In Close Encounters, humanity makes contact with alien life
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“IF YOU believe, it’s science fact; if you don’t believe, it’s science fiction. I’m an agnostic between the two beliefs, so for me it’s science speculation.”
These were Steven Spielberg’s words in 1977, regarding one of his greatest cinematic achievements: Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In its “science speculation”, it is perhaps the perfect UFO film – brimming with wonder and spirituality, but with one foot firmly on the ground. There’s never a bad time to watch it, but with the release of Spielberg’s new film Disclosure Day this month – a conspiracy thriller about a whistleblower who is trying to share proof of alien life with all of humanity – it is now essential companion viewing.
Close Encounters follows another dogged everyman in pursuit of the truth, but under very different circumstances. Electrical lineworker Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) leads an unsatisfying life in Muncie, Indiana, with his wife Ronnie (Teri Garr) and their two sons. Though their home isn’t without love and affection, it is also full of the noise and resentments that turn happy families into unhappy ones.
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It captures the quintessential Spielberg: a sentimentalist who lurches into cynicism
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It’s clear Roy feels like his existence lacks meaning. So when, during a routine investigation of power outages across town, a UFO flies over his truck, it sparks an obsession that will see him risk his life to learn what’s out there.
Roy isn’t the only one to have had a close encounter. Three-year-old Billy (Cary Guffey) wakes up one night to find his toys have whirred into life, and is nearly lured towards a spacecraft before his mother, Jillian (Melinda Dillon), stops him.
Jillian and Roy are among the few who have witnessed the UFOs firsthand. They find themselves fixated on a strange image – a flat-topped protuberance of unknown origin. Scores of open-hearted sky-watchers are chased away from sites of previous encounters by mysterious government agents. Meanwhile, scientists work in secret to understand why long-missing aircraft and navy vessels are now reappearing in strange places, minus their crew.
Close Encounters is remembered for a lot of things, not least for popularising ufologist J. Allen Hynek’s categorisation system for supposed alien sightings. The film’s virtues are manifest; the spacecraft’s prog-rock visuals are reason alone to watch it. It captures the quintessential Spielberg: a sentimentalist who lurches into brief, thrilling bouts of cynicism.
And it is this darker side that means Close Encounters stands up so well today. Half a century on, its portrait of a family in crisis has only grown in complexity. Since making the film, Spielberg has said he would change its bittersweet ending to something less controversial, but to me, it is the perfect culmination of this fractured family’s story.
That’s not the only thing that’s changed for Spielberg since 1977. In March, he told an audience at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas, that he has “a very strong suspicion that we are not alone here on Earth right now – and I made a movie about that”. From the science speculation of Close Encounters, we have arrived at Disclosure Day, a film that, to Spielberg at least, is approaching science fact.
Whatever you make of this fringe perspective, it should thrill you that the mind behind Close Encounters is once again looking to the skies, this time with two feet off the ground.
Bethan also recommends…
Spielberg: A Retrospective
Richard Schickel
Thames & Hudson
Despite its considerable heft, this guide to Steven Spielberg’s 50-plus-year career is a breezy read, running right up to 2022’s The Fabelmans. It contains fascinating details about his early work, such as his directorial debut, Firelight, which was – gasp – a UFO movie!
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