Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) ✦ Full-Length Watchalong Reaction
Added 2024-08-09 20:00:09 +0000 UTC⭐ I watched the Director's Cut. ⭐ JustWatch.com doesn't have a way of linking directly to a specific version, so you'll have to look up that version if you don't already own it. It has the longest runtime at 2h17m. Stoked to have checked this off the watchlist and big apologies for the almost week delay with this one. I'll be sharing some news soon that will explain the weird week. [Direct link here.]
Please enjoy!
✦ KL
Comments
I was 26-27 when this was in theaters, a film student. I identify with Roy... middle class (I was married with two kids), totally enamored with the Disney version of Pinocchio. Notice the multiple times "When You Wish Upon a Star" is heard, not just when the porcelain figure is shown exposed by Roy, but as the ship shows up and especially as Roy is chosen to board the ship. He always wanted the joy of the journey, to be guided. As lovely as Teri Garr is, her character refuses to adapt... she mouths to gets therapy then runs when he fully breaks down. When You Wish Upon a Star remains my favorite Disney tune. Whenever, wherever it is used.
Cliff Adams
2024-08-10 23:51:46 +0000 UTCThis is one of my favorites. The overall vibe of awe, curiosity, and adventure brings out a child-like feeling. I've been to Devil's Tower. It is decently touristy. Not sure if it was before this movie. On a side note, why do we name every rock formation "devil's something?" Over by me we have Devils Lake and Devil's Doorway. Anyways, I'm on the fence about Roy as family-man. He could've done a better job explaining fractions, but his son's tears proves that he is loved as a father figure. I'm sure Goofy Golf would have been fun, but I'll choose Pinocchio every time.
Chad Jenkins
2024-08-10 18:25:01 +0000 UTCI last watched this classic back in 22 with Jen Murray. So I'll admit to some laziness here, as I paste in some of my thoughts from that comment. Self plagiarism as follows... (With 'some' editorial flare) Another absolute classic! The imagery is spectacular, but some of the backstory details are vague. Don't get me wrong, I adore that about this film. It adds to the mystery of "what's out there." There can sometimes be too much emphasis on more packaged answers from modern films of this ilk. But in my head, simply for irreverent fun... Aliens visit Earth on their tour of the known universe. To recruit players for the intergalactic, memory, light, and tone game, 'Simon' says. A tournament for which they are seeking players to compete at all levels. Challenge extended and accepted. Demonstrated by level one million, seven hundred thousand, four hundred and sixty nine. In that communional communicational light and tone display. It was either that, or they were inviting the people of Earth to some sort of electronic jazz festival in amongst the stars, for wayward fathers looking to see what's out there, man. Regarless, it's nice to see alien films where the extraterrestrials aren't necessarily the villian of the peice. As you indicated, our expectations of how we'd react, are in part coloured by decades of villianisation of an unknown. Anybody else have the 'Simon' says game as a kid?
Death Lego
2024-08-10 16:31:12 +0000 UTCInteresting to view this through the lens of it being sort of a fantasy of what a disappeared/deadbeat dad could be up to. Oh, no, it's not that he abandoned his family for any one of these negative reasons, it's that he was compelled to do so by messages from outer space and is now on an other-worldly, once-in-a-lifetime, unimaginable adventure with aliens from another planet! Some cast trivia: The French scientist Lacombe is played not by a famous French actor, but one of the most famous French directors of all time, Francois Truffaut. The older man who has the sign asking the aliens to say hello at the second hill congregation and then later speaks up about having seen Bigfoot at the meeting with the military is Roberts Blossom, who would later be immortalized for a generation of filmgoers as the snow-shoveling elderly neighbor in Home Alone. There was also a brief scene with a very young Carl Weathers (Greef Karga) as a MP that can only be seen in the theatrical cut, and if you watch closely, you can see Lance Henriksen from Aliens and Terminator among the many people at the facility at the end of the movie. Last but not least, Stanley Kubrick saw this film and really wanted to cast Cary Guffey (Barry) as Danny Torrance in The Shining, but Guffey was making a different movie in Italy at the time, forcing Kubrick to cast Danny Lloyd instead. I read a story somewhere, I can't find it, but it was something to the effect of Steven Spielberg calling John Williams, dejected, having seen the first cut of Star Wars with Williams' music, saying he was prepared for Williams to tell him that he had put everything into Star Wars and had no great inspiration left for him, only for Williams to play the five-chord message for him. The reason there are three cuts of this movie is because Columbia Pictures was in a bit of a rough patch at the time (and Close Encounters didn't help, going over budget -- a total cost of $20m, which seems hilariously small for such a major movie in 2024), and they desperately wanted the movie to open in late 1977. Spielberg felt rushed during the editing process, and when the movie came out and was a massive success, he convinced them to pay for some additional photography in 1980 and created the Special Edition. Among other things, this second cut of the movie infamously shows the viewer some of the inside of the spaceship. Later, Spielberg admitted this was unnecessary and stemmed from his own insecurity about feeling rushed, and so the movie got its third and final cut, which you watched.
Tyler Foster
2024-08-10 05:02:30 +0000 UTCI own this movie on Blu ray, picked up an anniversary edition. Turns out the single disc has 3 versions of the movie. I’ve only ever seen the theatrical version. I was randomly picking out unfamiliar scenes, so thank you watching the director’s cut. My favorite moment of the reaction is that you simply grinned from ear to ear from the point the tones started in the last 20-15 minutes. The slow buildup of the past 2 hours finally reveals such a positive first encounter with aliens. I like to think the reason we get more awe and less fear is because the “greeting team” is primarily scientists. Which would never happen in real life if the US military were involved. You mentioned in the intro this is one of your dad’s favorites, I voted for it on that poll actually. Anyway, maybe for the YouTube edit you can share why your dad likes the movie and if he was able to see it in theaters in ‘77. You already check out Letterboxd reviews, I’m sure your dad’s opinion will fit right in. On a personal note, I did possibly see a UFO once, rather up close. November of 1996, my youngest had just been born and was hospitalized. My wife and I took turns staying with her in shifts. I was driving to pick up my oldest down a winding dark country road in east Texas when I drove past a brightly lit water tower. I literally thought, “When did they build this water tower?” The lights hurt my eyes on this otherwise lightless road and it was just above the trees. The road curved, the trees blocked my view and I drove on. The next night I noticed I didn’t see the new water tower. The next night I paid attention. There was no water tower. I like to think there’s life out there. What do you think? And have you ever seen something you couldn’t explain?
Bryan Dempsey
2024-08-10 04:51:31 +0000 UTCWow, it's just a Roy slanderfest up here. LOL. Anywho, I saw STAR WARS in May 77 and had a super good time. Then, a mere 7 months later I saw this and had my mind blown away -- partly terrified, partly amazed, etc. Of the two, this is the one that always struck a chord with me. To this day, this and JAWS trade places frequently as my all-time favorite movie. Sure, SW was a lot of fun, but let's face it...this is a vastly superior film. I still get chills during the air traffic control scene. I can't quite explain why though. 👽 Glad you enjoyed this one. Also...Teri Garr. *sighs* 🥰
William
2024-08-10 02:02:25 +0000 UTCJust to get it out the way, Spielberg said that he made this before he had children and that he wouldn't have ended it with Roy leaving this way had he had children. However, I think this is one of the best films ever made, by anyone ever. It's not about aliens. It's about everything that no one want's it to be about. It's about mental illeness. It's about someone falling out of love. It's about abandonment. It's about addiction. It's about infidelity. And it's about all those things without judgement. Everytime I watch this film (which is a lot) it blows me away. It's like a Bob Dylan/Leonard Cohen song where you relate to something different in the "lyric" every time you listen to it.
Sam
2024-08-10 01:57:29 +0000 UTCAh, Spielberg's ode to shitty dads... (also, if I was married to Teri Garr back in the 1970's...*sigh*) Love this movie, anyway. Richard Deyfuss before he became...whatever the fuck Richard Dreyfuss is today. ("sigh*) He's fantastic in this, anyway. I was obsessed with building the mothership out of Lego blocks when I was a kid...it did not end well. Shitty dads aside, this movie is a masterclass in building up tension and then landing the payoff.
Steve Mercier
2024-08-09 21:22:17 +0000 UTCRoy is literally the worst. Look forward to seeing what you think of this notoriously terrible movie dad.
djKENTO
2024-08-09 20:19:07 +0000 UTC
