Re-encountering Close Encounters

[poliphilo]

I remember Close Encounters as being huge. Seeing it on DVD it turns out to be a surprisingly intimate film about the break-up of a marriage.

There are three early Spielberg films that come straight from the heart.
Close Encounters, E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Since then he's seemed unsure of himself.

Close Encounters is a New Age movie. It thinks that humanity is on the brink of transformation. I guess the New Age is over now. E.T. has given way to the invading Martians of War of the Worlds.

By the way, I don't want to see War of the Worlds. I don't want to watch Spielberg pissing on his younger self. Also it's got Tom Cruise in it.

Close Encounters can be read as a religious allegory. It's about a man who sacrifices everything for the Kingdom of Heaven.

So what happens next? Does Richard Dreyfuss learn the wisdom of the ages, or does he get the anal probe?

Comments

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Close Encounters can be read as a religious allegory. It's about a man who sacrifices everything for the Kingdom of Heaven.


I'd never once thought of this. Or that the story is about the breakup of a marriage.

Spielberg irritates me with his hammy "mood" scenes--I'm thinking now of the VERY UNLIKELY moment on the dark highway with the old coot whistling "She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes."

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's the sentimentality that gets me. In his best films he keeps it in check.

Love the goldfish!

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

By the way, I don't want to see War of the Worlds. I don't want to watch Spielberg pissing on his younger self. Also it's got Tom Cruise in it.

I watched the first 20 minutes or so at someone else's house and found a tactful way to suggest that we turn off the TV/DVD. Tom Cruise's character is a snot and Tom Cruise is a Scientologist.

"Someone else" gave us the bootleg DVD to watch at home. I've suggested to Roy that he watch it some evening that I'm elsewhere. I mean, they didn't even set it in Grover's Mill!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't see why Spielberg felt the need to remake this hoary, old sci-fi story.

I don't mind Tom Cruise in character roles. I think that's what he is- a character actor. But I hate it when he comes over all heroic. I just don't belive in him in those roles.

As for Scientology........

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

I just wish I could get the original copy of the film, NOT the director's cut. I liked Dreyfuss disappearing up the ramp and I didn't really need to have all those shots of inside, I didn't want to know. I have my own ideas, thank you.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Guess what, the version I bought the day before yesterday IS the original version. I was waiting for all the gaudy stuff at the end and instead Dreyfuss just sailed off into the wild blue yonder without any fuss.

It came packaged as The Collector's Edition. And it was selling at a knock-down price- £6.99

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

Wow, where did you buy that, on line?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

No, it was on sale at our local supermarket.

Nowhere on the box does it explain that it's the original version.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Of course, the second best thing about that movie is that you don't know what happens next...

The best thing about it is that it has François Truffaut in it. I saw it knowing nothing about it - I agreed to baby-sit for a friend, and she proposed the deal that since her kids wanted to see this shiny new movie, she'd pay for us to do that. And it's loud and full of action, and I'm not sure what's going on, and suddenly there's François Truffaut .

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's good to see Truffaut. One of the nice things about Spielberg and his generation is how they were always ready to show respect to other, older film makers. I remember how Spielberg and Lucas acted as producers on some of Kurosawa's later films and how Coppola employed Michael Powell as an artistic advisor at Zoetrope...