It should be frankly studied how Close Encounters does two things, keep the audience's attention in a stranglehold and almost mindbendingly mix wonder and terror of extraterrestrial life. You are hooked by scene one and you are left guessing honestly even as end credits role, as several sightings and experiences of UFO's radically change people's lives and has the government trying to piece together what it all could mean. I dare not divulge too much more because this is a movie that truly must be experienced start to finish, I simply cannot no matter how many words I write or feelings I have sum up Close Encounters. It is a marvel of storytelling and is one of those very rare movies where you're constantly wondering what the fuck is going onnnn and YET you are seated and wanting to know more. And it's not like sci-fi exmaples of earlier movies where the alien or spacecraft is more a mystery for most of the film, they show us the ships roughly 20 minutes in, and even then you can't truly describe them. Oh you see them for sure, but its such a finely crafted effect that you can't discern too much other than outlines because of the bright lights but that adds so much mystique and maybe even charm. It really captures that moment of time when space was still cool as shit and a large collective of people still wanted to know what was out there beyond the sky. We still have that now but nowhere near the level as back from say early 50s to late 70s. It is a movie that takes it's time pushing past 2 hours and the story it crafts, really only focusing on about three different characters that all are converging on one point while still showcasing a much wider berth of the effect such a monumental event would have on the world, is very finely done. Richard Dreyfuss has probably one of the most intricate and involved performances I've ever seen, after experiencing firsthand a UFO it shows how much that would change a person and how it kinda destroys his family when he starts pursuing things even he can't properly explain. He does a great job conveying confusion, determination, and a almost neurotic excitement sometimes all at once! Melinda Dillon has big time stakes when the aliens take an interest in her young son and it really is a horrifying situation to be in, you just get what she's going through. Last but not least we follow François Truffaut as a UFO specialist brought in by the american government who after finding several missing craft throughout decades of history has his own theory to everything. Back to my original point involving the aliens, it's effectively eerie when they show up mainly because you really don't know what the intentions are and it's this odd mix of awe and horror that constantly flip flops, not to the film's detriment but down to the simple fact that we fear the unknown. And the movie almost paves the way for modern sci-fi horror like Fire In The Sky, it's shot like a fucking horror movie at times and any singular point where there was a night scene my eyes were glued to the sky than anything else echoing one of the most chilling outro lines in movie history, "Watch the skies everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies.". Everybody on that crew was on their A-Game, writing, designs, visual effects, music, acting, cinematography, in a very unflashy almost subdued matter of fact way. It feels real, undeniably real for that time and corner of the world. It is a high high recommendation from me, 4 stars, 8.5/10! And tomorrow we fast forward to the mid-80s for another Spielberg alien movie.
