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!