Close Encounters Of The Third Kind

This is the first time I've sat down and watched the whole thing. I've seen parts of it but never the whole. Keep in mind this review is done as an audience member from 2024. I was not a preexisting fan. I've never really seen it.

What do I think?

I think a GREAT deal of it is dry and dull. And that fact doesn't make me think less of the movie. Although there ARE things I object to in the movie, its slow pace is not one of them. On the contrary, it reminds me of my youth and how me and the people who used to watch blockbusters back then accepted dry, dull exposition in between the slam-bang-zowie special effects. I certainly will not claim that audience's tastes back then were more sophisticated, and that's why we were cool with it. I think it more has to do with the fact that we weren't so fucking spoiled rotten in our entertainment the way modern audiences are. And that doesn't just go for popcorn flicks. It goes for TV too.

We were willing to eat our vegetables to get to our dessert back in the day. Modern moviegoing and TV binging is essentially allowing the viewer to eat an entire wedding cake by themselves and consider that a healthy and normal way to process entertainment. I think it's a pretty damaging mindset myself, and one I don't agree with. Not just because I'm of the generation where we had patience. It's more to do with the fact that I find entertainment dialed to 11 about every single thing for every second of its run fucking exhausting. I'm not sure why this is a rare viewpoint, but it is. I don't find Game Of Thrones awesome or nailbiting. It's draining and tiresome. And believe it or not I don't LIKE feeling drained and tired when watching a TV show. I'm not saying intelligently written fare is to be looked down upon. Mostly I won't say that because it would be me saying Game Of Thrones is intelligently written, and it is not. I'm saying smart TV can be fun and not such a fucking ordeal.

I'm sort of losing the thread of this review. What else can I tell you about this movie? I think the ending is shitty. And it's only as a modern audience member that I think that. Back in the day people were probably like, "I wish I was Richard Dreyfuss and going off with the aliens on a new adventure!" He's leaving his family behind though, with not only no second thoughts, but no explanation. You think the government will tell them where he went? Fat chance. Yeah, Teri Garr took the kids, but that doesn't mean they would never want to see their father again, and it doesn't mean her character would have wanted that either. Dreyfuss' character was tied down with actual responsibilities, and it's very on-brand for this era of entertainment that the "happy ending" involves him completely shirking them. The kiss with Melinda Dillon's character also didn't lessen my thoughts that the guy was an irresponsible dickhead.

And Teri Garr was right to leave. He was being a lunatic. Let's say he did need all those items for his big art project. Why the fuck is he crashing bricks through the kitchen window? Is he so obsessed he's forgotten doors and containers exist for the dirty items he is hauling indoors? If he really needs chicken wire for his replica, why is he stealing it from his neighbors, and not getting it from the hardware store? He's not having a revelation. He's having a psychological breakdown. I don't know if Spielberg understands the difference, but he wanted the wife out of the picture, and did it in the sloppiest, worst-written way possible.

But I respect the fact that the movie is slow, and I respect the fact that audiences of my era used to be patient. I was too young to see this in theaters (I was 2 in 1977) but yeah, I recognize the slow-build pace from the movies of my youth. But in hindsight, I don't view it as the filmmaking masterpiece many people back then hailed it as. Not because I'm spoiled. More like I have context that Neary is an asshole that critics back then wouldn't have understood. 3 stars.