Close Encounter

For 32 years I went without watching "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".  One reason for avoiding the movie is the sci-fi genre has only limited appeal to me.  I'm not sure why that is.  I guess I find the realities of science so fascinating and expansive that making up supposedly more fantastic stuff seems a waste of time.  Like many things in life it is a matter of degree.  If the fiction is not too far out, it has more appeal.  I like "Fahrenheit 451", maybe because it is more political science fiction, and it is not that far out.  I liked "E. T.", because, like Fahrenheit, it was also very personal in its relationship with the characters, and because the alien was so appealing and made such a deep cross-cultural connection with Elliot.  "The Day the Earth Stood Still" appealed to me because the alien seemed to be the embodiment of what my Catholic school was teaching me about Jesus, which was ironic since the Church found the movie "morally objectionable in part for all", apparently because the alien was able to resurrect himself.

"Close Encounters" had no viable political message, personal relationships or cross-cultural connections.  All it seemed to have was blockbuster pretense, including excessive length, and state of the art (for then) special effects.  Production values (and budget) were high, but the story written by Spielberg was drivel, the acting was mediocre at best and the direction was hackneyed.  Not having watched the movie when it first came out limits my ability to measure it with the test of time, but the effects are obviously now old hat, the production values are the norm for any Hollywood big budget movie and the acting and direction are still poor.

My favorite line is when Richard Dreyfuss and his female companion have breached the 350 square mile evacuation zone set up by the government, by taking the station wagon off road, careening over embankments and through barricades across open country on dirt roads with no buildings or human being in sight, and then come upon a distant view of the Devil's Tower, and Dreyfuss, contemplating proceeding to the Tower, suddenly turns practical and says, "Let's get some gas and get down there."