That finale! 🤩🤯 FYI- Per commenter recommendation, I watched the Director's Cut. But I am wondering how it differs from the Theatrical and Extended versions. 🛸🎶 Timestamps below... 0:00 Preview clip 0:16 My Spielberg viewing history 2:13 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS after JAWS 3:15 Movie reaction! 25:15 Review: An audiovisual treat for the senses 27:35 Let's talk about Richard Dreyfuss' character
Psyched to watch this, one of my all-time favorites!!! Before I do: The theatrical cut is fine to watch. But in the early 80s, they did a re-release, "The Special Edition": Spielberg wanted to put back in some scenes he had cut.....but the only way Columbia would let him do this is if they shot a new ending, with Dreyfuss on the ship. It's corny and dopey and adds nothing to the movie. What's worse is that, for some reasons, scenes from the theatrical version were CUT, like the mashed potatoes scene! The Director's Cut removes the cheesy 80s ending which no one liked, but keeps in the restored scenes/shots......and restores the cut scenes. So the theatrical version is great, the Director's Cut is great......but "the Special Edition" is to be avoided, more for the scenes they removed than for the cheesy ending they added. Ok, dropping everything to watch this, AJ! Super excited to see your reaction to this dazzling movie!
I've seen both the theatrical and the extended versions: all I can remember is that the extended version has a sequence showing inside the mothership, which is ok, but doesn't really add to the story.
We're not supposed to be "rooting for" what's happening to Roy. He's losing his mind (this isn't his "normal" state), and he doesn't understand why or know how to stop his irrational obsessive behavior besides making it to the place that has been planted in his mind. That's what we're supposed to be rooting for--Roy regaining his sanity by fulfilling the insane directive forced upon him by the aliens, and being vindicated as the one true believer who has proven himself worthy of communing with them.
That’s a good way of looking at it, and I’m inclined to agree... Except, rather than coming to his senses and returning to society and his family after Devil’s Tower, he goes all the way and leaves Earth with the aliens. I was just left staring at the screen like 😀.
@@MoviesMusicAJ It's one of my favorite movies (I'm 53) so a lot of it is nostalgia as well. Keep in mind, he was almost possessed with an unrelenting drive to know what was going on, which was implanted by the aliens. It also doesn't let us know how long they were taking him-might have just been a year mission, and last, if you follow it closely, his wife hardly supported him or cared about what he had saw and was going through. She was in denial even about the UFO siting's, and he was obsessed, and not by his own doing.
@@MoviesMusicAJ That's the difference between generations watching this film I guess. I never once had any feelings one way or another about Roy's character leaving his family when I watched this back when it came out. 🤔 Not sure why that is, but I find it interesting that any young person watching this film today shares your opinion, yet I was not alone in mine back in the day.
@@PrimeSportsNetwork I think a lot more people of my generation grew up through divorce when we were kids, so we're generally more aware of that sort of thing in film/TV.
I was 10 years old when this and Star Wars came out within 6 months of each other. Star Wars blew me away of course, but this one stuck with me because it felt real . I love this movie.👍
It’s been ages since I watched Star Wars, but if I’d seen Close Encounters as a kid I think I also would’ve preferred it over Star Wars. The music/light show at the end was absolutely magical.
I stopped to comment about 20 minutes into your reaction. You seem like a nice intelligent person but one thing that I've been learning as watch more and more reaction videos is that the younger generation is very uptight about everything. I saw this movie in the theater when I was 12 and the whole theater was laughing and enjoying Richard Dreyfus going crazy because it's a movie not real life. It's not based on a true story, it's a science fiction movie where you are supposed to use your imagination and enjoy seeing things that you would never see in real life and watching people (even though the characters were very realistic and believable) act in a way that we might be concerned about or find upsetting in real life. If you want to be upset about human behavior in a movie and you are going through all of Spielberg's movies then be upset and horrified when you watch 'Schindler's List' because it's based on a true story and is absolutely brutal. But I would recommend that when you watch a movie like this just have fun and enjoy the ride. Don't take it to seriously.
Composer John Williams said in an interview that Spielberg wanted some characteristic sound that’s intended to act as a musical calling card for the aliens. Sort of a welcoming door bell chime. Williams came up with those, now famous, five note sequence on a piano.
John Williams was at the top of his game during the seventies and eighties, and this is one of his best. And of course the entire special effects team deserves special attention.
I'm glad Douglas Trumbull's name jumped out at you in the credits, he's done some great work over the years. I love his directorial debut Silent Running (1972), a really unusual eco-drama that hits me in the heart with the way it humanises some robot characters.
I'm a little fed up of people not understanding Roy's character and his motivations. All you need to know is that encounter he had in his truck changed him forever, there was no coming back from that, like everyone else that had the same experience. They were invited. The Visitors cared not for their personal relationships, because, well, they're not human. Also, their family life was far from happy, you can see it in there. Ronnie and Roy had lost their connection to each other a long time ago. Watch it again. The kids are running riot, Ronnie just seems upset all the time, and Roy is busy with his model train set. Says it all.
What I saw was a family that definitely wasn’t perfect, but by no means near falling apart. Just seemed like run-of-the-mill suburban malaise… the kind of thing that could be fixed with better communication, maybe some therapy, and doing more meaningful family activities. People are so quick to abandon their responsibilities at the slightest resistance nowadays. It was surprising to see it in a film from the ‘70s.
@@MoviesMusicAJ If you thought "some therapy" might be a remedy earlier in the relationship, maybe. But after his initial extraterrestrial experience, he would have been forever changed and not the same person. Family activities? Like what? I would suggest that such an experience would result in a profound shift in this person's perspective and beliefs. If their lives seemed to be "run of the mill malaise" before, why in the world (or out of it) would anyone think that he would feel the same way about anything; Including his family? Would you expect that of someone who develops mental illness?
This is one of my favorite films of all time. It's been slept on big time by the RUclips reaction community but it seems to be getting some more traction recently.
1.) Love how you noticed it was Douglas Trumball! I knew you would! Although, as you rightfully point out: I think one of the biggest "special effects" of the movie is how he directed the family scenes, and all the stuff with the kids, wow! You've got a little Cassavetes movie in the middle of this most Spielberg of Speilberg films! 2.) The cross-talk you're mentioning: Robert Altman, that's his trademark and Spielberg definitely picked up on it, in this movie, like the air-traffic control scene. "M*A*S*H*" from 1970 is where that was introduced, and Altman pioneered that kind of orchestrated script as well as the actual recording and mixing of the dialog. All the great 70s directors picked up on that and as I was watching this very reaction, I was noticing: "ah, Spielberg....you're doing Altman!" (But you're right: Spielberg is masterful at it, planting in exposition. And like you said: those scenes with a five-member family, three of them kids, all of them doing business.......wow. That is masterful directing! 3.) I think you did miss something major: the family is NOT happy in the beginning, it's dysfunctional, it's one of the first things you mention, in fact! This is in no way "idyllic". And I must say it is one of the most accurate portrayals of the late 70s family unit, especially made at the time, as I've ever seen. Everything is in this movie: post-Watergate paranoia.....the 60s generation that married too young, had kids too fast......and who would all be divorced by the 80s! It's all in there. (Notice that Barry's mom is a single mom). The fight scenes with Teri Garr, and the kids crying.....that could have been recorded in countless households of the period, including mine, and lots of my friends! Spielberg would then capture the early 80s, Reagan era family unit perfectly in what was originally the sequel to "Close Encounters" but became a horror movie: "Poltergeist". Interesting to compare the two families. 4.) Going further with this: Dreyfuss' character....the aliens picked him. Obviously they are "calling" all of these people: how else would they all know this shape, or this tune? Their brains are being screwed with! He's trying to resist! We see him try! As we later see: the aliens don't want any of the "professional" people the government picked to go......they pick Richard Dreyfuss, the one guy they called and who made it. 5.) As far as his family? She left him, not the other way around! She didn't try and understand or get him help at any point in the movie! (By the way, Teri Garr is FANTASTIC in this movie, is she not?) Again: the very first scene, Dreyfuss is annoyed he has to explain math to his kid, Teri Garr is frazzled and harrassed, frowning and exhausted the first second we see her. The kid is banging a doll in the background and they're so numb to it that they don't even notice. Dreyfuss wants to go to a Disney movie, they want to go play miniature golf. It's all funny and entertaining, but it's also revealing and capturing the American suburban malaise brilliantly. -Anyways, GREAT reaction as usual!!!!! I'm not a huge Spielberg fan, he can be super cloying and overly-sentimental to the point of sloppiness, in my opinion. But "Jaws" and CEOT3K are tremendous. And man oh man, seeing THIS movie in the theater was a one-of-a-kind experience, and the vibe when the lights came up and the audience had to go home.....everyone walking around in a weird, happy daze, as if we had all been there. Fifty times more the vibe than "Star Wars" which had come out six months earlier. "Star Wars" was kids with their parents. "Close Encounters" was everybody, young and old, not unlike the people who gathered on the road to watch the UFOS.....it was a real special movie experience. PS: THANKS FOR ALL THE GREAT VIDEOS THIS YEAR, AJ! You have made this year SO much better. Seriously, brother in cinema (and music!), THANK YOU.
Lots of awesome insights here. I definitely was lacking the context of the state of the American family unit in the 70s. That helps me put this film in context. Still, as portrayed in the film, I didn’t think the family was dysfunctional (not in any serious sense, as we would associate with abuse, negligence, or trauma). My childhood best friend had 4 siblings and this is just what their house felt like. A lot of buzzing, lively energy. Mildly chaotic, but generally harmless. Certainly nothing worth leaving the planet over! 😅 Also, you’re doing a great job selling me on Altman! Although I did watch Short Cuts earlier this year and while I appreciated it, I didn’t love it. Would you recommend MASH or another Altman film to start with?
PS: Before anyone else comments and misquotes him (as they always do): Speilberg says he could never write "Close Encounters" today because of the leaving-of-the-family thing. He was not a father at that point. He NEVER said he "regrets" how he wrote "Close Encounters" and in fact singles it out as the one film among all of his others he would save (and he says it in the same exact interview). It's the most Spielbergian of all Spielberg movies. Ok, 'nuff said!
I don't think we're supposed to like or dislike Roy Neary. You might even be limiting the whole idea of a protagonist by suggesting they should always be someone to root for. Neary is a man who becomes obsessed with his sighting of something other worldly and has a mental breakdown after he is mentally implanted with instructions to go to a ceratin place for an encounter with an alien life form. This destroys his normal life. He becomes irrational. He's suuposed to become irrational. That's his story. I don't think as an audience we're expected to support his actions, but to witness. Spielberg hikmself said that this film is a product his of youth, that if he had written CE3K later in life, after he had children, he would not have had Neary abandon his family. I for one am glad he wrote it when he did. Neary's irrational self-destructive compulsion is the fascinating conflict that drives the story. He's isn't simply a protag for whom everything works out in the end, he's a man who abandons everything to chase an irrational dream. Like A.I. this film challenges the idea of Spielberg's need to have 'happy endings'/ This is not a happy ending. It's complicated.
It definitely made for an interesting take on the material. I don't want to give the impression that I have a limited view of what a protagonist should be. But for me personally, I didn't relate to how quickly he unraveled and abandoned his family. It rubbed me the wrong way. I could also argue that's a strength of the film, if it can provoke that kind of response from me.
@@MoviesMusicAJ I do think the scene where he destroys the neighborhood to build his replica of the Devil's Tower was a bit over the top... well, more than a bit actually. haha
The air-traffic controllers scene used actual air traffic controllers for authenticity. Steven Spielberg frequently uses real people, non-actors, whenever he can. This movie is the type of sci-fi movie I recommend to people who don't typically like sci-fi because it doesn't feel like one. It's so much more about the human beings than it is about the aliens.
As a little hint for what the movie’s theme was, Spielberg included a little treat near the end. As our hero was being led up the ramp, the lush music included the tune “when you wish upon a star” , if you listen really closely.
I'm old enough to have seen this at the cinema when it first came out - it was held over for a second week so I went to see it again. It was a full-size screen and when the mothership comes over the mountain, and keeps on coming, and keeps on coming ... it was chin-on-the-floor time. I prefer this to the "extended" version where you see inside the ship: when they shoewd it on TV they put a commercial break in just as Roy goes up the ramp, and I thought, Why? it ends in a minute. Then they came back to the inside-the-ship sequence. There's a book on the making of the film, by Bob Balaban, who plays the translator - very interesting with a lot of fascinating background info: for instance, the entire landing pad sequence was shot indoors, in the world's biggest aircraft hangar. All that's actually there are the sheds etc around the edges; everything else is special effects. ps: "why he'd want to leave his family" - the aliens did that, filling him and others that they found worthy to be drawn to them. pps I didn't see Duel on the list
Maybe you have already viewed it by now, but Spielberg's made for TV film, "Duel" (1971) starring Dennis Weaver is a really good suspense movie. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out.
How do you make a protagonist' character likable when the script has him abandoning his family to seek some ultimate truth about life in the universe? I saw a man who had enough of life on earth and he had a choice of trying to patch things up with his family, which wouldn't be easy because he'd always have these thoughts in the back of his mind about what he saw and experienced, and his family wanted nothing to do with that. This would always be a bone of contention between him and his family. So he saw another choice, which was a way out and chose that path instead. Worse case scenario is he'd come back about the same age as he'd left and he could start another life on earth if he wanted to.
When I started this channel I’d never watched any Carpenter films. Now I’ve reacted to 4 of his. I’m going to go all-in and eventually react to all of his films here.
As far as unknown Spielberg films or lesser talked about I love Empire of the Sun. It's a beautiful film with a gorgeous score by John Williams and a young cast of now famous actors like Ben Stiller, John Malkovich and a young kid actor named Christian Bale. It came out in 1987 or 88. It's a WW2 coming of age story about the Japanese occupation of China and people who were stuck there as POWs.
Spielberg was not a family man in 1977, and was the child of divorced parents. He wrote this on top of directing, so I think the fact that Neary abandons his family for something 'greater' is in line with how he might have felt then. Spielberg has often said, post becoming a father, that he would have written it differently later in his career. His one regret was actually your criticism which I think is very valid. However even I didn't used to think that, first seeing this film when I was a teenager. Spielberg was also known as the 'Peter Pan of Hollywood' during his early career which, while not meaning to insult my idol, may be indicative of his emotional maturity at the time. The visual effects were achieved (without CGI) using motion control cameras, much like Star Wars. They were filmed in smoky rooms which really extended the radiance of the light. I'm not sure if you noticed but Spielberg also had a credit for 'Visual Effects Concepts'. I believe that was down to his idea of riding lamps past the actors for the cast light from the spaceships. The actors reacted to the light but had no idea what the ships really looked like. In fact Dreyfuss was often heard in interview to say that he would have reacted differently had he known what he was looking at. The clouds were achieved with paint poured into water. I still think that looks far better than CGI clouds today. Anyway, going on. Whenever a fellow filmmaker reacts to this film (and many others besides) I'm always wondering what films they studied to learn filmmaking if it wasn't the films I studied. Jaws, CE3K, Raiders, E.T. and Jurassic Park are probably my most studied films, essential to my whole understanding of the art form. Spielberg himself my idol since childhood. I also noticed you didn't mention Schindler's List. Have you not seen it? Total sin if so. It is one of the most remarkably moving films ever. If you've not seen it I strongly recommend you react to it.
Yes, I did not appreciate the fact that the protagonist is abandoning his family permanently - not just to go to Wyoming, but to outer space. It's almost like he's committing suicide and leaving them behind, and he's smiling about it as he leaves. Strange message.
Regarding the Roy character, there is something of an overt analogy here to being an artist/creative madness. Creative inspiration is something that seizes you, and calls you, and pulls you towards something only you can see, which almost always isolates you from those around you -- think of how many famous artists were not good with maintaining or prioritizing human relationships, be it as mother or father or spouse. Their art consumed them. So when creative artistry consumes you, it is with the same blind obsession that Roy had for his own "calling" (as well as his creative frustration, if you will, over not being able to realize something that he feels inside himself to be true and meaningful, but which he cannot articulate.) Add to this the constant thematic references in the movie to Pinocchio and "When you wish upon a star" and you kind of get a picture where I think Roy really IS dissatisfied with his kind of mild & ordinary (but also messily chaotic) life. I think it's all very hum-drum for him until that one fateful night he sees a vision of a bigger world out there, and it's like he's been almost religiously awakened. Once he has seen what he has seen, it is a vision he cannot un-see. And yet because his wife and family did not share this vision with him, even more than before the drift between the two worlds starts to happen. The newer bigger shinier thing Roy has seen is just too alluring. (Keep in mind, too, that Spielberg's parents divorced when he was in high school, and he had a strained relationship with his father for a lot of his life, so it might be almost safe to assume that Roy was a projection of Spielberg's dad. Maybe in this film Spielberg was trying to work out what could make a father want to leave his family ...)
Beautifully said. I don’t remember if I made that connection while watching the film, but this perspective was something I eventually considered in the days following. The artist analogy is the only way his story works for me. I absolutely understand that pull. It’s just such a hard 180 turn in the film because Roy seemed like kind of a humdrum dude himself. The film could have maybe implied that he had given up on some dream or pursuit from his youth to start a family, and now kinda regretted it. Any artistic person I’ve known has always had that pull; it’s not something they realized about themselves while nearing middle-age. But yes, I think your reading of it is the most compelling and convincing for me. Cheers.
now that I think about it Melinda Dillon was in this movie, Magnolia and a Christmas story. three of my favorite movies..also, you got to look at it differently all those people were living normal lives before they were affected by the aliens. they all were drawn there supernaturally. a compulsion beyond their control.
it was the 70's. We didn't have video games and most of us didn't have cable. So we did shit like jumping into a baby crib and break apart a doll. What?
Back when it came out honestly we really didn’t mind how Roy acted I understood the aliens did something to his mind but now especially after Spielberg said he wouldn’t have Roy abandon his family then yes you’re correct but at the time we didn’t mind thanks again
I will admit it didn’t occur to me that the aliens did something to his mind, but that makes sense. Still, I’m glad Spielberg changed in his thinking afterward.
At 5.30 Spielberg used a real Air Traffic Controller because no actor could learn to speak his lines convincingly. The only bit that sucked was the foetus like aliens.
Well, you may love music but you are NOT a musician as I am because you could not even get the 5 notes that they have been playing throughout the movie. And what do you know...he abandoned his family after all. Be careful how you judge someone. hahahaha
Have you seen the movie? It's one of my favorites, but I grew up around the time it came out, so its nostalgic. As it plays out, his wife is also a horrible character not supporting him. To her defense, she had no idea what was happening to him, but still didn't support him very well, and to his defense, the aliens had implanted this image in his head, which was even causing him health issues, and a insatiable drive to find out what it was-almost like being possessed or drugged (even risking his life). Also, it doesn't say how long he was leaving, everyone assumes forever or for decades, but it might have been 6 months or a year, we're not told.
Looks left... looks right... looks up. Those pointing fingers filling an empty sky. To this day, goosebumps. But dang, your smile during this IS going to be memorable :) Btw... Spielberg had said at the time of making E.T. that, when he made Close Encounters, he wasn't a parent yet, and seeing himself as the Dreyfuss character, had no hesitation of wanting to see inside and go with the aliens. When it came time for E.T. he had kids and said there was no way he was letting Elliot get on that ship. Something like that.
That finale! 🤩🤯 FYI- Per commenter recommendation, I watched the Director's Cut. But I am wondering how it differs from the Theatrical and Extended versions. 🛸🎶 Timestamps below...
0:00 Preview clip
0:16 My Spielberg viewing history
2:13 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS after JAWS
3:15 Movie reaction!
25:15 Review: An audiovisual treat for the senses
27:35 Let's talk about Richard Dreyfuss' character
Barry is short for Baron. I had a step-brother Barry.
Psyched to watch this, one of my all-time favorites!!! Before I do: The theatrical cut is fine to watch. But in the early 80s, they did a re-release, "The Special Edition": Spielberg wanted to put back in some scenes he had cut.....but the only way Columbia would let him do this is if they shot a new ending, with Dreyfuss on the ship. It's corny and dopey and adds nothing to the movie. What's worse is that, for some reasons, scenes from the theatrical version were CUT, like the mashed potatoes scene! The Director's Cut removes the cheesy 80s ending which no one liked, but keeps in the restored scenes/shots......and restores the cut scenes. So the theatrical version is great, the Director's Cut is great......but "the Special Edition" is to be avoided, more for the scenes they removed than for the cheesy ending they added. Ok, dropping everything to watch this, AJ! Super excited to see your reaction to this dazzling movie!
I've seen both the theatrical and the extended versions: all I can remember is that the extended version has a sequence showing inside the mothership, which is ok, but doesn't really add to the story.
CORRECT 👍 THESE ARE THE PLANES ✈️ THAT DISAPPEARED OVER THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE
THE MOVIE 🍿 WAS BASED ON A TRUE STORY
We're not supposed to be "rooting for" what's happening to Roy. He's losing his mind (this isn't his "normal" state), and he doesn't understand why or know how to stop his irrational obsessive behavior besides making it to the place that has been planted in his mind. That's what we're supposed to be rooting for--Roy regaining his sanity by fulfilling the insane directive forced upon him by the aliens, and being vindicated as the one true believer who has proven himself worthy of communing with them.
That’s a good way of looking at it, and I’m inclined to agree... Except, rather than coming to his senses and returning to society and his family after Devil’s Tower, he goes all the way and leaves Earth with the aliens. I was just left staring at the screen like 😀.
@@MoviesMusicAJ It's one of my favorite movies (I'm 53) so a lot of it is nostalgia as well. Keep in mind, he was almost possessed with an unrelenting drive to know what was going on, which was implanted by the aliens. It also doesn't let us know how long they were taking him-might have just been a year mission, and last, if you follow it closely, his wife hardly supported him or cared about what he had saw and was going through. She was in denial even about the UFO siting's, and he was obsessed, and not by his own doing.
@@MoviesMusicAJ That's the difference between generations watching this film I guess. I never once had any feelings one way or another about Roy's character leaving his family when I watched this back when it came out. 🤔 Not sure why that is, but I find it interesting that any young person watching this film today shares your opinion, yet I was not alone in mine back in the day.
@@PrimeSportsNetwork I think a lot more people of my generation grew up through divorce when we were kids, so we're generally more aware of that sort of thing in film/TV.
He didn’t leave his family. His wife took the kids and left him.
I was 10 years old when this and Star Wars came out within 6 months of each other. Star Wars blew me away of course, but this one stuck with me because it felt real . I love this movie.👍
It’s been ages since I watched Star Wars, but if I’d seen Close Encounters as a kid I think I also would’ve preferred it over Star Wars. The music/light show at the end was absolutely magical.
I stopped to comment about 20 minutes into your reaction. You seem like a nice intelligent person but one thing that I've been learning as watch more and more reaction videos is that the younger generation is very uptight about everything. I saw this movie in the theater when I was 12 and the whole theater was laughing and enjoying Richard Dreyfus going crazy because it's a movie not real life. It's not based on a true story, it's a science fiction movie where you are supposed to use your imagination and enjoy seeing things that you would never see in real life and watching people (even though the characters were very realistic and believable) act in a way that we might be concerned about or find upsetting in real life. If you want to be upset about human behavior in a movie and you are going through all of Spielberg's movies then be upset and horrified when you watch 'Schindler's List' because it's based on a true story and is absolutely brutal. But I would recommend that when you watch a movie like this just have fun and enjoy the ride. Don't take it to seriously.
Composer John Williams said in an interview that Spielberg wanted some characteristic sound that’s intended to act as a musical calling card for the aliens. Sort of a welcoming door bell chime. Williams came up with those, now famous, five note sequence on a piano.
John Williams was at the top of his game during the seventies and eighties, and this is one of his best. And of course the entire special effects team deserves special attention.
I'm glad Douglas Trumbull's name jumped out at you in the credits, he's done some great work over the years. I love his directorial debut Silent Running (1972), a really unusual eco-drama that hits me in the heart with the way it humanises some robot characters.
I'm a little fed up of people not understanding Roy's character and his motivations. All you need to know is that encounter he had in his truck changed him forever, there was no coming back from that, like everyone else that had the same experience. They were invited. The Visitors cared not for their personal relationships, because, well, they're not human.
Also, their family life was far from happy, you can see it in there. Ronnie and Roy had lost their connection to each other a long time ago. Watch it again. The kids are running riot, Ronnie just seems upset all the time, and Roy is busy with his model train set. Says it all.
What I saw was a family that definitely wasn’t perfect, but by no means near falling apart. Just seemed like run-of-the-mill suburban malaise… the kind of thing that could be fixed with better communication, maybe some therapy, and doing more meaningful family activities. People are so quick to abandon their responsibilities at the slightest resistance nowadays. It was surprising to see it in a film from the ‘70s.
@@MoviesMusicAJ If you thought "some therapy" might be a remedy earlier in the relationship, maybe. But after his initial extraterrestrial experience, he would have been forever changed and not the same person. Family activities? Like what? I would suggest that such an experience would result in a profound shift in this person's perspective and beliefs. If their lives seemed to be "run of the mill malaise" before, why in the world (or out of it) would anyone think that he would feel the same way about anything; Including his family? Would you expect that of someone who develops mental illness?
This is one of my favorite films of all time. It's been slept on big time by the RUclips reaction community but it seems to be getting some more traction recently.
1.) Love how you noticed it was Douglas Trumball! I knew you would! Although, as you rightfully point out: I think one of the biggest "special effects" of the movie is how he directed the family scenes, and all the stuff with the kids, wow! You've got a little Cassavetes movie in the middle of this most Spielberg of Speilberg films!
2.) The cross-talk you're mentioning: Robert Altman, that's his trademark and Spielberg definitely picked up on it, in this movie, like the air-traffic control scene. "M*A*S*H*" from 1970 is where that was introduced, and Altman pioneered that kind of orchestrated script as well as the actual recording and mixing of the dialog. All the great 70s directors picked up on that and as I was watching this very reaction, I was noticing: "ah, Spielberg....you're doing Altman!" (But you're right: Spielberg is masterful at it, planting in exposition. And like you said: those scenes with a five-member family, three of them kids, all of them doing business.......wow. That is masterful directing!
3.) I think you did miss something major: the family is NOT happy in the beginning, it's dysfunctional, it's one of the first things you mention, in fact! This is in no way "idyllic". And I must say it is one of the most accurate portrayals of the late 70s family unit, especially made at the time, as I've ever seen. Everything is in this movie: post-Watergate paranoia.....the 60s generation that married too young, had kids too fast......and who would all be divorced by the 80s! It's all in there. (Notice that Barry's mom is a single mom). The fight scenes with Teri Garr, and the kids crying.....that could have been recorded in countless households of the period, including mine, and lots of my friends! Spielberg would then capture the early 80s, Reagan era family unit perfectly in what was originally the sequel to "Close Encounters" but became a horror movie: "Poltergeist". Interesting to compare the two families.
4.) Going further with this: Dreyfuss' character....the aliens picked him. Obviously they are "calling" all of these people: how else would they all know this shape, or this tune? Their brains are being screwed with! He's trying to resist! We see him try! As we later see: the aliens don't want any of the "professional" people the government picked to go......they pick Richard Dreyfuss, the one guy they called and who made it.
5.) As far as his family? She left him, not the other way around! She didn't try and understand or get him help at any point in the movie! (By the way, Teri Garr is FANTASTIC in this movie, is she not?) Again: the very first scene, Dreyfuss is annoyed he has to explain math to his kid, Teri Garr is frazzled and harrassed, frowning and exhausted the first second we see her. The kid is banging a doll in the background and they're so numb to it that they don't even notice. Dreyfuss wants to go to a Disney movie, they want to go play miniature golf. It's all funny and entertaining, but it's also revealing and capturing the American suburban malaise brilliantly.
-Anyways, GREAT reaction as usual!!!!! I'm not a huge Spielberg fan, he can be super cloying and overly-sentimental to the point of sloppiness, in my opinion. But "Jaws" and CEOT3K are tremendous. And man oh man, seeing THIS movie in the theater was a one-of-a-kind experience, and the vibe when the lights came up and the audience had to go home.....everyone walking around in a weird, happy daze, as if we had all been there. Fifty times more the vibe than "Star Wars" which had come out six months earlier. "Star Wars" was kids with their parents. "Close Encounters" was everybody, young and old, not unlike the people who gathered on the road to watch the UFOS.....it was a real special movie experience.
PS: THANKS FOR ALL THE GREAT VIDEOS THIS YEAR, AJ! You have made this year SO much better. Seriously, brother in cinema (and music!), THANK YOU.
Lots of awesome insights here. I definitely was lacking the context of the state of the American family unit in the 70s. That helps me put this film in context. Still, as portrayed in the film, I didn’t think the family was dysfunctional (not in any serious sense, as we would associate with abuse, negligence, or trauma). My childhood best friend had 4 siblings and this is just what their house felt like. A lot of buzzing, lively energy. Mildly chaotic, but generally harmless. Certainly nothing worth leaving the planet over! 😅
Also, you’re doing a great job selling me on Altman! Although I did watch Short Cuts earlier this year and while I appreciated it, I didn’t love it. Would you recommend MASH or another Altman film to start with?
PS: Before anyone else comments and misquotes him (as they always do): Speilberg says he could never write "Close Encounters" today because of the leaving-of-the-family thing. He was not a father at that point. He NEVER said he "regrets" how he wrote "Close Encounters" and in fact singles it out as the one film among all of his others he would save (and he says it in the same exact interview). It's the most Spielbergian of all Spielberg movies. Ok, 'nuff said!
I don't think we're supposed to like or dislike Roy Neary. You might even be limiting the whole idea of a protagonist by suggesting they should always be someone to root for. Neary is a man who becomes obsessed with his sighting of something other worldly and has a mental breakdown after he is mentally implanted with instructions to go to a ceratin place for an encounter with an alien life form. This destroys his normal life. He becomes irrational. He's suuposed to become irrational. That's his story. I don't think as an audience we're expected to support his actions, but to witness. Spielberg hikmself said that this film is a product his of youth, that if he had written CE3K later in life, after he had children, he would not have had Neary abandon his family. I for one am glad he wrote it when he did. Neary's irrational self-destructive compulsion is the fascinating conflict that drives the story. He's isn't simply a protag for whom everything works out in the end, he's a man who abandons everything to chase an irrational dream. Like A.I. this film challenges the idea of Spielberg's need to have 'happy endings'/ This is not a happy ending. It's complicated.
It definitely made for an interesting take on the material. I don't want to give the impression that I have a limited view of what a protagonist should be. But for me personally, I didn't relate to how quickly he unraveled and abandoned his family. It rubbed me the wrong way. I could also argue that's a strength of the film, if it can provoke that kind of response from me.
@@MoviesMusicAJ I do think the scene where he destroys the neighborhood to build his replica of the Devil's Tower was a bit over the top... well, more than a bit actually. haha
@@IYAMNI Totally, I think that's the scene where he lost me. I was sort of with him up to that point.
The air-traffic controllers scene used actual air traffic controllers for authenticity. Steven Spielberg frequently uses real people, non-actors, whenever he can. This movie is the type of sci-fi movie I recommend to people who don't typically like sci-fi because it doesn't feel like one. It's so much more about the human beings than it is about the aliens.
As a little hint for what the movie’s theme was, Spielberg included a little treat near the end. As our hero was being led up the ramp, the lush music included the tune “when you wish upon a star” , if you listen really closely.
“That kid’s got a bunch of creepy toys!” That’s how it was in the 70s. We all did.
How do they know these aliens aren't running some kind of intergalactic food truck?
I'm old enough to have seen this at the cinema when it first came out - it was held over for a second week so I went to see it again.
It was a full-size screen and when the mothership comes over the mountain, and keeps on coming, and keeps on coming ... it was chin-on-the-floor time.
I prefer this to the "extended" version where you see inside the ship: when they shoewd it on TV they put a commercial break in just as Roy goes up the ramp, and I thought, Why? it ends in a minute. Then they came back to the inside-the-ship sequence.
There's a book on the making of the film, by Bob Balaban, who plays the translator - very interesting with a lot of fascinating background info: for instance, the entire landing pad sequence was shot indoors, in the world's biggest aircraft hangar. All that's actually there are the sheds etc around the edges; everything else is special effects.
ps: "why he'd want to leave his family" - the aliens did that, filling him and others that they found worthy to be drawn to them.
pps I didn't see Duel on the list
At the time, Spielberg did not have a wife and kids. He mentioned years later that if he had, he would not have made this movie the way it was made.
Maybe you have already viewed it by now, but Spielberg's made for TV film, "Duel" (1971) starring Dennis Weaver is a really good suspense movie. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out.
FINALLY a reviewer that gets it and doesn't spend most of the time with stupid idiotic comments that only reveals their immaturity.
How do you make a protagonist' character likable when the script has him abandoning his family to seek some ultimate truth about life in the universe? I saw a man who had enough of life on earth and he had a choice of trying to patch things up with his family, which wouldn't be easy because he'd always have these thoughts in the back of his mind about what he saw and experienced, and his family wanted nothing to do with that. This would always be a bone of contention between him and his family. So he saw another choice, which was a way out and chose that path instead. Worse case scenario is he'd come back about the same age as he'd left and he could start another life on earth if he wanted to.
Your list of Spielberg movies din't include his very first one, "Duel", which was a made for TV movie and a rather good one too.
Spielberg: king of product placement.
6:20 sounds like peer pressure... group pressure? its some form pressure 😆
For another alien encounter movie from an acclaimed director - John Carpenter's Starman.
When I started this channel I’d never watched any Carpenter films. Now I’ve reacted to 4 of his. I’m going to go all-in and eventually react to all of his films here.
4:21 😆 true.
As far as unknown Spielberg films or lesser talked about I love Empire of the Sun. It's a beautiful film with a gorgeous score by John Williams and a young cast of now famous actors like Ben Stiller, John Malkovich and a young kid actor named Christian Bale. It came out in 1987 or 88. It's a WW2 coming of age story about the Japanese occupation of China and people who were stuck there as POWs.
11:12 pretty cool indeed
If your going in order as far a Sci-Fi is concern, then Spielberg's "Ready Player One" is next? And the first BOSTON album of course.
12:00 a mars what? and i'm impressed that you know it, whatever it is. 🙂
Spielberg was not a family man in 1977, and was the child of divorced parents. He wrote this on top of directing, so I think the fact that Neary abandons his family for something 'greater' is in line with how he might have felt then. Spielberg has often said, post becoming a father, that he would have written it differently later in his career.
His one regret was actually your criticism which I think is very valid. However even I didn't used to think that, first seeing this film when I was a teenager. Spielberg was also known as the 'Peter Pan of Hollywood' during his early career which, while not meaning to insult my idol, may be indicative of his emotional maturity at the time.
The visual effects were achieved (without CGI) using motion control cameras, much like Star Wars. They were filmed in smoky rooms which really extended the radiance of the light. I'm not sure if you noticed but Spielberg also had a credit for 'Visual Effects Concepts'. I believe that was down to his idea of riding lamps past the actors for the cast light from the spaceships. The actors reacted to the light but had no idea what the ships really looked like. In fact Dreyfuss was often heard in interview to say that he would have reacted differently had he known what he was looking at.
The clouds were achieved with paint poured into water. I still think that looks far better than CGI clouds today. Anyway, going on.
Whenever a fellow filmmaker reacts to this film (and many others besides) I'm always wondering what films they studied to learn filmmaking if it wasn't the films I studied. Jaws, CE3K, Raiders, E.T. and Jurassic Park are probably my most studied films, essential to my whole understanding of the art form. Spielberg himself my idol since childhood.
I also noticed you didn't mention Schindler's List. Have you not seen it? Total sin if so. It is one of the most remarkably moving films ever. If you've not seen it I strongly recommend you react to it.
Yes, I did not appreciate the fact that the protagonist is abandoning his family permanently - not just to go to Wyoming, but to outer space. It's almost like he's committing suicide and leaving them behind, and he's smiling about it as he leaves. Strange message.
I'm still waiting for Roy to come home!
Regarding the Roy character, there is something of an overt analogy here to being an artist/creative madness. Creative inspiration is something that seizes you, and calls you, and pulls you towards something only you can see, which almost always isolates you from those around you -- think of how many famous artists were not good with maintaining or prioritizing human relationships, be it as mother or father or spouse. Their art consumed them. So when creative artistry consumes you, it is with the same blind obsession that Roy had for his own "calling" (as well as his creative frustration, if you will, over not being able to realize something that he feels inside himself to be true and meaningful, but which he cannot articulate.) Add to this the constant thematic references in the movie to Pinocchio and "When you wish upon a star" and you kind of get a picture where I think Roy really IS dissatisfied with his kind of mild & ordinary (but also messily chaotic) life. I think it's all very hum-drum for him until that one fateful night he sees a vision of a bigger world out there, and it's like he's been almost religiously awakened. Once he has seen what he has seen, it is a vision he cannot un-see. And yet because his wife and family did not share this vision with him, even more than before the drift between the two worlds starts to happen. The newer bigger shinier thing Roy has seen is just too alluring. (Keep in mind, too, that Spielberg's parents divorced when he was in high school, and he had a strained relationship with his father for a lot of his life, so it might be almost safe to assume that Roy was a projection of Spielberg's dad. Maybe in this film Spielberg was trying to work out what could make a father want to leave his family ...)
Beautifully said. I don’t remember if I made that connection while watching the film, but this perspective was something I eventually considered in the days following. The artist analogy is the only way his story works for me. I absolutely understand that pull. It’s just such a hard 180 turn in the film because Roy seemed like kind of a humdrum dude himself. The film could have maybe implied that he had given up on some dream or pursuit from his youth to start a family, and now kinda regretted it. Any artistic person I’ve known has always had that pull; it’s not something they realized about themselves while nearing middle-age. But yes, I think your reading of it is the most compelling and convincing for me. Cheers.
now that I think about it Melinda Dillon was in this movie, Magnolia and a Christmas story. three of my favorite movies..also, you got to look at it differently all those people were living normal lives before they were affected by the aliens. they all were drawn there supernaturally. a compulsion beyond their control.
I agree
A masterpiece
it was the 70's. We didn't have video games and most of us didn't have cable. So we did shit like jumping into a baby crib and break apart a doll. What?
4:39 and if it was a Bermuda Triangle movie, wouldn't it still be an alien movie? 🙂🤔👽
9:00 good reaction. would have been shocked if you missed it.
although i didn't laugh when i first saw it in the 80s... on LASERDISC!! 👻
15:33 little Barry. 😥
i apologize sir.
Back when it came out honestly we really didn’t mind how Roy acted I understood the aliens did something to his mind but now especially after Spielberg said he wouldn’t have Roy abandon his family then yes you’re correct but at the time we didn’t mind thanks again
I will admit it didn’t occur to me that the aliens did something to his mind, but that makes sense. Still, I’m glad Spielberg changed in his thinking afterward.
Saw at the theater several times as a teen top 5 for myself all time thanks for sharing your thoughts and reaction
Thank you for watching and commenting.
11:06 🤣🤣
14:59 that kid? you mean Barry. 😠
How did they do that PRECIOUS? VERY WELL INDEED.
Subscribed!
At 5.30 Spielberg used a real Air Traffic Controller because no actor could learn to speak his lines convincingly.
The only bit that sucked was the foetus like aliens.
Do the Paranoid album review by Black Sabbath!
One of the best albums ever with so many good songs.
10:25 😄
probably
7:27 damn you aj, now i have homework.
have you seen "Barry" on hbo? awesome
3:49 bilingual ✅
Hey AJ, please watch Schindler's List! It's Spielberg's most incredible and important film.
Totally. I'll definitely react to it at some point.
You're a sharp guy AJ. Happy to subscribe.
Thanks. I appreciate it.
E.L.O...i win!
The opening… 😂🤣👍🏻
😄
I like that you differentiated alien movie from bermuda triangle movie
You missed it.
AND loose their pilot status and livelihood. if you are considered to be of unsound mind, you no longer fit to pilot. That's the real reason why.
Well, you may love music but you are NOT a musician as I am because you could not even get the 5 notes that they have been playing throughout the movie. And what do you know...he abandoned his family after all. Be careful how you judge someone. hahahaha
So, the main character is just a horrible person. He abandoned his family without a second thought. No redemption for him.
Have you seen the movie? It's one of my favorites, but I grew up around the time it came out, so its nostalgic.
As it plays out, his wife is also a horrible character not supporting him. To her defense, she had no idea what was happening to him, but still didn't support him very well, and to his defense, the aliens had implanted this image in his head, which was even causing him health issues, and a insatiable drive to find out what it was-almost like being possessed or drugged (even risking his life). Also, it doesn't say how long he was leaving, everyone assumes forever or for decades, but it might have been 6 months or a year, we're not told.
He did not abandon his family. His wife took the kids and left him first. Great way to support your husband when he’s in crisis.
Looks left... looks right... looks up. Those pointing fingers filling an empty sky.
To this day, goosebumps.
But dang, your smile during this IS going to be memorable :)
Btw... Spielberg had said at the time of making E.T. that, when he made Close Encounters, he wasn't a parent yet, and seeing himself as the Dreyfuss character, had no hesitation of wanting to see inside and go with the aliens. When it came time for E.T. he had kids and said there was no way he was letting Elliot get on that ship. Something like that.