Close Encounters of the Third Kind review

Number 582 on the top 1000 films of all time is Steven Spielberg’s science-fiction drama ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind.’

Close Encounters tells the story of two characters: electrical linesman and family man, Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) and single mother Jillian (Melinda Dillon) as their lives change forever after encounters with UFOs and aliens.

Spielberg is one of the most famous film directors in history. From The Colour Purple, to Jurassic Park, to Lincoln, Schindler’s List, he has done everything from period piece to tragedy to biopic. In the seventies, he is credited to kicking off the summer blockbuster trend with the iconic Jaws. I was expecting big things from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but I was left disappointed. I would definitely say it was one of Spielberg’s weaker efforts. The key reason was its pace. It was just slow.

It lacked the same narrative tension that Jaws or Jurassic Park contained. Far from being an edge-of-your seat thriller, I found myself sinking back into my sofa. The suspense was lacking. That’s because I didn’t really care for the characters. Richard Dreyfuss maybe best known for his role Matt Hooper in Jaws, where he was a far more interesting character. Spielberg demanded that Roy be an every-man character instead of a copper or a man in uniform and that’s where this character failed. In anything, he was too normal. There wasn’t too much to distinguish him from any other character. Dreyfuss wasn’t particularly memorable.

His wife Ronnie (Teri Garr) was equally annoying, but I think that was more down to how her character was written. After Roy encounters the aliens, he starts becoming obsessed with them. Ronnie initially indulges his fantasies before she loses his patience with him. She functions as an antagonist stopping Roy from achieving his goals. It was a necessary role, I guess, but not a likeable one. And it did slow up the story. I really didn’t care about Roy’s failing relationship with his family.

The actual interesting part of the story lay with the single mother Jillian whose three-year-old son Barry is abducted by the aliens. This is preceded by a particularly scary sequence where the aliens set off every appliance in Jillian’s home, as she desperately tries to stop Barry from walking toward the light. This was probably one of the best-executed scenes in the film: if the rest of Close Encounters was like this, it would have been more interesting to watch.

However, one aspect of Spielberg’s films that can never be criticised is John William’s film score. Similar to Jaws, he composed a simple five-tone motif that the aliens use to communicate with humans. And just like Jaws, this motif has become iconic throughout the film world.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call Close Encounters of the Third Kind a bad film. It isn’t bad, but in comparison to some of Spielberg’s most popular hits, it definitely struggles to leave the ground.