Siskel & Ebert review Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert review Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977, probably December based on the holiday themed commercials also on the tape.
The reaction of the people up on Devil's Tower during the last 30 to 20 minutes as they encounter these beings from another world, is so realistic. Some handle it pretty good, others literally pee on themselves, others are in shock. First time witnessing the entire spectacle, leaves you in awe.
All the CGI effects today don't even come close to the human element captured by Director Speilberg in this masterpiece.
95% of the effects hold up really well today, since it was all done with practical effects. The three ships coming down and hovering for a while in the center of the landing zone is one of my favorites. There's nothing about that scene that makes it feel like they aren't there. Remarkable. I'll take practical effects over CG any day. Hell, it's why Maverick is killing it at the box office. Yeah, there's some digital work but most of it's the real deal and it shows.
Seen a lot of their early reviews on RUclips thanks for uploading this review📚
I don't think that part of gov't coverup attempt is bogging down anything... What it is..it ADDS to the whole realness of this movie.
Agreed 😊
It creates tension and drama for Roy and Jillian to overcome their attempts. If they just showed up at a National Park, then that would take a few minutes off the film, but to what end.
A poorly written subplot? Ludicrous, it fits and works just fine in the movie. Spielberg has a penchant for casting 'the government' as another evil entity that is always looking to ruin everyone else's fun.
Totally agree. He "liked it very much"....? It's one of the greatest films of all time. Both of them only seemed to get the amazing effects but the movie itself is incredible. Even the opening title is amazing with the silence and then the creepy music. Somehow this movie went over their heads. That subplot was perfect. The interesting thing is years later the Phoenix Lights was a similar type thing where it seemed like a diversion was done (flares) after an unknown sighting.
I just saw an author's idea of six questions that make the plot:
1. Who is it about?
Roy, Gillian, François and Laughlin.
2. What do they want?
Roy wants to know, or follow his compulsion in his head to where it leads. I'm not sure what he wanted before the close encounter. Gillian wants her son back. François and Laughlin want to make contact.
3. Why can't they get it?
The government isn't honest with those who had the close encounter in their meeting. Later Roy doesn't make the connection with Devil's Tower, but then sees the news report and goes there along with others who experienced it. But the government is blocking the site.
4. What do they do about that? He, the mother, and another guy ignore the attempts to evacuate them and go cross-country to the site.
5. Why doesn't that work? The government tries to gas them near the monument.
6. How does it end? François and Laughlin make the next step in musical and hand-gesture communication with the aliens. Roy goes with the aliens and Jillian gets her son back.
So if Spielberg took out the government blocking the site, then Roy, Jillian and the others would just show up at the park with no tension or drama. It would be empty. Of course sometimes critics miss things like that, especially when they've already gone ahead to the ending in their minds, knowing that Roy and Jillian would make it anyway.
He wasn't talking about the whole plot, just in the middle when they're in the mountains.
If anyone deserved a RUclips channel, it’s these guys. Imagine all of the content and specials we would’ve had. Especially for the movies that deserve more than 5 minutes of airtime
The OGs. They would kill it If they could have done reaction videos?!
Thanks for another lost Siskel and Ebert clip from their early years.
We camped at Devil's Tower last fall. They play the movie each night and play the tones throughout the night. It's pretty awesome.
That is weird, wild stuff. I did not know that.
I've been to that campground and plan to return August 2023. I understand that the proprietor has quite the collection of CE3K memorabilia which is visible under glass in the gift shop. Cheers.
1977 produced some iconic films
I love the movie because it's almost a time capsule of what Midwestern life was like in the late 70s. Very accurate.
Agreed 🌰
Mid 70s!
But alas, it was filmed in Alabama.
@@concorde2003
Good grief, like it
matters. It's about suburbia: it was hardly meant to be a sociological treatise.
Such a great movie and I love air control scene, amazing film making.
In the space of six months this movie, Star Wars, Smokey and the Bandit and Saturday Night Fever were all released. Not only were they big boxoffice hits, they also immensely affected the culture at the time and became a part of late 70s zeitgeist.
_Superman: The Movie_ in 1978 also helped bring back the movie as a blockbuster, science fiction, and special effects houses, that the studios had shut down years earlier.
The quality of this looks very good. Great work posting a classic review that I'm almost sure has never been on the internet.
4:24
_"... The only thing ('Star Wars' and 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind') have in common are flying saucers..."_
Both movies also feature masterful music composed by John Williams.
I think this is Spielberg's best film.
Close Encounters is a masterpiece.
Spielberg had some issues. First, for the TV version, he got to film some extra footage that didn't make it in the original like the ship in the middle of the Gobi Desert. But he had to film inside the space ship, and he didn't like that. So he came back with the Director's Cut that took it out.
Also, after he got married, he said he wouldn't have given his family up to go with the aliens. Roy is about to get over his obsession when he takes the mountain apart, but then has another vision that its flat top is correct. His wife and kids leave him, so they're no longer holding him back on his journey of discovery.
Spoilers ahead. Close Encounters is a really different film. There’s really no villain. The government is involved in a cover-up but it’s not depicted as evil. They even go out of their way to say that the government used sleeping gas on the cows and horses instead of killing them.
I was thinking of this film after the train wreck spewing toxic chemicals (Norfolk Southern in East Palestine, Ohio). But that didn't scare people enough to evacuate the town.
Great video! But it makes me want to see Siskel & Ebert review the original Star Wars when it first came out. I can' t find it on RUclips - does anyone know if it exists?
Working on the second review of Star Wars right now from December 1977. Never seen the original review.
Wow, thanks for posting this lost review. I've been wanting to see this for years.
I love watching all of these. The early Siskel/Ebert episodes are interesting because it's obvious they haven't yet developed the rapport they eventually became popular for. Here, Gene seems more comfortable than Roger. Ebert would admit as much years later after Siskel died, saying that he was the motivational force of the two to make their pairing work.
lots of folks zero in on the special fx, but to me, speilbergs ability to craft believable characters is astonishing. for example, he goes into to wake his kids to go on the early morning UFO hunting exploration and the kids are all knocked out. hanging off the bed, sleeping with their butts pointing to ceiling, etc.. cracked me up cuz thats how i would find my kids sleeping.
I think I saw Close Encounters in the theater when I was a kid. But for some reason I can't remember it specifically.
Although I don't know how I could forget seeing the most awe-inspiring ending of all time on the big screen.
I was too young to see it in theaters. I'm pretty sure I first saw it on a network TV airing. All I really remember noticing from that first viewing was Dreyfuss playing with his mashed potatoes and the ending with those key musical notes.
I remember seeing it at The Esquire (it's no longer there) in Springfield, IL, when I was little. It was showing on the main screen. I sat in an aisle seat, and the guy in front of me was tall, so I was constantly having to peek around him. The guy sitting next to him had a big tub of popcorn. When the scene where the headlights come up behind Roy's pickup truck, and rise up, the guy with the popcorn was about to put some in his mouth, and stopped midway when that happened. The rest of the audience let out a collective "ooooo...."
I saw it in the theaters age six somewhere in Rhode Island and it scared the crap out of me. The long-limbed one and “Puck” at the end gave me nightmares for weeks.
All I can think of is if I only invested into Microsoft at this time.
Excellent film. One of Spielberg's very best.
'70s & '80s VHS Flashback, can I please ask you to post this full-length episode? I know you gave us three great reviews from it, but this whole episode is a rare gem from an early year of Siskel & Ebert where almost nothing has survived. Siskel & Ebert fans would like to see the whole episode to see how they were organizing everything about their show at this time. The Star Wars review has already gotten its incredible view count which has slowed down now, so the full episode won't take anything away from that. Thanks.
I would love to know what these two would've thought about Avatar: The Way of Water
Remember when Steve Spielberg made great intelligent thought provoking imaginative movies, like Close encounters, Indiana Jones, Jurassic park, ET, Saving Private Ryan & Jaws???
I miss those movies too, now he makes garbage.
yeah the middle drags a lot but the ending is great
one of my favourite classic sci fi thriller movies and incredible in 4K
Thank you for finding the review of my most favorite movie!
❤
To be fair, as wonderful as the movie is, it does bog down in the middle somewhat.
Keep it neat and compile a list!
Can you upload the full episode of sneak previews 1977 episode?
No, tape is in very bad condition. Will post what I can from each movie they review.
@@ssVHSFlashback-ei2xv It seems like their Star Wars review is next.
@@patrickshields5251 Yes, working on it, had to edit in some of the movie clips from another source.
@@ssVHSFlashback-ei2xv Is their review positive? Because I've heard either widespread rumors (or lies) that Ebert didn't like Star Wars at first but later changed his mind when the film became popular.
@@patrickshields5251 This review is a re-review from December so it wouldn't reflect their original review. But if either of them had given a negative review first, I think we'd know about it, especially from their newspaper reviews. Another bit of trivia, if you look up Ebert's Star Wars review from an earlier source (including his 1990 Movie Home Companion book), he says the "saloon" is on "Alderaan." On his web site now that text has been changed to say "Tatooine." It appears that correction was made in his books by at least 1992.
"A bunch of midwesterners" lol never mind the international storyline 😅
Nah.The movie is excellent Two reviewers that are quite lazy considering they got paid to watch movies.
🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉😮😅
Great movie ❤
I😊
Movies are an art form and art is subjective, therefore these two shrubs never had any business telling us what is and is not a good movie. Those who can’t create should not make a living criticizing those that do or even the ones who at least tried.
Feel like this movie would have been a lot bigger if it was a little scarier.
I still can't believe that these two didnt like Spielberg's Poltergeist. Its such a great haunted house movie
Ebert liked it
Some documentaries/interviews with Steven Spielberg said he (and the public) believed in UFO encounters in the 1970s, as well as ghosts _(Poltergeist),_ so back then he had the finger on the pulse of the public. Later, when the interview was made, he said he didn't believe in those things as much. Perhaps that was due to Carl Sagan bringing facts and science to these things in the book _The Demon-Haunted World_ as well as getting his own alien movie made, _(Contact)._
This movie is incredibly gay… don’t know why it was so popular…
It was difficult to take the story seriously, especially when you realize that the mother of the kidbapped/abducted little boy wasn't in a complete shambles, but instead was emotionally moved to tears of joy over these monsters that stole her baby boy. .. its like what in the f
I did notice that the recap at the end is a lot different when compared to their later series e.g.
A tick indicates a Yes vote or Thumbs Up
A cross indicates a No vote or Thumbs Down
Where did you see the cross?
@@jedijones It's just a guess, the recaps at the end of each show are always my favourite part, btw. I should also mention this review of Close Encounters was a real discovery because this movie is one of Spielberg's finest films and a movie made from the heart.
Odd how the review showed the least interesting, not memorable clip of the movie. Maybe for the best.
Probably because the studio didn't want to release the best parts for free.
I don't agree. This clip is great at setting the mystery up.
Just watched it. Didn’t like it. I guess i’m spoiled by more modern sci fi movies. Thought it was uneventful and just people reacting to ufo’s
It's been out for nearly 45 years. You're God...what took you soon long?
You're not too bright, are you?
This is my #1 movie of films I hate that it seems everybody else likes. I thought it was nothing more than 2 hours of 'how can we embarrass Richard Dreyfus'?
It's Richard Dreyfus playing with his mashed potatoes!
It's Richard Dreyfus playing with a pile of leaves!
It's Richard Dreyfus with his mouth agape for a seemingly endless period of time!
My theory is that Richard Dreyfus went with the aliens at the end of the film rather than stay with his family to avoid further embarrassment.
I feel like I might get shot for saying this but I don't really get what the big deal is about this film. I thought it was boring when I was a kid and I haven't changed my view all that much since. It's super slow, not much happens for a lot of it. I couldn't relate to the main characters basically abandoning their families.
The family drama aspect is pretty relatable for me
I think it was the first movie to deal with the culture of people investigating UFO sightings on Earth. And probably one of the very few to deal with friendly aliens coming to Earth, maybe the only one since The Day the Earth Stood Still. Granted there may have been others that did these things but were lower-budget and more obscure films. E.T. later basically closed the book on friendly alien visitors to Earth movies. At the time though people were captivated and fascinated by this idea. So the plot of the movie doesn't need to be all that interesting if the people are already interested in your movie's basic concept.
@@jedijones I agree, and this was a massive hit when released and I think it still holds up