Close Encounters Of The Third Kind: Directorâs Cut
Best remembered today as one of Steven Spielbergâs âcalling cardâ films (along with Jaws, Raiders, and E.T.) that established him as THE premier blockbuster director, one can look back at this movie from 1977 and be forced to acknowledge that, along with not aging all that well, it suffers from several story flaws and haphazard ideas, but other things manage to redeem things well. Richard Dreyfuss (at the absolute peak of his career) stars as Roy Neary, an everyman type who one night has a UFO shine its lights down on him while he sits in his truck checking a map. Not only does he wind up with half his face sunburned, he also becomes imbued with the psychological vision of the Devilâs Tower (a landmark mountain in Wyoming), where the aliens have apparently decided to rendezvous with officials of the United States Government. Itâs one thing to have Dreyfuss become obsessed with UFOs after his encounter, but to have them imprint a specific place into his consciousness that drives him so mad he would appear to have a psychotic break is really a fairly shoddy (and undocumented) idea, but at least it gives us a chance to watch Richie Dreyfuss acting crazy, such as showering in his clothes or tearing up his (and his neighborsâ) yard to build a replica of the mountain in his living room, not to mention with his mashed potatoes (a scene that has since been worn raw in various parodies and spoofs). Dreyfuss succeeds in making the viewer care about his character, even as the story seems to take forever to get going while he alienates his wife (Teri Garr) and kids. It also turns out Dreyfuss is not the only one with these visions, and others include a single mom (Melinda âRalphieâs Momâ Dillon, who snagged a Supporting Actress Oscar Nom here) whose son was kidnapped by the aliens and sort of joins with Dreyfuss as almost a kindred spirit. That being said, the young actor (Cary Guffey) who plays her son seems to suffer from Drew Barrymore Syndrome, where Spielberg directs him to act cute and precious but instead he comes off as semi-retarded. In addition, Spielberg brings in one of his idols, legendary French director Francois Truffant, to play the head scientist in charge of the UFO investigations, but unfortunately over 2/3rds of his onscreen dialogue is in French (with Bob Balaban at his side at all times as his translator) which quickly wears on the viewerâs patience, not to mention the government and military come off as being completely weak and inept themselves, a pattern Spielberg would continue in E.T. However, Spielberg does seem to have a personal stake in the story and characters, particularly in Dreyfussâ mundane family life that quickly turns sour (since Spielberg himself came from a broken home), and then much of the film redeems itself in the last 30 minutes, as Dreyfuss and Dillon race to Devilâs Tower to be a part of the happening, even as the army forcefully removes other people who were drawn there (over the objections of the Truffant character) and the building climax towards âfirst contactâ continues. I could have done without the scientists and aliens playing music to each other, but the ending, when they reveal themselves, is an awe-inspiring moment to this day, with the FX and makeup work by Douglas Trumbull and Carlo Rambaldi standing the test of time, and showing that prosthetics and skillful model miniatures should never be replaced by the tiresome old CGI unless absolutely necessary. Finally, there is the idea that the aliens chose as their human emissary a man who could best be described as average in every way, somewhat strange but uplifting at the same time, and an idea that helped mark it as a sci-fi cornerstone to this day, if not the best work of its genre or its directorâŚ
7/10