Close Encounters of the Third Kind

The visuals here...are never less than stunning in their impact, yet always seem well within the realm of possibility. It is also to Spielberg's credit, however, that despite all of this visual opulence, his actors are never dwarfed.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is unquestionably a great movie.

It's one of the great moviegoing experiences.

It must weather some bummy mid-passage exposition, but the movie survives its flaws triumphantly, evolving into a uniquely transporting filmgoing spectacle.

Steven Spielberg's giant, spectacular Close Encounters of the Third Kind...is the best—the most elaborate—1950's science fiction movie ever made, a work that borrows its narrative shape and its concerns from those earlier films, but enhances them with what looks like the latest developments in movie and space technology.

A genuine work of the popular imagination. It's the first true populist science-fiction film, a blend of the most startling, far-out special effects with the most ordinary human material of the American Heartland. [21 Nov 1977, p.88]

Steven Spielberg's film climaxes in final 35 minutes with an almost ethereal confrontation with life forms from another world; the first 100 minutes, however, are somewhat redundant in exposition and irritating in tone.

(96/100) Steven Spielberg has made one of the most intriguing, sometimes slow, sci-fi movie of all time. This is definitely in my top 20 favorite movies!

(Labor Day 40th anniversary re-release) What "Jaws" did to the water or the unknown terror lurking beneath it, Spielberg's follow up did for the skies or the unknown mysteries traveling above them. Not only does this hold up forty years later, but its hot at the time UFO and government conspiracy topics seem more intelligent and adult now and are compared to today's juvenile genre blockbusters.

This movie, while loved by those of its time and those out of it. Is not as raved about by myself. I liked it, just not as shocking to me as it probably was when Spielberg wrote it. The movie takes place in 1977 America when a series of extraterrestrial encounters send seemingly regular people into an extremely fantastic adventure. I loved certain aspects of the movie, certainly. The fact that these two species of existence found a common ground in music to communicate with one another is fascinating. But there was a visible disconnect (to me) between the actors and Spielberg. They did not portray as adequately as I would have liked their progression from sanity to lunacy post-encounter. The character development made no sense and was extremely chaotic, making it hard to experience the journey with them.

I'd classify this as an easy watch, not a great film. While the film is both visually and auditorily appealing, by any reasonable standards, not much happens, and there's almost no human interaction in the film. Why Lacombe was portrayed as a non-English speaker I will never know, as it added nothing to the plot and extended the movie.

Interesting Spielberg film with good acting and music, though the ending is a bit too obscure.