMachines with tiny tiny grey men? Remote piloted drones? A few are decent single pilot fighter ships but most were small. But, as said, a lot of people see them.

How can I go about introducing the characters without mentioning Roy's family. From the get go, we are supposed to side with Roy, as his family is one big stressor. The kids are nightmares and Ronnie (Teri Garr, Mr. Mom) is shrill & nagging. How very 1970s to do such eye rolling negative stereotypes. I get that Roy's "sunburned on one side" special encounter with the ice cream spaceships was overwhelming emotionally, but his growing obsession with the encounter is annoying from the get-go. I am not sure how he thinks dragging his family back to the bluff in the middle of the night is going to bring back the aliens. Once he gets so far as tossing uprooted trees through his kitchen window, he's beyond sympathy, to me.  And yet, I do recall my younger self empathising with his obsession, the idea that having something so incredibly special happening to him deserves his full attention. I am much more easily annoyed by people these days, if reading this blog hasn't made that apparent.

Meanwhile the crew led by Lacombe are also investigating the experiences, even going so far as to bring in Roy and Jillian, and the rednecks, for interviews. The rednecks scuttle that meeting with their "theories". The crew has also done some further location hopping and found a few other "lost to history" items and received signals from space, including the to-be-played-on-childrens-xylophones-for-ages musical notes -- no seriously, while babysitting, I taught myself the tune. No aliens though. The scene (in India?) where Lacombe finds a cult that SINGS the musical notes --- that still gives me chills and I am not sure why. Today, that scene would be CG / AI generated, without the hundreds of extras -- boo.

Finally, the abandoned Roy and the childless Jillian see / hear about Devil's Tower -- a place I still cannot believe is real. Its just too fantastical looking to have not been invented for the movie. But it is real and its a national monument in the US. Lacombe, who definitely has the support of the US government, has not only been using their knowledge from the space signals to establish something but they have also convinced the state officials to fake an event, something that will scare people away from the area and allow for mandatory evacuation of the entire corner of that state. No matter, Roy and Jillian are persistent and actually break the quarantine to head to the incredible looking natural structure that Roy so accurately created in his living room (to be fair, he makes model railway dioramas, so has some skill in such) that he knows there is a ravine down one side. And it gets the pair, sans one poor fellow, to the site. But the site of what?

Having been enraptured by all this lead up, even in rewatch mode, I admit, I was somewhat disappointed as to the climax of the movie. I can faintly recall my UFO-obsessed childhood reaction (wonderment), but after having seen so so SO many other movies of alien arrivals now, this one just seems almost mundane. That said, the city-sized mothership is still impressive and awe inspiring -- it must have been seen for miles, despite the evacuation. I did note, this time round, that while the communication via music was not understood by the humans at all, they do let a computer take over and play the music for them. I wonder if they knew what the conversation was about. 

When the aliens do arrive, in all their weird, big-headed configurations (the spider legged one must be in pain, in Earth's gravity) only Lacombe and Roy are unafraid. Imagine being one of the support staff guys, hired to setup scaffolding or plug in giant mobile Moog keyboards. They have stories they will be telling their grandchildren; if they aren't locked in Black Sites afterwards. Lacombe seems a little jealous Roy gets to go with them. Not sure if the trade-off was worth it, considering all the people they let go -- Roy is a bit of a nob. 

In the end, what did aliens want? What was accomplished on that "third kind" day? How did it end up being presented to the world? What happens next? Sooooo many questions. And no sequel or bad TV series or legasequel reboot to explain anything, though I am sure there is probably a terribly bot-generated blog post out there somewhere with "Ending of Close Encounters Explained" which explains nothing.

Still an impressive movie, not just from its awesome subject matter but also from the compelling, non-standard film making. It stands out even today, and if it was made today, even by Spielberg, it would not be allowed to have the structure it does. He would have been forced down a road, maybe even by his own experiences, of more adventure, more excitement, maybe some kabooms. This somewhat disconnected experience is still by no means perfect, but it is enthralling.