Steven Spielberg tends to promote the science fiction of optimism - that man and any outside life can build a relationship, work together, and be fast friends. Certainly this film evokes those regards by film's end(This all notwithstanding Spielberg's new remake of War of the Worlds). The story really is fairly simple and very complex at the same time. A group of scientists open the film finding working planes in cherry condition that are decades old and thought to have disappeared off the face of the earth(cheap pun). We then are introduced to several individuals in Indiana that see UFOs. Eventually these two plot strands will meet, connect, and dissolve. I like the way Spielberg did a lot of things with this film. Much of what we see and understand is built primarily on our imagination. Even at the close of the film, we are left to figure much out ourselves. Spielberg, just off Jaws, does use some tense, special effects like a row of mail boxes quaking, lights going on and off, lots of electrical malfunctioning, etc... to get his audience interested, but after that he gives his audience credit for being relatively intelligent and does not spell everything out detail by detail. Some of the effects work extremely well - some may be a little over done. Richard Dreyfuss plays the lead very nicely, and all the cast members are credible in their roles. I particularly liked Melinda Dillon's performance(I've always thought her to be a undervalued performer). Francois Truffault, the famous French director, has a rare turn as the leader of a group by the UN out to make alien contact. Ultimately when you shed the special effects, the aerobic direction of Spielberg, the fine performances, the haunting images of Devil's Tower in Wyoming(and all the things shaped to its mold), and the familiar, wonderful musical score by John Williams, you have a film with a great deal of heart and hope - Spielberg never even really lets the negative POV rear its ugly yet realistic head into the film. From the beginning man and alien encounters are deemed friendly and part of man's future.
Review of Close Encounters of the Third Kind
