Interesting note: When the flight #19 pilots are walking out of the craft, there's a "blink and you'll miss it" cameo of sorts. The older gentleman with a beard wearing a light blue suit jacket and smoking a pipe. That man is none other than Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the creator of the "Close Encounter" classification. The first kind is observation of the UFO in the sky. Second kind is residual traces of a craft landing, such as scorch marks on the ground, etc. The third kind classification is actual sighting/contact with the craft's occupants, hence the title of the film. Dr. Hynek was a professor/astronomer who worked closely with the US government on UFO investigations. Those being Project Sign, Project Grudge and most famous, the Air Force's Project Blue Book. He published a few books that are quite an interesting read, particularly after Project Blue Book. Great reaction, Jen!
I saw this in the theater when it came out, it really was like nothing anyone had over seen,, it was visually stunning and beautiful, the story and actors completely believable a completely immersive experience
Completely agree. when the lights came up, it was like we'd all been on the mothership together! People were in a REALLY good mood. And it was all kinds of people in the audience: young, old, middle, couples, kids, teenagers, it wasn't like Star Wars which was like kids and their parents! Close Encounters was like going with your entire home town!
I was in the Navy for 13 years (above water warfare) and an Air Cadet before that. I am also a plane spotter and love finding the ISS and satellites yet I saw something in the sky I couldn't explain. Two bright lights chasing each other across the sky.
I saw Close Encounters and Star Wars in the theatre. My 13th Birthday party was at the opening of Star Wars, May 25 1977. Both were the biggest hits of the year, but Star Wars made 3x more money. Star Wars was the big summer movie that year and Close Encounters was the big Christmas movie. At the end of both movies people stood up and cheered. So many movies that came out in the 70s & 80s had a huge impact on people! Richard Dreyfuss had his best year ever in 1977. That Christmas when Close Encounter was number 1 at the Box-Office number 2 was "The Goodbye Girl" starring Dreyfuss. "The Goodbye Girl" was a huge hit! The song "The Goodbye Girl" from the movie was a huge hit! Richard Dreyfuss won the best actor Oscar for The Goodbye Girl. At the time Richard Dreyfuss was the youngest man to win the best Actor Oscar. The film also has one of the best child performances, Quinn Cummings, who got an Oscar nomination too. Richard Dreyfuss crushed the 70s! American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl. All were ground breaking films. When Barry said Goodbye everyone in the theatre started to cry. There is a cut were you see inside the ship, but it is uneventful, the mystery of the ship is better. E.T. is sort the sequel. The french guy in the movie the great french film director Francois Truffaut.
I also feel so lucky to have been 11 or 12 when these incredible films happened. I wept buckets throughout CE3K in the cinema in London when it opened here, because it was - and is - just so beautiful, hopeful and life affirming. Such a different vibe from today.
Seeing the mothership on the big screen was THE theatrical experience of the time. According to an article in I remember reading in Starlog magazine, the five notes and handsigns mean "H-E-L-L-O". And good call on the mothership looking like a city, that was Spielberg's aim, "A city in the sky".
There are some movies that really center around one specific emotion, like romantic love , or terror, or anger. This movie, more than any other I can think of, really captures the pure feeling of wonder. I'm glad you saw this version and not the later one that added random special effects of the inside of the ship that don't really add anything and deflate the balloon a little bit, so to speak.
@@Summon256 I said the later one, but this version she watched might actually have been later than the one I'm talking about; I'm not sure. So there were three versions of the movie. The original 77 version, the 1980 re-release, called the "Special Edtion," and the 1998 "Director's Cut." The Special Edition added a six minute sequence at the end that showed the inside of the spaceship, but it's really anticlimactic in my opinion. That scene isn't present in the original or the Director's Cut. The director's cut also took out a few scenes from the original but added others in, but I don't remember which scenes. The Special Edition was the one shown on TV throughout most of the 80s and 90s, though, and was also released on VHS.
@@dereknolin5986 I haven't seen any other versions of this movie other than the original, so i had no idea there were all these scenes added in/altered...
The French guy is Francois Truffaut, the great French New Wave director. Spielberg and his generation of directors were part of the New Hollywood, American New Wave, and they were directly influenced by directors like Truffaut. For Spielberg to be able to cast Truffaut in his movie would have been the dream of a lifetime, the real close encounter. Truffaut is so nice and likable in this movie; I wish he had been in front of the camera more.
This was one of the first films to get a "special edition". The film was originally intended to be release in the summer of '78, but Columbia was nearing bankruptcy and pushed for the winter '77 release. It did well enough to save the studio. Spielberg wanted some scenes that was filmed but not originally included added back and add a few other scenes for a 1980 Special Edition which was what ended up on home video. Columbia would only do it if Spielberg would film a scene inside the mothership. He didn't really want to do it that, thinking that leaving that to the imagination was good enough, but he did ask Dreyfuss to come in and do a few shots of him staring up, and they added a shot looking up inside the ship. And some other scenes. I think the ship in the Gobi desert was another newly added scene. For a while, Spielberg considered the 1980 version the only version, but as time went on, he began to reconsider. The problem I had with that 1980 version was that while most of the added scenes were fine, the interior of the mothership at the end did feel tacked on and unneeded. Also, the end title music totally changed to something rather boring - not what I remembered from having the original soundtrack with the actual end title music as it was in the '77 version. And, some scenes were cut to make room for the new stuff - scenes I thought were important - Roy stopping by the power station before hitting the road was cut, so was the entire sequence of Roy ripping up his and his neighbors' yards to toss it all into his kitchen window. In the '80 version, it goes from Roy puling off the top of the small mountain sculpture he made from the night before, right to Ronnie suddenly loading the kids in the car leaving Roy. The whole reason she leaves was totally cut and makes no sense as edited for that edition. In 1990, the Criterion Laserdisc release recreated the original '77 version for the first time on home video. But they included the added scenes at the end of each side where they would have been, and since the laserdisc format did have chapters you could program, you could recreated the '80 version by programming the right chapter order. It seemed a bit tedious, and I never tried it when I had my copy. By 1998, we got "The Collectors Edition" or the final directors cut. This is what you watched here. It restores all the scenes that were cut in the 1980 version, and leaves most of the stuff added in 1980, except for the mothership interior. It also restores the original '77 end title music.
It's always a huge mistake to fiddle with the original film. Star Wars was turned into a madman's morass with all the changes, additions, deletions, change backs, CGI, and inserted dialogue for the various "special editions," and then turned into schmaltz by the horrid prequels based on the goofy imagination of George Lucas. Fortunately, I got to see both Close Encounters and Star Wars in 1977 before they were mangled.
@@jackcarl2772 At least with CE3K, you can see the theatrical cut on the latest home video format. The Blu-ray can play any of the three versions. Theatrical, 1980 Special Edition, '98 Collectors Edition. We don't get that option with Star Wars Original Trilogy. The best official "Original" version is the last laserdisc transfers from '93. Unless you go bootleg (which I did).
@@joeldf6859 That's great about CE3K, you get to see it as it was meant to be seen. I'd rank it over Star Wars any day. I gave up on Star Wars years ago, lol. When I saw The Empire Strikes Back in the theater in 1980 (I was 20 at the time), I thought it a magnificent film, better even than the first. But the whole 'franchise' has sunk so low, has become so commercialized that I can't be bothered with it any more. When we talk about Sci-Fi, I really find it hard to beat some of the films that predate CE3K and Star Wars: Rollerball (1975); The Time Machine (1960); 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); Forbidden Planet (1956). Great thought-provoking stories, good acting, world building, spectacular practical special effects. Nice to meet a fellow Sci-Fi enthusiast!
The hand signs are a musical language that was developed by Kodaly in order to transcend language. So in other words, each hand signal or sign represents a separate note and so and then if you go down low and then the same signal up higher is an octave. I learned this when I was studying for my music education degree back in the early '70s mid '70s.
Welcome back, Jen! 😁 It's great to see you back with another movie reaction video! Steven Spielberg originally intended for Close Encounters to be a much smaller film about an Air Force officer investigating UFO sightings. After the success of Jaws, Spielberg decided to change the entire story and make it a more personal drama about an ordinary family man who encounters something extraordinary, but combined with big budget special effects that Spielberg was now able to afford. Spielberg was inspired to write the story by an incident that happened during his childhood when his father had woken up his entire family one night to take everyone out to the middle of a field where dozens of other people had gathered to watch a meteor shower. The event made such an impact on Spielberg's life that he began putting shooting stars in some of his early films as his trademark.
The huge sound of the mothership was enough to shake the seats in the theater. Communication through Music! Just too short of a duet between the them. Thanks for another entertaining reaction. You are a beautiful person.
Devil's Tower is a real US National park. The mother ship model is on display at the US National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center. Adam Savage did a video on it on his Tested channel. Look up this video on TH-cam. It covers the last set of effects from the climax. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS of the THIRD KIND miniature effects
Truffaut was one of the world's great directors. Other than his wonderful _Day for Night,_ which has been recommended in other comments, you might check out his 1966 adaptation of Ray Bradbury's _Fahrenheit 451._ As it's speculative fiction it fits well with the general theme of your channel. Though initially receiving mixed reviews it has grown significantly in reputation since then. Scorsese quite likes it and has said it is a film that influenced his own work.
So much to say, but first... THANK you for checking out this gem! The french assistant, François Truffaut, is a pheNOMenal director in his own right with a massive legacy left to cinema. One (quite obvious) one for you to check of his is Day For Night (1973), a film ABOUT filmmaking that still stands up today. I hope you watch it, even if 'just' on your own time. About those clouds, which were all over the 80's movies, long story short: big glass aquarium, pour in a transparent liquid, over it pour another transparent liquid of different density (so they both don't mix, one stays on top of the other), then with a syringe, ya inject the smoke, varying speeds to show the billowing'ness'. the smoke (diluted tempera paint = clouds) will stay in between the two transparent liquid layers. Ya film that and ya have clouds. This wouldn't be the only time Spielberg would use a famous director in his movie. He got Sir Richard Attenborough to be his Jurassic Park owner, Hammond. I hope you view his film, Gandhi (1982), one day.
WARNING - spoilers for E.T. The best bit of trivia came years later when Spielberg made E.T.. He said when making Close Encounters, of course he was going to let the Dreyfuss character go up into the ship, look around, and have no problem with him going away, because that was how Spielberg felt at the time. But when it came to making E.T., by that time, he had kids of his own, and he said there was no way he was going to let Elliot go away in the ship. I found that fascinating as to how a director works.
Cloud effects were done in a glass water tank using cloudy liquids spread into the water. The image is flipped and composited into the sky. This is used a lot in old movies.
Nick Meyer used cloud tanks twice, once for the Mutara Nebula in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and the mushroom clouds in The Day After (1983).
There is an extended edition which shows Roy inside the ship. The scene where the Giant Ship appears over Devil's Tower took everyones breath away in a movie theater with a large screen. One of the air traffic controllers in the beginning of the film is Morgan Freeman. Roy's wife was played by Teri Garr who is also known for movies like Young Frankenstein and Tootsie.
Everyone rates E.T. as Spielberg's Sci Fi masterpiece, but for me it's always been Close Encounters. As someone old enough to remember it on release, it's difficult to explain how incredible, groundbreaking and awe inspiring this movie was. Seeing the alien mothership for the first time was absolutely jaw dropping. It's just a shame that with the invention of CGI I don't think moviegoers will ever be able to experience that kind of feeling again, which is a sad thing.
I've always rated this as his sci-fi masterpiece; in fact, I've always rated it as his biggest masterpiece! If all he ever did was Jaws and Close Encounters, we'd still be talking about him. For me, the rest of his career has been a come-down from these auspicious beginnings!
@@TTM9691 I think slight pacing issues in the middle stop it from being his overall masterpiece (for me it goes to Jaws), but agree that from Jaws through to Raiders of the Lost ark Spielberg was on the top of his game. He did have an amazing comeback in the 90's with Jurassic Park, Schindlers List and Saving Private Ryan, but even those films lacked something that his earlier films possessed.
I've been to The Devil's Tower. It's something to see. There is a Special Edition version of CEs that does show Roy inside the ship, but that scene was filmed it about 3 years later and Dreyfuss had gained some weight. Not sure why Spielberg decided to do that except to rerelesse it and make extra money off it. For a more destructive close encounter movie see 1956's EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS. it's quite intelligent with some stunning special effects. Great reaction.
There's a fun movie from 2011 that's kind of a descendant of Close Encounters. Written by and starring Simon Pegg & Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) called 'Paul'. It has references to this fiim and E.T. as well as an audio cameo that ties all three movies together. It's worth putting on the list. Great reaction/review Jen.🛸
Fun Fact: Steven Spielberg was originally going to develop a horror-themed follow-up movie to Close Encounters called ‘Night Skies,' about a family in an isolated farmhouse being terrorized by aliens. The story was based on the real-life Kelly-Hopkinsville UFO encounter in Kentucky in 1955. The studio, Columbia Pictures, rejected the script because they wanted a more family-friendly sequel to Close Encounters. Special makeup effects master Rick Baker, who had worked on Star Wars, designed an alien model for Night Skies that ended up never being used. However, Spielberg did end up taking his Night Skies script and using different elements from the story to develop scripts for two other films - Poltergeist and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Some elements of Night Skies even ended up in the script for Gremlins.
"Project Blue Book" (2019) only got two seasons but they were great episodes. One episode even takes place on the set of "Close Encounters." If you want a dose of early 1950s Americana check out this show, most episodes take place during the early Cold War which plays into its tale of UFO investigation. There is even a Canada setting for one episode.
Yes, Devils Tower is a real place. It took me 45 years after this movie came out to see it. But it's an amazing place. Wyoming is one of the best vacation spots there is.
For a very high-caliber Spielberg drama, I suggest "The Color Purple". It was a huge, landmark film at its time, and now seems all-but-forgotten. I feel like everybody should see it.
Jen, you did ask a very good question during this video. "Is Canada a haven for UFOs?" The answer is yes, because there have been some very famous sightings in that country. Here is a small list of them. 1) 1967, Falcon Lake, Manitoba 2) 1967, Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia (Canada's Roswell, the object allegedly crashed into the sea) 3) 1990, Montreal, Quebec 4) 1996, Fox Lake, Alberta
I was there when Close Encounters (CET3K) was released. Saw it at the Georgetown theater in Indianapolis indiana. It was a huge fun movie and was the first film to unseat Star Wars as the number one box office film. Movies in the 70s were WAY more entertaining than they are today. They were daring and inventive and producers took more chances with films and storylines than they do now. Seeing commercials on the TV when he’s making his own tower is amusing now because those were the ACTUAL commercials running on tv at that time. Glad to see you back and this was a great film to start back with. Thanks!
Since you asked about effects... so there definitely in't any CGI at this point in time. But that doesn't mean that they are all practical either. To get technical/pedantic about it, practical means building real physical objects... prosthetics, models, props, sets, pyrotecnics... something the crew filming would have seen with their eyes too. But there were other Special Effects techniques before CGI that are not practical effects, which is where things like optical effects and animation comes in. So like in original Star Wars they had to go in after filming and basically draw blaster shots, light sabers glowing, and stuff like that on another piece of film and then combine them by shooting light through both and combining them onto one piece of film... hence optical, not computer generated, effects. Blue Screen (the predecessor to green screens) are also an optical effect.
"It looks like a city, a functioning city.". If I am not mistaken I believe that Spielberg was trying to figure what the ship would look like, struggling with it a bit, and then while trying to figure it out he happened to go somewhere that had a skyline view of Los Angeles. And that was when it hit him that the ship would sort of look like an upside down version of the Los Angeles skyline he was seeing. So, it does look like city. I hope my memory serves me on that. I read or saw that in some behind the scenes making of thing I believe. I was 6 in 1977 and Star Wars and Close Encounters are the first movies I truly recall watching in the theater. I recall walking out of both and just being like "That was awesome. I want to make movies like that some day.".
I was born in 66 and was a child in the 70s. My parents took me to see this when it came out. It was my favourite movie of all time until Blade Runner came out in 82. Yes it's pre CGI, and was genius. I have all the different versions of the movie. I also read the book and have the Fotonovel. Both of them are fantastic. There was a Special Edition of this in 1980 in the cinema. It didn't add too much to the original, but you got to see Roy inside the mothership. And crying at the splendour. Whatever you do don't watch the making of documentary. It's made that mistake and it takes away a lot of the magic. In the cinema, believe it or not, was the scene when the spaceship was behind him on the road. When the light beams came down on him, the pink noise bass sounds shook the cinema. I had goosebumps the size of Devils Tower 😂😂👌 I love you brought up Escape to Witch Mountain lol. I saw that in the cinema on it's release too. Watched it a few years ago and unfortunately it's dated badly. Still brought back great memories though. I was sent to Boarding School at the age of 11, and while I was there I bought the John Williams soundtrack. The late 70s was the time of Punk Rock in the UK. We had a common room in the house where there was an old radiogram, a record player like a piece of furniture. Can you just imagine how frustrated the punks were when I played it? 😂😂
Saw this during it's initial run in 70mm at the Zeigfeld theater in NYC. They still gave out slick movie programs back then. Spectacular experience. I assume others have noted the Special Edition version takes you inside the ship and that R2-D2 is seen on the mother ship.
Yes, Devil's Tower is a real place and it's more imposing in person than it is on film. Devil's Tower is the remains of a long dead volcano, it is a basalt and granite concretion of Lava left in the throat of the volcano and the mount eroded away from it. Leaving only the tower.
The clouds in the sky were done by filming a large tank of water. They dropped white paint into the water and got it to move like clouds. Then superimposed it onto the sky area of a real foreground shot. There's a whole art to making these cloudlike structures in water tanks.
When the boy gets pulled through the doggy door you can see for a second an arm pulling him. This was his biological mother waiting for him outside on the set. 😄
There is an extended edition that shows him enter an enormous round room with lights all around, the lights tilt upwards, the ceiling lifts up and reveals it’s a thick disc rising to meet a huge docking clamp with four arms that grip the disc and all the little ships dock inside this structure that hangs in the center of the city ship, and as he looks up the rows upon rows of city modules with viewports full of aliens looking at him, he becomes overwhelmed and emotional that they seem to almost worship him, then all the ships docked in the clamp light up their lights creating what looks like a shower of light. As he seems most happiest and finally home, he smiles and it goes to the scene where the last alien, presumably the second in command, does the hand signals to Lacombe, enters the ship, and the ship is off. Also the first alien, that was tall and skinny, was the leader/Ship’s Captain, that was presenting himself before the child sized crew members emerged. They’re so interested in humans because they’re very similar to us. Everyone they took was invited and went willingly, like Barry, because of their fascination, their desire for the opportunity to meet people from another world, maybe many worlds. It’s a tremendous opportunity that would be hard for any courageous explorer to pass up. I would go in a hot minute. I’d love to stand on new worlds, and look forward to the next ones. Imagine visiting so many worlds you lose count.
PS: As far as I'm concerned, THIS is John Williams' greatest score. It had to be since music is such a plot point, it's so integral. Just that four note theme! How did he pull that off? And to pull off the "conversations" between mankind and the UFOS.......and to do it with an ORCHESTRA! Not a synth! It's oboe and tuba! Amazing.
Love this movie! Easy 8.5/10 rating. That said... I am of the increasing opinion that there is no such thing as extra-terrestrial UFOs (or whatever they are called these days). They are either hoaxes, scientific explain phenomena, or advanced classified aircraft (like the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk and Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, both of which actually operated out of Groom Lake (Area 51) before being declassified). Every "alien abduction" story is wildly different and highly suspect. While fun to imagine these things, it's called science-fiction for a reason. Fun Fact: J. Allen Hynek was a famous ufologist and the creator of the diverse kinds of contact that this movie is based on, as explained in his The UFO Experience: A Scientific Study (1972) book. The first kind: sighting of an one or more UFOs. The second kind: observation of physical evidence of extra-terrestrial visitation. The third kind: contact with one or more extra-terrestrials. Hynek made a cameo at the end of the movie as the guy smoking a pipe at the landing site. One And Done Fact: Cary Guffey's (Berry Guiler) performances were so good that they only had to do one or two takes of each shot he was in. He became known as "One-Take Cary" on the set and director Steven Spielberg had a T-shirt printed up for him with the phrase written on it. Music Enthusiast Fact: The iconic five-note melody was a chance arrangement that both composer John Williams and director Steven Spielberg happened to like out of hundreds of different permutations.
I don't know if you have ever seen the theatrical cut, but that's the version I prefer, and also the version I saw as a kid. I think it flows better than the special edition or the directors cut. Also: You do get to see the inside of the ship in the special edition that came out in 1980.
Absolutely loved your reaction. I was 7 years old when this and Star Wars premiered in the theaters , both were life changing experiences and sparked my love of science fiction. What I love most about this movie is the use of music as communication , as a musician i love it.
There was a documentary that showed how this film was made and it was fascinating. I saw this movie with my mother when it first came out and when we walked out of the theatre I looked up and wouldn't have been surprised to see a space ship in the night sky.. lol. I had a huge crush on Richard Dreyfuss at the time.
There is a "special edition" of the movie that came out in 1980 that shows the inside of the mothership at the end, but I'm glad you didn't watch that version, since I think that it's one of those things that is better left up to the imagination. Spielberg didn't even want to show the spaceship's interior (which is why it's not in the director's cut), but it was the only way the studio would agree to allow him to tweak the original movie and shoot some extra scenes that he actually did want to include.
What an incredible and interesting analysis… I really like how you are so knowledgeable of film terminology and techniques but are a first time viewer of so many individual films.
Hey Jen, if you really like Steven Spielberg, PLEASE review Schindler's List. It's his most brilliant, important and socially relevant film ever. I cried at some points in it. But by the movie's end, it totally reaffirmed my faith in humanity. Oh, and as for the dysfunctional families and different filming locations, Spielberg once said, "Authenticity is everything." By the way, Spielberg and Star Wars director George Lucas became great friends because their films became the two top grossing films of 1977.
That one guy you said you think you recognize was Lance Hendrickson who played in a short part in the first Terminator movie as a cop, also played as the artificial robot in the second "Aliens" movie and also played as the main character in the movie "Pumpkinhead", which you might want to check out some day.
I saw it in the theater in 1977 with Dolby sound amazing !!!!! Spielberg says put a kid in the mix it adds to the terror. Devils Tower is real I’ve been there very spooky. This movie saved Columbia pictures they were in serious financial distress before the release of this movie. Dennis Mauren of ILM did the mothership.
Such an amazing movie that still holds so very well today. The effects, a mix of miniatures and optical effects still look so cool. If you fancy a trip on the high seas at some point then check out Deep Rising (1998) and Ghost Ship (2002). Not too many people seem to do reactions to those so it would be fun to see them covered.
Interesting fact, the guy playing the synthesizer isn't an actor, he was the engineer sent by the synthesizer company to install it and they asked if they could put him in the movie.
1. $2,500 globe in 1977. Imagine how much that sucker would be today. 2. That ATC has some serious pipes. 3. I went with my family when I was a kid and got to visit the Devils Tower. Before this was made. 4. Love it. One of the top 10 movies to watch before you die. 5. I worked at a movie theater when this came out. Incredible 😲 6. If it didn't change the outcome and since his marriage was over Roy and Jillian should have hooked up. 7. The odds of Roy finding Jillian are as high as any of this happening. 8. "We're gonna need a bigger mountain". 9. Spidey, "Sup-bitches" NOTE: Your "little green men" are Grays.
The planes at the start are "Flight 19" they really did disappear into the Bermuda triangle... the search planes sent out to find them also disappeared forever :( The ship Cotopaxi was lost in the triangle in 1925.
Good on you for doing this monster of iconic films. I think Spielberg patterned it on the story of human gestation with Roy playing the part of the successful sperm that, against all odds, found his way to the ovum (i.e. the mother ship). And I'd have to go back and scour the movie for clues but I'd guess the timeframe of the movie, start to finish, is about nine months. No sequels though, but another good one from roughly this time period that has a lower budget but similar theme is John Carpenter's, STARMAN starring a very young Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith and Richard Jaekel. For other spectacular Spielberg movie options I suspect you have already seen SCHINDLER'S LIST, POLTERGEIST, JAWS, JURASSIC PARK and the Indiana Jones movies, but there is one other extraordinary epic I am guessing you've probably missed since I know of no reactors who have actually viewed it. Nevertheless it is a great movie, albeit overlooked, and would be a great choice for black history month. It is called AMISTAD starring Anthony Hopkins, Morgan Freeman, Matthew McConaughey and Djimon Hounsou. It is a biopic about an incident that happened in pre-civil war America. And it was an obvious project for Spielberg to tackle after making SCHINDLER'S LIST. Think of it this way. What SCHINDLER'S LIST was to the horrors of the holocaust. AMSITAD is to the horrors of the slave trade. And as you'd expect, John Williams is there again too, to provide another of his exquisitely brilliant scores. Great pic. Check it out.
Great reaction to (for me) the mother of all Alien encounter movies. I saw this and Star Wars in the theater on first run, and though my 9-10 year old brain leaned toward Star Wars then, this movie became more beloved to me over the years. The lack of a sequel is perfect IMO.
I am an engineer and one quesiton comes to mind on viewing the mother ship at the end of the movie. Why did the aliens install in this incredible piece of engineering an exit door that was only tall enough to allow humans to pass through it easily? You would think that a civilization that advance would have been smart enough to make the exit door tall enough to allow their own people to also easily use it, too. Instead when they try to leave they have to get on their hands and knees to get through it. If I was the head alien I think it would infuriate me every time I had to deal with this ridiculously puny door. And I definitely would not want to be in the shoes of the alien engineer who designed it.
Roy, along with the others that had been "touched" by the alien's beam of light was "chosen" by the aliens, but Roy was the only one who made it to the meeting place, and Gillian (Barry's mother) was just happy to get Barry back.
Spielberg released a 'special edition' in 1980 that showed what Neary saw when he entered the ship. That's the first version I saw and the one I was most familiar with growing up. I heard that Spielberg didn't want to show the inside of the ship but agreed so the studio would fund the special edition. Hey, did Spielberg invent the trend of alternate cuts?
This was the first Steven Spielberg movies I saw on VHS, the second being ET, the third being HOOK. Parts of this movie are based on or inspired by true events that actually happened and that Spielberg was always fascinated by possible Alien visitation. Also I highly recommend the 1993 legal thriller THE PELICAN BRIEF from the novel by John Grisham. Julia Roberts plays a law student on the run after witnessing her lover and mentor getting killed in a car bomb after he showed her strong evidence against powerful political figures including the President of The United States. An investigative journalist played by Denzal Washington teams up with her in order to solve the case or it will be too late for both of them.
I re watched this in theaters for the 40th anniversary and I noticed that in both this movie and Jurassic Park a character hides in a bathroom. Also, yes, Devil's Tower is a real place.
I think Spielberg's earlier films are among my favorites. This was a critical and commercial success when it was first released and, all these years later, it's still one of the best movies ever made. Those planes found in the desert at the beginning of the movie were Flight 19, a group of five U.S. Navy planes that disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle during a training flight in December 1945. The ship that was found was the SS Cotopaxi, which disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle during a storm in December of 1925. The wreckage of the ship was discovered in the 80s, but not identified as the Cotopaxi until 2010. Yes, Devil's Tower is real. It's a butte made from igneous rock in Wyoming. It's the first US National Monument, designated by Teddy Roosevelt. Believe it or not, there are some people (the flat Earth, prehistoric giants, moon landing conspiracy types) who believe the government is covering up the fact that it's really a giant tree stump from a tree cut down back when giants roamed the Earth.
That giant ship in the desert is actually a detailed model laying just a few feet away from the camera while the actors and helicopter come into view far in the distance.
JEN!!!!! Oh my god, FANTASTIC REACTION! One of the best ever for this film! THIS is Spielberg! This is Spielberg at his most Spielbergian......and also at his most cutting edge, his " hippest", and yes, this came out the same year as Star Wars. I saw Star Wars opening day, May of '77, and enjoyed it, liked it, saw it a few times. But Close Encounters BLEW ME AWAY.....just like it blew you away. Just like it blew every one in the theatre's mind. Jen, all I can say is you should have been there, you would have loved it, the whole audience was in an almost stoned daze, and everyone in a good mood, smiling at each other because we'd all been through the experience together. BEST movie theatre experience of my life. I wept tears of joy during this reaction. You remain one of the GREAT reactors, and I have missed you because I just haven't seen a lot of the stuff you've been reacting to lately! But I always know you've got something like this coming down the pike, sooner or later and I, for one, am a VERY happy subscriber. It's been a lot of reactions since that marathon October last year! Watching this movie with you was truly like watching it with an old friend! And you got every second of this movie, you didn't miss anything. And the awe and the appreciation you had for the storytelling......and noticing all the family stuff (aren't those scenes AMAZING! That's the 70s for you! That kind of attention to detail went out the window in the h80s, lol Anyways, THANK YOU, JEN!!!!!!!
There was a re-release in 1980 Called Special Edition...there was an additional 10 minutes, and you go with Roy inside the ship. Spielberg doesn't really care for the cut. That's why there are Three Versions.
Jen, the lights in the sky might have been done with a negative printer, they had one at my college and they didn't even try to teach us how to use it. they were getting digital equipment like the year after i graduated, i think they filmed lights or mini spaceships in front of a black background or white background and then superimposed the shot onto another shot in a printing process, sort of like when you block off one part of a camera lens in a film camera and then un block it for a second shot on the same negative , so you have a double image .
Hiya, please may i reccomend Duel Spielsburgs first proper feature, from this point you can definitely see how his genius would develop, a very simple story but so intense (staring Dennis Weaver) it's fantastic 🐦.
Opticals are sort of a gray area because they are definitely special effects that don’t exist within the frame but they are so removed from computer generated images that they are considered almost practical by todays standards.
Little factoid. Spielberg made this before he had kids. Years later in an interview he said he now regrets how he ended close encounters bc now thst he was a father he was appalled he had Roy just abandon his children without a thought or word.
Yes, this was a big one when it came out! It was the first time ever that is saw an movie in the theater that people applauded when it was over! The second time was Raiders of the Lost Ark!
In ‘77, “Star Wars” got most of the love, but even then I thought this was the superior film. Back then, air traffic controllers and pilots were discouraged from reporting UFO’s. After “Jaws,” Spielberg pretty much could write his own ticket. The visuals with the John Williams score makes everything whimsical and creepy at once, like the movie is a modern day Grimm’s Fairy Tale. “Days of Our Lives” premiered in September 1965, two months before I was born. I know this because my mom has watched it from Day One. CGI did not exist in 1977.
The foley work was great in this one unlike so many others. I mean some movies have a sound for blood, What's with that ! Nice to see you young people knowing the song She'll be coming around the mountain. I love how this movie plays with the audience as a great movie should.
There Star Wars connection is even shown on the Mother ship as Easter eggs Edit: The Dipper is a reference to the legend of Devil's Tower where seven sisters ascended into the sky and became stars to escape a demon clawing it's way up a tree.
Now I am not a guy who knows a lot of things, but I am pretty sure that the "light travel time" being "seven seconds" to a signal does not necessarily mean it is "well within the plane of the ecliptic". But it is rather nice dialogue....lol
Interesting note: When the flight #19 pilots are walking out of the craft, there's a "blink and you'll miss it" cameo of sorts. The older gentleman with a beard wearing a light blue suit jacket and smoking a pipe. That man is none other than Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the creator of the "Close Encounter" classification. The first kind is observation of the UFO in the sky. Second kind is residual traces of a craft landing, such as scorch marks on the ground, etc. The third kind classification is actual sighting/contact with the craft's occupants, hence the title of the film. Dr. Hynek was a professor/astronomer who worked closely with the US government on UFO investigations. Those being Project Sign, Project Grudge and most famous, the Air Force's Project Blue Book. He published a few books that are quite an interesting read, particularly after Project Blue Book. Great reaction, Jen!
Did you know that Dr J.Allen Hynek is also the founder for CUFOS? (Center for UFO Studies)
I saw this in the theater when it came out, it really was like nothing anyone had over seen,, it was visually stunning and beautiful, the story and actors completely believable a completely immersive experience
Completely agree. when the lights came up, it was like we'd all been on the mothership together! People were in a REALLY good mood. And it was all kinds of people in the audience: young, old, middle, couples, kids, teenagers, it wasn't like Star Wars which was like kids and their parents! Close Encounters was like going with your entire home town!
I was in the Navy for 13 years (above water warfare) and an Air Cadet before that. I am also a plane spotter and love finding the ISS and satellites yet I saw something in the sky I couldn't explain.
Two bright lights chasing each other across the sky.
I saw Close Encounters and Star Wars in the theatre. My 13th Birthday party was at the opening of Star Wars, May 25 1977. Both were the biggest hits of the year, but Star Wars made 3x more money. Star Wars was the big summer movie that year and Close Encounters was the big Christmas movie. At the end of both movies people stood up and cheered. So many movies that came out in the 70s & 80s had a huge impact on people! Richard Dreyfuss had his best year ever in 1977. That Christmas when Close Encounter was number 1 at the Box-Office number 2 was "The Goodbye Girl" starring Dreyfuss. "The Goodbye Girl" was a huge hit! The song "The Goodbye Girl" from the movie was a huge hit! Richard Dreyfuss won the best actor Oscar for The Goodbye Girl. At the time Richard Dreyfuss was the youngest man to win the best Actor Oscar. The film also has one of the best child performances, Quinn Cummings, who got an Oscar nomination too. Richard Dreyfuss crushed the 70s! American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl. All were ground breaking films. When Barry said Goodbye everyone in the theatre started to cry. There is a cut were you see inside the ship, but it is uneventful, the mystery of the ship is better. E.T. is sort the sequel. The french guy in the movie the great french film director Francois Truffaut.
I also feel so lucky to have been 11 or 12 when these incredible films happened. I wept buckets throughout CE3K in the cinema in London when it opened here, because it was - and is - just so beautiful, hopeful and life affirming. Such a different vibe from today.
Here is something you might find very amusing. If you take a look at the model of the mothership, you will find R2D2 and a Tie-Fighter attached to it.
Seeing the mothership on the big screen was THE theatrical experience of the time.
According to an article in I remember reading in Starlog magazine, the five notes and handsigns mean "H-E-L-L-O".
And good call on the mothership looking like a city, that was Spielberg's aim, "A city in the sky".
There are some movies that really center around one specific emotion, like romantic love , or terror, or anger. This movie, more than any other I can think of, really captures the pure feeling of wonder. I'm glad you saw this version and not the later one that added random special effects of the inside of the ship that don't really add anything and deflate the balloon a little bit, so to speak.
Wait what?! Which version are you talking about??!…
@@Summon256 I said the later one, but this version she watched might actually have been later than the one I'm talking about; I'm not sure. So there were three versions of the movie. The original 77 version, the 1980 re-release, called the "Special Edtion," and the 1998 "Director's Cut." The Special Edition added a six minute sequence at the end that showed the inside of the spaceship, but it's really anticlimactic in my opinion. That scene isn't present in the original or the Director's Cut. The director's cut also took out a few scenes from the original but added others in, but I don't remember which scenes. The Special Edition was the one shown on TV throughout most of the 80s and 90s, though, and was also released on VHS.
@@dereknolin5986 I haven't seen any other versions of this movie other than the original, so i had no idea there were all these scenes added in/altered...
Your enthusiasm for this film was as fantastic as it was genuine. An absolute joy to watch.
The French guy is Francois Truffaut, the great French New Wave director. Spielberg and his generation of directors were part of the New Hollywood, American New Wave, and they were directly influenced by directors like Truffaut. For Spielberg to be able to cast Truffaut in his movie would have been the dream of a lifetime, the real close encounter. Truffaut is so nice and likable in this movie; I wish he had been in front of the camera more.
The character that Francois Truffaut plays is based on an actual famous French Ufologist, his name is Jacques Vallee.
This was one of the first films to get a "special edition". The film was originally intended to be release in the summer of '78, but Columbia was nearing bankruptcy and pushed for the winter '77 release. It did well enough to save the studio. Spielberg wanted some scenes that was filmed but not originally included added back and add a few other scenes for a 1980 Special Edition which was what ended up on home video. Columbia would only do it if Spielberg would film a scene inside the mothership. He didn't really want to do it that, thinking that leaving that to the imagination was good enough, but he did ask Dreyfuss to come in and do a few shots of him staring up, and they added a shot looking up inside the ship. And some other scenes. I think the ship in the Gobi desert was another newly added scene. For a while, Spielberg considered the 1980 version the only version, but as time went on, he began to reconsider.
The problem I had with that 1980 version was that while most of the added scenes were fine, the interior of the mothership at the end did feel tacked on and unneeded. Also, the end title music totally changed to something rather boring - not what I remembered from having the original soundtrack with the actual end title music as it was in the '77 version. And, some scenes were cut to make room for the new stuff - scenes I thought were important - Roy stopping by the power station before hitting the road was cut, so was the entire sequence of Roy ripping up his and his neighbors' yards to toss it all into his kitchen window. In the '80 version, it goes from Roy puling off the top of the small mountain sculpture he made from the night before, right to Ronnie suddenly loading the kids in the car leaving Roy. The whole reason she leaves was totally cut and makes no sense as edited for that edition.
In 1990, the Criterion Laserdisc release recreated the original '77 version for the first time on home video. But they included the added scenes at the end of each side where they would have been, and since the laserdisc format did have chapters you could program, you could recreated the '80 version by programming the right chapter order. It seemed a bit tedious, and I never tried it when I had my copy.
By 1998, we got "The Collectors Edition" or the final directors cut. This is what you watched here. It restores all the scenes that were cut in the 1980 version, and leaves most of the stuff added in 1980, except for the mothership interior. It also restores the original '77 end title music.
It's always a huge mistake to fiddle with the original film. Star Wars was turned into a madman's morass with all the changes, additions, deletions, change backs, CGI, and inserted dialogue for the various "special editions," and then turned into schmaltz by the horrid prequels based on the goofy imagination of George Lucas. Fortunately, I got to see both Close Encounters and Star Wars in 1977 before they were mangled.
@@jackcarl2772 At least with CE3K, you can see the theatrical cut on the latest home video format. The Blu-ray can play any of the three versions. Theatrical, 1980 Special Edition, '98 Collectors Edition.
We don't get that option with Star Wars Original Trilogy. The best official "Original" version is the last laserdisc transfers from '93. Unless you go bootleg (which I did).
@@joeldf6859 That's great about CE3K, you get to see it as it was meant to be seen. I'd rank it over Star Wars any day. I gave up on Star Wars years ago, lol. When I saw The Empire Strikes Back in the theater in 1980 (I was 20 at the time), I thought it a magnificent film, better even than the first. But the whole 'franchise' has sunk so low, has become so commercialized that I can't be bothered with it any more. When we talk about Sci-Fi, I really find it hard to beat some of the films that predate CE3K and Star Wars: Rollerball (1975); The Time Machine (1960); 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); Forbidden Planet (1956). Great thought-provoking stories, good acting, world building, spectacular practical special effects. Nice to meet a fellow Sci-Fi enthusiast!
The hand signs are a musical language that was developed by Kodaly in order to transcend language. So in other words, each hand signal or sign represents a separate note and so and then if you go down low and then the same signal up higher is an octave. I learned this when I was studying for my music education degree back in the early '70s mid '70s.
Welcome back, Jen! 😁 It's great to see you back with another movie reaction video! Steven Spielberg originally intended for Close Encounters to be a much smaller film about an Air Force officer investigating UFO sightings. After the success of Jaws, Spielberg decided to change the entire story and make it a more personal drama about an ordinary family man who encounters something extraordinary, but combined with big budget special effects that Spielberg was now able to afford.
Spielberg was inspired to write the story by an incident that happened during his childhood when his father had woken up his entire family one night to take everyone out to the middle of a field where dozens of other people had gathered to watch a meteor shower. The event made such an impact on Spielberg's life that he began putting shooting stars in some of his early films as his trademark.
The huge sound of the mothership was enough to shake the seats in the theater. Communication through Music! Just too short of a duet between the them.
Thanks for another entertaining reaction. You are a beautiful person.
Devil's Tower is a real US National park.
The mother ship model is on display at the US National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center. Adam Savage did a video on it on his Tested channel.
Look up this video on TH-cam. It covers the last set of effects from the climax.
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS of the THIRD KIND miniature effects
Truffaut was one of the world's great directors. Other than his wonderful _Day for Night,_ which has been recommended in other comments, you might check out his 1966 adaptation of Ray Bradbury's _Fahrenheit 451._ As it's speculative fiction it fits well with the general theme of your channel. Though initially receiving mixed reviews it has grown significantly in reputation since then. Scorsese quite likes it and has said it is a film that influenced his own work.
So much to say, but first... THANK you for checking out this gem!
The french assistant, François Truffaut, is a pheNOMenal director in his own right with a massive legacy left to cinema. One (quite obvious) one for you to check of his is Day For Night (1973), a film ABOUT filmmaking that still stands up today. I hope you watch it, even if 'just' on your own time.
About those clouds, which were all over the 80's movies, long story short: big glass aquarium, pour in a transparent liquid, over it pour another transparent liquid of different density (so they both don't mix, one stays on top of the other), then with a syringe, ya inject the smoke, varying speeds to show the billowing'ness'. the smoke (diluted tempera paint = clouds) will stay in between the two transparent liquid layers. Ya film that and ya have clouds.
This wouldn't be the only time Spielberg would use a famous director in his movie. He got Sir Richard Attenborough to be his Jurassic Park owner, Hammond. I hope you view his film, Gandhi (1982), one day.
WARNING - spoilers for E.T.
The best bit of trivia came years later when Spielberg made E.T.. He said when making Close Encounters, of course he was going to let the Dreyfuss character go up into the ship, look around, and have no problem with him going away, because that was how Spielberg felt at the time. But when it came to making E.T., by that time, he had kids of his own, and he said there was no way he was going to let Elliot go away in the ship. I found that fascinating as to how a director works.
@@chefskiss6179 ET was made in 1981 (for release in 1982), but Steven didn’t have his FIRST child (Max) until June of 1985.
Who else remembers playing the notes on touch tone phones? lol
The tv show that's on in Barry's mom's bedroom is Police Woman with Angie Dickinson. 😁
Cloud effects were done in a glass water tank using cloudy liquids spread into the water. The image is flipped and composited into the sky. This is used a lot in old movies.
Nick Meyer used cloud tanks twice, once for the Mutara Nebula in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and the mushroom clouds in The Day After (1983).
The lady with the little kid is Melinda Dillon, she played Ralphie's Mom in A Christmas Story. :)
Oh man! I’m so sad I didn’t recognize her I love that movie! Thanks for watching 🎬👽
There is an extended edition which shows Roy inside the ship. The scene where the Giant Ship appears over Devil's Tower took everyones breath away in a movie theater with a large screen. One of the air traffic controllers in the beginning of the film is Morgan Freeman. Roy's wife was played by Teri Garr who is also known for movies like Young Frankenstein and Tootsie.
Morgan Freeman is not in this film.
@@coolhive2941 Morgan Freeman was actually a cast member on the kids show The Electric Company when CE3K was out.
Everyone rates E.T. as Spielberg's Sci Fi masterpiece, but for me it's always been Close Encounters. As someone old enough to remember it on release, it's difficult to explain how incredible, groundbreaking and awe inspiring this movie was. Seeing the alien mothership for the first time was absolutely jaw dropping. It's just a shame that with the invention of CGI I don't think moviegoers will ever be able to experience that kind of feeling again, which is a sad thing.
I've always rated this as his sci-fi masterpiece; in fact, I've always rated it as his biggest masterpiece! If all he ever did was Jaws and Close Encounters, we'd still be talking about him. For me, the rest of his career has been a come-down from these auspicious beginnings!
@@TTM9691 I think slight pacing issues in the middle stop it from being his overall masterpiece (for me it goes to Jaws), but agree that from Jaws through to Raiders of the Lost ark Spielberg was on the top of his game. He did have an amazing comeback in the 90's with Jurassic Park, Schindlers List and Saving Private Ryan, but even those films lacked something that his earlier films possessed.
I've been to The Devil's Tower. It's something to see. There is a Special Edition version of CEs that does show Roy inside the ship, but that scene was filmed it about 3 years later and Dreyfuss had gained some weight. Not sure why Spielberg decided to do that except to rerelesse it and make extra money off it. For a more destructive close encounter movie see 1956's EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS. it's quite intelligent with some stunning special effects. Great reaction.
The aircraft found in the desert are supposed to be Flight 19. They went missing in the Bermuda Triangle In December 1945.
I have always assumed the small aliens were their youngsters, probably because they would be less intimidating.
One of my favorites saw at the theater many times back then, thanks Jen!
That must have been so cool! Thanks for watching!
There's a fun movie from 2011 that's kind of a descendant of Close Encounters. Written by and starring Simon Pegg & Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) called 'Paul'. It has references to this fiim and E.T. as well as an audio cameo that ties all three movies together. It's worth putting on the list. Great reaction/review Jen.🛸
Fun Fact: Steven Spielberg was originally going to develop a horror-themed follow-up movie to Close Encounters called ‘Night Skies,' about a family in an isolated farmhouse being terrorized by aliens. The story was based on the real-life Kelly-Hopkinsville UFO encounter in Kentucky in 1955. The studio, Columbia Pictures, rejected the script because they wanted a more family-friendly sequel to Close Encounters.
Special makeup effects master Rick Baker, who had worked on Star Wars, designed an alien model for Night Skies that ended up never being used. However, Spielberg did end up taking his Night Skies script and using different elements from the story to develop scripts for two other films - Poltergeist and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Some elements of Night Skies even ended up in the script for Gremlins.
Close Encounters was inspired by a real event. Spielberg was told about it and that became the inspiration behind this movie.
"Project Blue Book" (2019) only got two seasons but they were great episodes. One episode even takes place on the set of "Close Encounters." If you want a dose of early 1950s Americana check out this show, most episodes take place during the early Cold War which plays into its tale of UFO investigation. There is even a Canada setting for one episode.
Yes, Devils Tower is a real place. It took me 45 years after this movie came out to see it. But it's an amazing place. Wyoming is one of the best vacation spots there is.
For a very high-caliber Spielberg drama, I suggest "The Color Purple". It was a huge, landmark film at its time, and now seems all-but-forgotten. I feel like everybody should see it.
I’ve heard of it for sure but I haven’t seen it. I know it’s a book as well, I’ll add it to the list!
Jen, you did ask a very good question during this video. "Is Canada a haven for UFOs?" The answer is yes, because there have been some very famous sightings in that country. Here is a small list of them.
1) 1967, Falcon Lake, Manitoba
2) 1967, Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia (Canada's Roswell, the object allegedly crashed into the sea)
3) 1990, Montreal, Quebec
4) 1996, Fox Lake, Alberta
I was there when Close Encounters (CET3K) was released. Saw it at the Georgetown theater in Indianapolis indiana. It was a huge fun movie and was the first film to unseat Star Wars as the number one box office film.
Movies in the 70s were WAY more entertaining than they are today. They were daring and inventive and producers took more chances with films and storylines than they do now.
Seeing commercials on the TV when he’s making his own tower is amusing now because those were the ACTUAL commercials running on tv at that time.
Glad to see you back and this was a great film to start back with. Thanks!
Since you asked about effects... so there definitely in't any CGI at this point in time. But that doesn't mean that they are all practical either. To get technical/pedantic about it, practical means building real physical objects... prosthetics, models, props, sets, pyrotecnics... something the crew filming would have seen with their eyes too. But there were other Special Effects techniques before CGI that are not practical effects, which is where things like optical effects and animation comes in. So like in original Star Wars they had to go in after filming and basically draw blaster shots, light sabers glowing, and stuff like that on another piece of film and then combine them by shooting light through both and combining them onto one piece of film... hence optical, not computer generated, effects. Blue Screen (the predecessor to green screens) are also an optical effect.
"It looks like a city, a functioning city.". If I am not mistaken I believe that Spielberg was trying to figure what the ship would look like, struggling with it a bit, and then while trying to figure it out he happened to go somewhere that had a skyline view of Los Angeles. And that was when it hit him that the ship would sort of look like an upside down version of the Los Angeles skyline he was seeing. So, it does look like city. I hope my memory serves me on that. I read or saw that in some behind the scenes making of thing I believe.
I was 6 in 1977 and Star Wars and Close Encounters are the first movies I truly recall watching in the theater. I recall walking out of both and just being like "That was awesome. I want to make movies like that some day.".
I was born in 66 and was a child in the 70s. My parents took me to see this when it came out. It was my favourite movie of all time until Blade Runner came out in 82.
Yes it's pre CGI, and was genius. I have all the different versions of the movie. I also read the book and have the Fotonovel. Both of them are fantastic.
There was a Special Edition of this in 1980 in the cinema. It didn't add too much to the original, but you got to see Roy inside the mothership. And crying at the splendour.
Whatever you do don't watch the making of documentary. It's made that mistake and it takes away a lot of the magic.
In the cinema, believe it or not, was the scene when the spaceship was behind him on the road. When the light beams came down on him, the pink noise bass sounds shook the cinema. I had goosebumps the size of Devils Tower 😂😂👌
I love you brought up Escape to Witch Mountain lol. I saw that in the cinema on it's release too. Watched it a few years ago and unfortunately it's dated badly. Still brought back great memories though.
I was sent to Boarding School at the age of 11, and while I was there I bought the John Williams soundtrack. The late 70s was the time of Punk Rock in the UK. We had a common room in the house where there was an old radiogram, a record player like a piece of furniture. Can you just imagine how frustrated the punks were when I played it? 😂😂
Saw this during it's initial run in 70mm at the Zeigfeld theater in NYC. They still gave out slick movie programs back then. Spectacular experience.
I assume others have noted the Special Edition version takes you inside the ship and that R2-D2 is seen on the mother ship.
Is the actor whistling on the side of the road the old guy in Home Alone?
Indeed it's Roberts Blossom. Aka, Old Man Marley, aka the South Bend Shovel Slayer!!
He was in John Carpenter's Christine as well
Yes, Devil's Tower is a real place and it's more imposing in person than it is on film. Devil's Tower is the remains of a long dead volcano, it is a basalt and granite concretion of Lava left in the throat of the volcano and the mount eroded away from it. Leaving only the tower.
The clouds in the sky were done by filming a large tank of water. They dropped white paint into the water and got it to move like clouds. Then superimposed it onto the sky area of a real foreground shot. There's a whole art to making these cloudlike structures in water tanks.
This film helped spread the legends about the Bermuda Triangle and alien abductions.
The French guy, François Truffaut, is a famous film director
So far nobody has been known to survive "The Spielberg Face" drinking game for this movie.
"When cars used to have ashtrays", now I feel even older . . .
When the boy gets pulled through the doggy door you can see for a second an arm pulling him. This was his biological mother waiting for him outside on the set. 😄
There is an extended edition that shows him enter an enormous round room with lights all around, the lights tilt upwards, the ceiling lifts up and reveals it’s a thick disc rising to meet a huge docking clamp with four arms that grip the disc and all the little ships dock inside this structure that hangs in the center of the city ship, and as he looks up the rows upon rows of city modules with viewports full of aliens looking at him, he becomes overwhelmed and emotional that they seem to almost worship him, then all the ships docked in the clamp light up their lights creating what looks like a shower of light. As he seems most happiest and finally home, he smiles and it goes to the scene where the last alien, presumably the second in command, does the hand signals to Lacombe, enters the ship, and the ship is off.
Also the first alien, that was tall and skinny, was the leader/Ship’s Captain, that was presenting himself before the child sized crew members emerged. They’re so interested in humans because they’re very similar to us. Everyone they took was invited and went willingly, like Barry, because of their fascination, their desire for the opportunity to meet people from another world, maybe many worlds. It’s a tremendous opportunity that would be hard for any courageous explorer to pass up. I would go in a hot minute. I’d love to stand on new worlds, and look forward to the next ones. Imagine visiting so many worlds you lose count.
PS: As far as I'm concerned, THIS is John Williams' greatest score. It had to be since music is such a plot point, it's so integral. Just that four note theme! How did he pull that off? And to pull off the "conversations" between mankind and the UFOS.......and to do it with an ORCHESTRA! Not a synth! It's oboe and tuba! Amazing.
Truly a master of his craft! Such an amazing score and obviously music playing such an integral part of the plot. That’s so cool! Thanks for watching!
Love this movie! Easy 8.5/10 rating. That said...
I am of the increasing opinion that there is no such thing as extra-terrestrial UFOs (or whatever they are called these days). They are either hoaxes, scientific explain phenomena, or advanced classified aircraft (like the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk and Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, both of which actually operated out of Groom Lake (Area 51) before being declassified). Every "alien abduction" story is wildly different and highly suspect.
While fun to imagine these things, it's called science-fiction for a reason.
Fun Fact: J. Allen Hynek was a famous ufologist and the creator of the diverse kinds of contact that this movie is based on, as explained in his The UFO Experience: A Scientific Study (1972) book. The first kind: sighting of an one or more UFOs. The second kind: observation of physical evidence of extra-terrestrial visitation. The third kind: contact with one or more extra-terrestrials. Hynek made a cameo at the end of the movie as the guy smoking a pipe at the landing site.
One And Done Fact: Cary Guffey's (Berry Guiler) performances were so good that they only had to do one or two takes of each shot he was in. He became known as "One-Take Cary" on the set and director Steven Spielberg had a T-shirt printed up for him with the phrase written on it.
Music Enthusiast Fact: The iconic five-note melody was a chance arrangement that both composer John Williams and director Steven Spielberg happened to like out of hundreds of different permutations.
I visited Devil's Tower once. There is a pretty big campsite at the bottom and at the time they would screen Close Encounters for the campers.
8:52 Old Man Marley from Home Alone !
A special edition was released years later with 5 minutes of footage of Roy inside the ship and what he see's
I don't know if you have ever seen the theatrical cut, but that's the version I prefer, and also the version I saw as a kid. I think it flows better than the special edition or the directors cut. Also: You do get to see the inside of the ship in the special edition that came out in 1980.
She watched this because she had never seen it… she said this at the beginning…
There's an extended version where they do show the audience the inside of the ship. It's beautiful.
Nice! 👽 Thanks for watching!
Absolutely loved your reaction. I was 7 years old when this and Star Wars premiered in the theaters , both were life changing experiences and sparked my love of science fiction. What I love most about this movie is the use of music as communication , as a musician i love it.
Same!👍
There was a documentary that showed how this film was made and it was fascinating. I saw this movie with my mother when it first came out and when we walked out of the theatre I looked up and wouldn't have been surprised to see a space ship in the night sky.. lol. I had a huge crush on Richard Dreyfuss at the time.
I never understood the hostile kidnapping of Barry only to keep him just a few days.
There is a "special edition" of the movie that came out in 1980 that shows the inside of the mothership at the end, but I'm glad you didn't watch that version, since I think that it's one of those things that is better left up to the imagination. Spielberg didn't even want to show the spaceship's interior (which is why it's not in the director's cut), but it was the only way the studio would agree to allow him to tweak the original movie and shoot some extra scenes that he actually did want to include.
What an incredible and interesting analysis… I really like how you are so knowledgeable of film terminology and techniques but are a first time viewer of so many individual films.
I had the soundtrack on vinyl and miss it very much….
Thank you so much for the kind words! I really enjoyed this movie and love anything Sci-Fi. Glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for watching! 🎬❤️
Jen did you hear them at 18min they'll never believe there's an epidemic
Hey Jen, if you really like Steven Spielberg, PLEASE review Schindler's List. It's his most brilliant, important and socially relevant film ever. I cried at some points in it. But by the movie's end, it totally reaffirmed my faith in humanity. Oh, and as for the dysfunctional families and different filming locations, Spielberg once said, "Authenticity is everything." By the way, Spielberg and Star Wars director George Lucas became great friends because their films became the two top grossing films of 1977.
If you want to watch another Spielberg/Drefuss film I would highly recommend 'Always' from 1989.
That one guy you said you think you recognize was Lance Hendrickson who played in a short part in the first Terminator movie as a cop, also played as the artificial robot in the second "Aliens" movie and also played as the main character in the movie "Pumpkinhead", which you might want to check out some day.
I saw it in the theater in 1977 with Dolby sound amazing !!!!! Spielberg says put a kid in the mix it adds to the terror. Devils Tower is real I’ve been there very spooky. This movie saved Columbia pictures they were in serious financial distress before the release of this movie. Dennis Mauren of ILM did the mothership.
Such an amazing movie that still holds so very well today. The effects, a mix of miniatures and optical effects still look so cool. If you fancy a trip on the high seas at some point then check out Deep Rising (1998) and Ghost Ship (2002). Not too many people seem to do reactions to those so it would be fun to see them covered.
The model of the mothership is currently on display at the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum in DC. Its about 5 feet wide.
Interesting fact, the guy playing the synthesizer isn't an actor, he was the engineer sent by the synthesizer company to install it and they asked if they could put him in the movie.
Fun Fact: Cary Guffey who plays Barry did such a good job in CE that Kubrick wanted him for Danny in The Shining.
Oh interesting! I’ve definitely seen The Shining, this little boy would have been an interesting choice.
1. $2,500 globe in 1977. Imagine how much that sucker would be today.
2. That ATC has some serious pipes.
3. I went with my family when I was a kid and got to visit the Devils Tower. Before this was made.
4. Love it. One of the top 10 movies to watch before you die.
5. I worked at a movie theater when this came out. Incredible 😲
6. If it didn't change the outcome and since his marriage was over Roy and Jillian should have hooked up.
7. The odds of Roy finding Jillian are as high as any of this happening.
8. "We're gonna need a bigger mountain".
9. Spidey, "Sup-bitches"
NOTE: Your "little green men" are Grays.
For those of us who remember. 50/50 bar is an orange ice cream bar with vanilla ice cream inside. :)
Sounds delicious!
Saw this in the theater when I was a little kid, and saw Star Wars opening day, first showing. 1977 was a great year for my childhood.
Amazing! Yeah I believe it! What a great year for Cinema, thanks for watching!
The planes at the start are "Flight 19" they really did disappear into the Bermuda triangle... the search planes sent out to find them also disappeared forever :( The ship Cotopaxi was lost in the triangle in 1925.
Good on you for doing this monster of iconic films. I think Spielberg patterned it on the story of human gestation with Roy playing the part of the successful sperm that, against all odds, found his way to the ovum (i.e. the mother ship). And I'd have to go back and scour the movie for clues but I'd guess the timeframe of the movie, start to finish, is about nine months. No sequels though, but another good one from roughly this time period that has a lower budget but similar theme is John Carpenter's, STARMAN starring a very young Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith and Richard Jaekel.
For other spectacular Spielberg movie options I suspect you have already seen SCHINDLER'S LIST, POLTERGEIST, JAWS, JURASSIC PARK and the Indiana Jones movies, but there is one other extraordinary epic I am guessing you've probably missed since I know of no reactors who have actually viewed it. Nevertheless it is a great movie, albeit overlooked, and would be a great choice for black history month. It is called AMISTAD starring Anthony Hopkins, Morgan Freeman, Matthew McConaughey and Djimon Hounsou.
It is a biopic about an incident that happened in pre-civil war America. And it was an obvious project for Spielberg to tackle after making SCHINDLER'S LIST. Think of it this way. What SCHINDLER'S LIST was to the horrors of the holocaust. AMSITAD is to the horrors of the slave trade. And as you'd expect, John Williams is there again too, to provide another of his exquisitely brilliant scores. Great pic. Check it out.
Great reaction to (for me) the mother of all Alien encounter movies. I saw this and Star Wars in the theater on first run, and though my 9-10 year old brain leaned toward Star Wars then, this movie became more beloved to me over the years. The lack of a sequel is perfect IMO.
I am an engineer and one quesiton comes to mind on viewing the mother ship at the end of the movie. Why did the aliens install in this incredible piece of engineering an exit door that was only tall enough to allow humans to pass through it easily? You would think that a civilization that advance would have been smart enough to make the exit door tall enough to allow their own people to also easily use it, too. Instead when they try to leave they have to get on their hands and knees to get through it. If I was the head alien I think it would infuriate me every time I had to deal with this ridiculously puny door. And I definitely would not want to be in the shoes of the alien engineer who designed it.
Roy, along with the others that had been "touched" by the alien's beam of light was "chosen" by the aliens, but Roy was the only one who made it to the meeting place, and Gillian (Barry's mother) was just happy to get Barry back.
Yes, the effects are all practical. And they are done by the same man who did the effects for "2001: A Space Odyssey" as well as "Blade Runner."
Yes, Devil's Tower is a real place. I think you asked.
I wish that they would release an Ultimate Cut. All three versions fused together.
Spielberg released a 'special edition' in 1980 that showed what Neary saw when he entered the ship. That's the first version I saw and the one I was most familiar with growing up. I heard that Spielberg didn't want to show the inside of the ship but agreed so the studio would fund the special edition. Hey, did Spielberg invent the trend of alternate cuts?
This was the first Steven Spielberg movies I saw on VHS, the second being ET, the third being HOOK.
Parts of this movie are based on or inspired by true events that actually happened and that Spielberg was always fascinated by possible Alien visitation.
Also I highly recommend the 1993 legal thriller THE PELICAN BRIEF from the novel by John Grisham.
Julia Roberts plays a law student on the run after witnessing her lover and mentor getting killed in a car bomb after he showed her strong evidence against powerful political figures including the President of The United States.
An investigative journalist played by Denzal Washington teams up with her in order to solve the case or it will be too late for both of them.
I re watched this in theaters for the 40th anniversary and I noticed that in both this movie and Jurassic Park a character hides in a bathroom. Also, yes, Devil's Tower is a real place.
The "spikes" on the huge ship was a night picture of NYC, turned upside down.
That’s so cool! Thanks for watching!
I think Spielberg's earlier films are among my favorites. This was a critical and commercial success when it was first released and, all these years later, it's still one of the best movies ever made.
Those planes found in the desert at the beginning of the movie were Flight 19, a group of five U.S. Navy planes that disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle during a training flight in December 1945. The ship that was found was the SS Cotopaxi, which disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle during a storm in December of 1925. The wreckage of the ship was discovered in the 80s, but not identified as the Cotopaxi until 2010.
Yes, Devil's Tower is real. It's a butte made from igneous rock in Wyoming. It's the first US National Monument, designated by Teddy Roosevelt. Believe it or not, there are some people (the flat Earth, prehistoric giants, moon landing conspiracy types) who believe the government is covering up the fact that it's really a giant tree stump from a tree cut down back when giants roamed the Earth.
That giant ship in the desert is actually a detailed model laying just a few feet away from the camera while the actors and helicopter come into view far in the distance.
JEN!!!!! Oh my god, FANTASTIC REACTION! One of the best ever for this film! THIS is Spielberg! This is Spielberg at his most Spielbergian......and also at his most cutting edge, his " hippest", and yes, this came out the same year as Star Wars. I saw Star Wars opening day, May of '77, and enjoyed it, liked it, saw it a few times. But Close Encounters BLEW ME AWAY.....just like it blew you away. Just like it blew every one in the theatre's mind. Jen, all I can say is you should have been there, you would have loved it, the whole audience was in an almost stoned daze, and everyone in a good mood, smiling at each other because we'd all been through the experience together. BEST movie theatre experience of my life. I wept tears of joy during this reaction. You remain one of the GREAT reactors, and I have missed you because I just haven't seen a lot of the stuff you've been reacting to lately! But I always know you've got something like this coming down the pike, sooner or later and I, for one, am a VERY happy subscriber. It's been a lot of reactions since that marathon October last year! Watching this movie with you was truly like watching it with an old friend! And you got every second of this movie, you didn't miss anything. And the awe and the appreciation you had for the storytelling......and noticing all the family stuff (aren't those scenes AMAZING! That's the 70s for you! That kind of attention to detail went out the window in the h80s, lol Anyways, THANK YOU, JEN!!!!!!!
There was a re-release in 1980 Called Special Edition...there was an additional 10 minutes, and you go with Roy inside the ship. Spielberg doesn't really care for the cut. That's why there are Three Versions.
Hi Jen, good to see you again. If you really want suggestions, perhaps consider "Enemy Mine" (1985). A different take on meeting aliens.
Jen, the lights in the sky might have been done with a negative printer, they had one at my college and they didn't even try to teach us how to use it. they were getting digital equipment like the year after i graduated, i think they filmed lights or mini spaceships in front of a black background or white background and then superimposed the shot onto another shot in a printing process, sort of like when you block off one part of a camera lens in a film camera and then un block it for a second shot on the same negative , so you have a double image .
Hiya, please may i reccomend Duel Spielsburgs first proper feature, from this point you can definitely see how his genius would develop, a very simple story but so intense (staring Dennis Weaver) it's fantastic 🐦.
The 1971 film Duel, directed by Steven Spielberg I think is worth checking out. I enjoyed your reaction to Close Encounters.
Absolutely!
Seconded
I saw a red ball shaped UFO once.
Perfect shirt choice for the final scene's aesthetic.
Opticals are sort of a gray area because they are definitely special effects that don’t exist within the frame but they are so removed from computer generated images that they are considered almost practical by todays standards.
Little factoid. Spielberg made this before he had kids. Years later in an interview he said he now regrets how he ended close encounters bc now thst he was a father he was appalled he had Roy just abandon his children without a thought or word.
Yes, this was a big one when it came out! It was the first time ever that is saw an movie in the theater that people applauded when it was over! The second time was Raiders of the Lost Ark!
This would have been so cool to see in theaters! I haven’t see Raiders Of The Lost Ark 😬
@@ReelReviewsWithJen I think you would really enjoy it!
In ‘77, “Star Wars” got most of the love, but even then I thought this was the superior film. Back then, air traffic controllers and pilots were discouraged from reporting UFO’s. After “Jaws,” Spielberg pretty much could write his own ticket. The visuals with the John Williams score makes everything whimsical and creepy at once, like the movie is a modern day Grimm’s Fairy Tale. “Days of Our Lives” premiered in September 1965, two months before I was born. I know this because my mom has watched it from Day One. CGI did not exist in 1977.
The foley work was great in this one unlike so many others. I mean some movies have a sound for blood, What's with that ! Nice to see you young people knowing the song She'll be coming around the mountain. I love how this movie plays with the audience as a great movie should.
The little boys Mother is played by Melinda Dillon. The mother in "A Christmas Story".
There was a recent Netflix series that was a space alien mystery show that ended in much the same way. It was called 'Glitch'.
There Star Wars connection is even shown on the Mother ship as Easter eggs
Edit: The Dipper is a reference to the legend of Devil's Tower where seven sisters ascended into the sky and became stars to escape a demon clawing it's way up a tree.
Now I am not a guy who knows a lot of things, but I am pretty sure that the "light travel time" being "seven seconds" to a signal does not necessarily mean it is "well within the plane of the ecliptic".
But it is rather nice dialogue....lol
There is a version where you do get to see inside the mothership at the end.