Steven Spielberg is the most successful and influential filmmaker in Hollywood and has built and maintained that reputation for many decades. Yet, as with all personalities of such stature, he has accumulated his share of detractors, especially among more snobbish critics and film scholars who cannot forgive him for his alleged role in the destruction of New Hollywood. It is still not uncommon for those critics to view Spielberg as a mere “craftsman” instead of a true artist, and even less like a film author who bases his work on personal visions instead of a desire to bring billions to Hollywood’s box office. Ironically, one of Spielberg’s commercially most successful films, and one which, together with Lucas’s Star Wars, is most responsible for the change of the 1970s Hollywood paradigm, is also one of Spielberg’s most personal films and closest to New Hollywood’s concept of auteur theory. That film is Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a science-fiction piece that also happens to be one of the classics of the genre and arguably the best and most influential first-contact film ever.
The plot begins with a series of strange incidents and phenomena occurring in various locations around the world, which are investigated by government officials, including French expert Lacombe (played by François Truffaut). One night, UFOs appear over Indiana, and this coincides with a massive power blackout which technician Roy Neary (played by Richard Dreyfuss) must fix. Along the road, he experiences what ufologists like to call an “encounter of the first kind” – he sees a huge alien spaceship, and that quickly escalates into an “encounter of the second kind”, which leaves physical evidence in the form of unexplainable sunburn on Roy’s face. The psychological effects on Roy are more lasting; he develops an obsession with UFOs and an uncontrollable desire to sculpt an unusual shape. This obsession, which costs Roy his job and family, is shared by Jillian Guiler (played by Melinda Dillon), a single mother whose three-year-old son Barry (played by Cary Guffey) was apparently abducted by aliens. Both Roy and Jillian are drawn to a location in Wyoming, where civilians are evacuated by the US government under the false pretext of a poisonous gas leak in order to make an “encounter of the third kind” – actual physical contact with the aliens – happen without witnesses.
Despite being one of the commercially most successful films of its time, Close Encounters is slightly less iconic than other Spielberg early triumphs like Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T.. This could be explained by its success being overshadowed by Star Wars, which was released only a few months earlier. Spielberg nevertheless managed to create a film that could be described as unmistakably “Spielbergian” or even the most “Spielbergian” of them all. This film is one of the rare ones in his filmography where he not only directed but actually authored the script, and it displays great skill in building and maintaining narrative structure, playing with genre archetypes, yet keeping a general tone. Spielberg in this film approaches the theme of first contact by exploring it as the ultimate manifestation of the Unknown, which could be both a source of fear and hope. Just like with the shark in Jaws, Spielberg is very careful not to show the actual aliens until the very end, and by that time the audience has had plenty of time to build their own expectations about their looks and ultimate intentions. And when that revelation finally comes, the result is very different from the cynicism and bleakness that characterised 1970s New Hollywood films. The first contact is a success, the aliens are proven to be friendly, and the protagonist is rewarded for his sacrifices with the privilege of taking part in an even greater adventure that is yet to begin when the closing credits start.
This film has built its reputation as a genre classic not only thanks to Spielberg, but also thanks to the gathering of many great talents. They include Vilmos Zsigmond, who earned an Oscar for his cinematography, and the team of special effects experts like Douglas Trumbull, whose old-school techniques remain effective even to an audience that has been for decades accustomed to CGI. Spielberg’s favourite composer John Williams provides another great soundtrack, with a simple but effective theme that became one of the most recognisable in the history of the genre and even worked as an important piece of the plot in which music serves as a means of communication with the aliens.
The same can be said about the cast, which includes talented performers in potentially thankless roles, like Teri Garr as Roy’s long-suffering wife Ronnie, as well as giants of world cinema like Truffaut, unofficial leader of the French New Wave movement, in his rare but memorable acting role. But the most memorable is Richard Dreyfuss, who again works with Spielberg, this time playing a character very different from the one he played in Jaws. It is said that Neary is actually Spielberg’s alter ego and that Neary’s obsession with UFOs and strange sculpture reflects Spielberg’s fears about a lack of settled family life, which was incompatible with his Hollywood lifestyle. On the other hand, the conflict between Neary’s family and his “artist” obsession could also be interpreted as Spielberg’s subconscious interpretation of the chasm which began to appear between him and his New Hollywood colleagues over the increasingly optimistic, audience-friendly and less “artsy” direction of his work. It could be debated whether New Hollywood could have escaped its downfall without Spielberg, but films like Close Encounters give a strong argument that the paradigm shift in late-1970s Hollywood was worth it.
RATING: 9/10 (+++)
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