| Close Encounters of the Third Kind | |
|---|---|
_theatrical_poster.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Steven Spielberg |
| Written by | Steven Spielberg |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Vilmos Zsigmond |
| Edited by | Michael Kahn |
| Music by | John Williams |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures[1] |
Release date |
|
Running time | 135 minutes (Theatrical version)[2] 132 minutes (Special Edition) 137 minutes (Director's Cut) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $19.4 million[3] |
| Box office | $306.9 million[4] |
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 Americanscience fictiondrama film written and directed bySteven Spielberg, starringRichard Dreyfuss,Melinda Dillon,Teri Garr,Bob Balaban,Cary Guffey, andFrançois Truffaut. The film depicts the story of Roy Neary, aneverydayblue-collar worker inIndiana, whose life changes after an encounter with anunidentified flying object (UFO), and Jillian Guiler, a single mother whose three-year-old son Barry is abducted during the same UFO manifestation.
Close Encounters was a long-cherished project for Spielberg. In late 1973, he developed a deal withColumbia Pictures for a science-fiction film. Though Spielberg received sole credit for the script, he was assisted byPaul Schrader,John Hill,David Giler,Hal Barwood,Matthew Robbins, andJerry Belson, all of whom contributed to the screenplay in varying degrees[citation needed]. The title is derived fromUfologistJ. Allen Hynek's classification ofclose encounters withextraterrestrials, in which the third kind denotes human observations of extraterrestrials or "animate beings".Douglas Trumbull served as thevisual effects supervisor, whileCarlo Rambaldi designed the aliens.
Made on a production budget ofUS$19.4 million,Close Encounters was released in a limited number of cities on November 16[5] and 23, 1977,[6] and expanded into wide release the following month. It was a critical and financial success, eventually grossing over$300 million worldwide and becoming the third highest-grossing film of 1977 behind onlyStar Wars: A New Hope andSmokey and the Bandit. It received numerous awards and nominations at the50th Academy Awards,32nd British Academy Film Awards, the35th Golden Globe Awards and the5th Saturn Awards, and has been widely acclaimed by theAmerican Film Institute.
In December 2007, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United StatesLibrary of Congress and selected for preservation in theNational Film Registry.[7][8] ASpecial Edition was released theatrically in 1980. Spielberg agreed to create this edition to add more scenes that they had been unable to include in the original release, with the studio demanding a controversial scene depicting the interior of the extraterrestrial mothership.[9] Spielberg's dissatisfaction with the altered ending scene led to a third version, theDirector's Cut on VHS andLaserDisc in 1998 (and laterDVD andBlu-ray). It is the longest version, combining Spielberg's favorite elements from both previous editions but removing the scenes inside the mothership.[10] The film was laterremastered in4K and was then re-released in theaters on September 1, 2017, bySony Pictures Releasing for its 40th anniversary.[11]
In 1977, French scientist Claude Lacombe, along with interpreter and cartographer David Laughlin, examineFlight 19—a group ofUnited States Navy aircraft that vanished over theBermuda Triangle in 1945—now found immaculate and abandoned in theSonoran Desert. They later learn that theSS Cotopaxi has similarly been found abandoned in the middle of theGobi Desert. Meanwhile, nearIndianapolis, two airplanes narrowly avoid a mid-air collision with anunidentified flying object (UFO).
At a rural home outsideMuncie, Indiana, three-year-old Barry Guiler wakes to find his toys operating on their own and the fridge ransacked. He follows a trail outside before his mother, Jillian, catches him. Widespread power outages occur throughout the area, forcing electric utility lineman Roy Neary to investigate. En route, Roy experiences a close encounter with a UFO, and when it flies over his truck, it lightly burns the side of his face with its lights. The UFO takes off with three others in the sky, as Roy and police officers unsuccessfully pursue them by road.
Roy becomes fascinated with the UFOs and obsessed with a subliminal image of a mountainous shape, repeatedly making models of it. His increasingly erratic and eccentric behavior worries his wife Ronnie and their three children, and his friends and neighbors ostracize him. Ronnie eventually leaves with the children after Roy brings dirt, bricks, and other debris into their home to sculpt a large scale replica of the mountain. Jillian also begins compulsively sketching the same mountain. Soon after, she is terrorized in her home by a UFO which descends from the clouds. She fights off aggressive attempts by unseen beings to enter the home, but in the chaos, Barry is abducted.
Lacombe, Laughlin, and a group ofUnited Nations experts continue to investigate increasing UFO activity and strange, related occurrences. Witnesses inDharamsala,Northern India report that the UFOs make distinctive sounds: a five-tone musical phrase. Scientists broadcast the phrase to outer space, but receive only a seemingly meaningless repeating series of numbers in response. Laughlin eventually recognizes it as a set of geographical coordinates, which point toDevils Tower nearMoorcroft, Wyoming.
The US Army evacuates the area around Devils Tower, planting false reports in the media that a train wreck has spilled a toxic nerve gas, while actually preparing a secret landing site for the UFOs. Seeing the mountain on the news, Roy and Jillian recognize it as the one they have been visualizing. Despite the evacuation order, they, along with others who have been experiencing the visions, set out for Devils Tower, but are intercepted by the Army. Lacombe interviews Roy, who is unable to explain his compulsion to reach the mountain beyond seeking answers. While the others are escorted away, Roy and Jillian escape and eventually reach the mountain site just as UFOs appear in the night sky.
The specialists there begin to communicate with the UFOs—which gradually appear by the dozens—by using light and sound on a large electrical billboard. An enormous mothership eventually arrives and seemingly conveys to the researchers a tonal means of communication before landing. A hatch opens, from which various humans and animals are released, having not aged since they were taken, including World War II pilots,Cotopaxi sailors, and Barry, who reunites with Jillian. Seeing Roy, Lacombe suggests preparing him for inclusion in the government's select group of potential visitors to the mothership.
Theextraterrestrials finally emerge from the mothership and select Roy to join their travels. As Roy enters the mothership, one of the extraterrestrials pauses for a few moments with the humans. Lacombe usesCurwen hand signs that correspond to the five-note tonal phrase. The extraterrestrial responds in kind, smiles, and returns to its ship, which takes to the sky.
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The film's inspiration arose in directorSteven Spielberg's childhood, when he andhis father watched ameteor shower inNew Jersey.[12] At age 18, Spielberg completed the full-length science fiction filmFirelight. Many scenes fromFirelight were incorporated inClose Encounters on ashot-for-shot basis.[20] In 1970, he wrote theshort story "Experiences" about alovers' lane in aMidwestern farming community and the "light show" a group of teenagers see in the night sky.[21] In late 1973, after completing work onThe Sugarland Express, Spielberg developed a deal withColumbia Pictures for a science-fiction film.20th Century Fox had previously turned down the offer.[21]Julia andMichael Phillips signed on as producers.[22]
Spielberg first considered doing a documentary orlow-budget feature film about people who believed inUFOs. He decided "a film that depended onstate-of-the-art technology couldn't be made for $2.5 million."[21] Borrowing a phrase from the ending ofThe Thing from Another World, he retitled the filmWatch the Skies, rewriting the premise concerningProject Blue Book andpitching the concept toWillard Huyck andGloria Katz. Katz remembered, "It had flying saucers from outer space landing onRobertson Boulevard [inWest Hollywood, California]. I go, 'Steve, that's the worst idea I ever heard.'"[21] Spielberg broughtPaul Schrader to write the script in December 1973 withprincipal photography to begin in late 1974. To discuss the script, Spielberg visited the home where Schrader lived with his brother Leonard.[23] However, Spielberg started work onJaws in 1974, delayingWatch the Skies.[21]
With the financial and critical success ofJaws, Spielberg was able to negotiate a high degree of creative control from Columbia, including the right to make the film any way he wanted.[3] Schrader submitted his script, which Spielberg called "one of the most embarrassing screenplays ever professionally turned in to a major film studio or director" and "a terribly guilt-ridden story not about UFOs at all".[15] TitledKingdom Come, the script'sprotagonist was a 45-year-oldAir Force officer named Paul Van Owen who worked with Project Blue Book. "[His] job for the government is to ridicule and debunk flying saucers." Schrader continued: "One day he has an encounter. He goes to the government, threatening to blow the lid off to the public. Instead, he and the government spend 15 years trying to make contact."[15]
Spielberg and Schrader experienced creative differences, hiringJohn Hill to rewrite.[15] At one point, the main character was apolice officer.[12] Spielberg "[found] it hard to identify with men in uniform. I wanted to haveMr. Everyday Regular Fella." Spielberg rejected the Schrader/Hill script duringpost-production onJaws,[15] reflecting that "they wanted to make it like aJames Bond adventure".[24]
David Giler performed a rewrite;Hal Barwood andMatthew Robbins,[12] friends of Spielberg, suggested theplot device of akidnapped child. Spielberg then began to write the script. The song "When You Wish upon a Star" fromPinocchio influenced Spielberg's writing style. "I hung my story on the mood the song created, the way it affected me personally."[15] Duringpre-production, the title was changed fromKingdom Come toClose Encounters of the Third Kind.[3]
J. Allen Hynek, who worked with theUnited States Air Force onProject Blue Book, was hired as a scientific consultant. Hynek said that "even though the film is fiction, it's based for the most part on the known facts of the UFO mystery, and it certainly catches the flavor of the phenomenon. Spielberg was under enormous pressure to make anotherblockbuster afterJaws, but he decided to make a UFO film. He put his career on the line."[15] USAF andNASA declined to cooperate on the film.[3] NASA reportedly sent a twenty-page letter to Spielberg, telling him that releasing the film was dangerous.[25] In an interview, he said: "I really found my faith when I heard that the Government was opposed to the film. If NASA took the time to write me a 20-page letter, then I knew there must be something happening."[26]
Early in pre-production, Spielberg hiredfilm title designerDan Perri to design alogotype. Perri, who had previously worked onThe Exorcist (1973) andTaxi Driver (1976), produced a logotype inHandel Gothic typeface, with only a script to work from. Delighted with the result, Spielberg applied the logo to all production stationery and crew shirts. Unusual in filmmaking, Spielberg carried enough influence to maintain creative control over the film's entire branding and asked Perri to design theadvertising campaign andtitle sequence based on his logo.[27]
Perri later designed titles for many other major Hollywood pictures, includingStar Wars (1977),Raging Bull (1980), andAirplane! (1980).[28]
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Principal photography began on May 16, 1976, though anAssociated Press report in August 1975 had suggested filming would start in late 1975.[29] Spielberg did not want to do anylocation shooting because of his negative experience onJaws and wanted to shootClose Encounters entirely onsound stages, but eventually dropped the idea.[30]
Filming took place inBurbank, California;Devils Tower National Monument inWyoming; two abandoned World War IIairship hangars at the formerBrookley Air Force Base inMobile, Alabama; and theLouisville and Nashville Railroad depot inBay Minette, Alabama. The home where Barry is abducted is located outside the town ofFairhope, Alabama. Roy Neary's home is on Carlisle Drive East in Mobile. The UFOs fly through the formertoll booth at theVincent Thomas Bridge,San Pedro, California. TheSonora Desert sequence was photographed at theDumont Dunes, California, and theDharmsala-India exteriors were filmed at the small village of Hal nearKhalapur, 35 kilometres (22 mi) outsideMumbai, India.[30] The hangars in Alabama were six times larger than the biggest sound stage in the world.[3][31] Various technical and budgetary problems occurred during filming. Spielberg called the production ofClose Encounters "twice as bad and twice as expensive [asJaws]".[15]
Matters worsened when Columbia Pictures experienced financial difficulties. In his original 1973 pitch to Columbia, Spielberg claimed production would cost $2.7 million, although he revealed to producer Julia Phillips that he knew the budget would have to be much higher; the final budget came to $19.4 million.[3] Columbia studio executive John Veich remembered, "If we knew it was going to cost that much, we wouldn't havegreenlighted it because we didn't have the money."[3] Spielberg hiredJoe Alves, his collaborator onJaws, asproduction designer.[17] In addition, the1976 Atlantic hurricane season brought tropical storms to Alabama. A large portion of the sound stage in Alabama was damaged because of alightning strike.[12] Columbia raised $7 million from three sources:Time Inc.,EMI, and German tax shelters.[32][33]
CinematographerVilmos Zsigmond said that, during shooting, Spielberg got more ideas by watching films every night, which in turn extended the production schedule because he was continually adding new scenes.[15] Zsigmond previously turned down the chance to work onJaws. In her 1991 bookYou'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again, producerJulia Phillips wrote highly profane remarks about Spielberg, Zsigmond, and Truffaut, because she was fired during post-production due to acocaine addiction. Phillips blamed it on Spielberg being aperfectionist.[3]
Douglas Trumbull was thevisual effects supervisor, andCarlo Rambaldi designed the extraterrestrials. Trumbull joked that the visual effects budget of $3.3 million could have been used to produce an additional film. His work helped lead to advances inmotion control photography. The mothership was designed byRalph McQuarrie and built byGreg Jein. The look of the ship was inspired by anoil refinery Spielberg saw at night in India.[15] Instead of the metallic hardware look ofStar Wars, the emphasis was on luminescence of the UFOs. One of the UFO models was an oxygen mask with lights attached to it, used because of its irregular shape.
As a subtle in-joke,Dennis Muren (who had just finished working onStar Wars) put a smallR2-D2 model onto the underside of the mothership and a pea-sizedTIE fighter to the end of one of the structures extending from the mothership. Model makers also included a mailbox, great-white shark, Volkswagen bus, and a small graveyard. The model also included alien figures moving in the windows of the miniature, though were not very visible in the final film. The mothership model is on permanent display steps away from thespace shuttle orbiterDiscovery in theSmithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Annex atWashington Dulles Airport inChantilly, Virginia.[12][34][35]
Close Encounters was filmedanamorphically and the visual effects sequences were shot on70 mm film, which has greater resolution than the35 mm film used for the rest of the production, so that when the miniature effects were combined with full-sized elements through anoptical printer, the effects footage would still appear clear and sharp though having lost one generation's worth of visual fidelity. A test reel usingcomputer-generated imagery was created for the UFOs, but Spielberg found it would be too expensive and ineffective because CGI was in its infancy in the mid-1970s.[12]
The small extraterrestrials in the final scenes were played by fifty local six-year-old girls inMobile, Alabama. That decision was requested by Spielberg because "girls move more gracefully than boys".[12]Puppetry was attempted for the extraterrestrials, but the idea failed. However, Rambaldi successfully used puppetry to depict two of the extraterrestrials, starting with amarionette (for the tall extraterrestrial that is the first emerging from the mothership in what was originally a test shot) and an articulated puppet for the extraterrestrial that communicates via hand signals near the end of the film.[12]
Close Encounters is the first collaboration between film editorMichael Kahn and Spielberg. Their working relationship has continued for the rest of Spielberg's films. Spielberg said that no film he has ever made since has been as hard to edit as the last 25 minutes ofClose Encounters and that he and Kahn went through thousands of feet of film to find the right shots for the end sequence. When Kahn and Spielberg completed the first cut of the film, Spielberg was dissatisfied because "there wasn't enough wow-ness".[12]Pick-ups were commissioned but cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond could not participate due to other commitments.[3]John A. Alonzo,László Kovács, andDouglas Slocombe worked on the pick-ups.[3] Lacombe was originally intended to findFlight 19 hidden in theAmazon rainforest, but the idea was changed to theSonoran Desert. Spielberg also took 7.5 minutes out from the preview.[17]
Thefilm score was composed, conducted, and produced byJohn Williams, who had previously worked on Spielberg'sJaws, and performed by theHollywood Studio Symphony. Williams included the ominous two note phrase of theJaws theme delivered by the mothership.[36]
Williams wrote more than 300 examples of the iconic five-tonemotif, to be used by scientists to communicate with the visiting spaceship as amathematical language, before Spielberg chose the one incorporated into the film's signature theme. Williams decided on five notes because "it has to be somewhere between a fragment ... which is four notes, and a song ... which is seven notes, so he decided, mathematically, it would be five notes."[37]
Spielberg called Williams's work "'When You Wish Upon a Star' meets science fiction".[12] Incidentally, Williams briefly included the signature melody into the score at Spielberg's behest, just before Roy Neary turns to board the mothership. The synthesizer playing the five notes is anARP 2500.[38] Vice President of Engineering atARP Instruments,Phillip Dodds, was sent to install the unit on the film set and was subsequently cast as Jean Claude, the musician who plays the sequence on the huge synthesizer in an attempt to communicate with the extraterrestrial mothership.[39]
Spielberg initially includedCliff Edwards's original "When You Wish upon a Star" fromPinocchio in theclosing credits, but after aDallas preview where several members of the audience audibly snickered at the inclusion, the song was dropped and replaced with Williams's orchestral version.[40][41] Phrases from "When You Wish Upon a Star" are included in the final sequence in the director's cut and in the special edition of the end titles on the1998Collector's Edition of the soundtrack.[42][43]
The score was recorded atWarner Bros. Studios inBurbank, California. Williams was nominated for two Academy Awards in 1978, one for his score toStar Wars and one for his score toClose Encounters.[44] He won forStar Wars, though he later won twoGrammy Awards in 1979 for hisClose Encounters score (one for Best Original Film Score and one for Best Instrumental Composition for "Theme from Close Encounters").[45]
Film critic Charlene Engel observed:
Close Encounters suggests that humankind has reached the point where it is ready to enter the community of the cosmos. While it is a computer which makes the final musical conversation with the extraterrestrial guests possible, the characteristics bringing Neary to make his way to Devils Tower have little to do with technical expertise or computer literacy. These are virtues taught in schools that will be evolved in the 21st century.[46]
The film also evokes typicalscience fictionarchetypes and motifs. The film portrays new technologies as a natural and expected outcome of human development and indication of health and growth.[46]
Other critics found a variety of Judeo-Christian analogies. Devils Tower parallelsMount Sinai, the extraterrestrials as God, and Roy Neary asMoses.Cecil B. DeMille'sThe Ten Commandments is on television at the Neary household. Some found close relations betweenElijah and Roy; Elijah was taken into a "chariot of fire", akin to Roy boarding the UFO. Climbing Devils Tower behind the faltering Jillian, Roy exhorts Jillian to keep moving and not to look back, a contrast toLot's wife, who looked back atSodom and turned into a pillar of salt.[46] Spielberg explained, "I wanted to makeClose Encounters a very accessible story about the everyday individual who has a sighting that overturns his life, and throws it into complete upheaval as he starts to become more and more obsessed with this experience."[31]
Roy's wife Ronnie attempts to hide the sunburn caused by Roy's exposure to the UFOs and wants him to forget his encounter with them. She is embarrassed and bewildered by what has happened to him and desperately wants her ordinary life back. The expression of his lost life is seen when he is sculpting a huge model of Devils Tower in his living room, with his family deserting him.[46] Roy's obsession with an idea implanted by an extraterrestrial intelligence, his construction of the model, and his gradual loss of contact with his wife, mimic the events in the short story "Dulcie and Decorum" (1955) byDamon Knight.[citation needed]
Close Encounters studies the form of "youth spiritual yearning". Barry Guiler, the unfearing child who refers to the UFOs and their paraphernalia as "toys" (although that was unscripted, with the child being drawn to smile by being shown toys offstage), serves as a motif for childlike innocence and openness in the face of the unknown.[46] Spielberg also compared the theme of communication as highlighting that of tolerance: "If we can talk to extraterrestrials inClose Encounters of the Third Kind, why not with theReds in theCold War?"[47] Sleeping is the final obstacle to overcome in the ascent of Devils Tower. Roy, Jillian, and a third invitee, Larry Butler, climb the mountain pursued by government helicopters spraying sleeping gas. Larry stops to rest, is gassed, and falls into a deep sleep.[46]
In his interview with Spielberg onInside the Actors Studio,James Lipton suggestedClose Encounters has another, more personal theme for Spielberg: "Your father was a computer engineer; your mother was a concert pianist, and when the spaceship lands, they make music together on the computer", suggesting that Roy Neary's boarding the spaceship represents Spielberg's wish to be reunited with his parents. The director had not consciously intended this aspect. In a 2005 interview, Spielberg stated that he madeClose Encounters when he did not have children, and if he were making it today, he would never have had Roy leave his family and board the mothership.[48]
Communication and language issues constitute additional themes as noted byAndrew Johnston inTime Out New York: "Throughout the film, there are many scenes that anticipate themes Spielberg would explore in subsequent projects, but his execution of these ideas here is usually more interesting and subtle. InAmistad, for example, he devotes much time to illustrating the language barrier separating Africans from both their captors and their potential saviors. It's an essential plot point, but it's so belabored that the story gets bogged down. InCE3K, the language problem is illustrated concisely by a quick scene in which an interpreter translates Spanish into English for Laughlin so he can turn around and translate it into French for Lacombe. Since Spielberg doesn't ram the language problem down our throats, the extraterrestrials' solution—using music to communicate with humanity—seems more elegant and natural."[49]
The film was to be released in mid-1977 but was delayed to November because of the various production problems.[50]
Close Encounters premiered at theZiegfeld Theatre in New York City on November 16, 1977,[51] and continued there and at theCinerama Dome in Los Angeles, grossing $1,077,000. Its national release was December 14, in 270 theaters and grossing $10,115,000 in one week with a per-screen average of $37,460.[52] On December 21, 301 more theaters were added. By the end of the second week of national release it had grossed $24,695,317.[53]
It made a record $3,026,558 on December 26, 1977,[54] and set a one-week record of $17,393,654 from December 26 to January 1.[55] The film opened internationally on February 24, 1978, and grossed $27 million by the end of March from 19 countries.[56]Close Encounters received mostly positive reviews and became a certifiedbox office success, grossing $116.39 million in the United States and Canada, and $171.7 million in foreign countries, for $288 million worldwide.[54]
It was the most successfulColumbia Pictures film at that time.[57][31]
Released in conjunction withClose Encounters of the Third Kind was anovelization of the film, credited solely to Steven Spielberg but largelyghostwritten byLeslie Waller. Spielberg later explained toStarlog magazine,
It was very early on when we made the deal with [the publishers]Dell... It included an advance with a promise that I was going to have direct writing input into the book. But post-production on the movie became so impossible that I had to get somebody else to write it. I didn't write the first, second, or third drafts. Those were written, based on my screenplay, by Leslie Waller, a very good writer. When I read his drafts, though, I told the publishers that unless it was cleaned up I wouldn't let my name go out with the book. So I sat down and spent less than a week – I wouldn't say rewriting the novel – but polishing it, and taking a lot of the plot and twisting it back into the direction of the screenplay. All told, there's about 20 percent of me in the book. I wish I could say there was more, but there's not. I cringe when I see my name on the cover, and I usually avoid it at bookstores. Actually, I've never bought a copy.[58]
Jonathan Rosenbaum refers to the film as "the best expression of Spielberg's benign, dreamy-eyed vision".[59] A.D. Murphy ofVariety magazine gave a positive review but wrote thatClose Encounters "lacks the warmth and humanity" ofGeorge Lucas'sStar Wars. Murphy found most of the film slow-paced, but praised the climax.[60] OnSneak Previews,Gene Siskel andRoger Ebert highly recommended the film. Siskel praised the message of not being "afraid of the unknown", said Dreyfuss was "perfectly cast", and described the ending as "a wonderful scene, combining fantasy, adventure and mystery". However, he mentioned that the story got "bogged down" by a subplot in the middle. Ebert said "the last 30 minutes are among the most marvelous things I've ever seen on the screen" and that the film was "like a kid's picture...in its innocence".[61]Pauline Kael similarly called it "a kid's film in the best sense". Kael wrote that,
"Spielberg is the son of an electrical-engineer, sci-fi-addict father and a classical-pianist mother, and in the climax of the film he does justice to both. Under the French scientist’s direction, the earthlings are ready with a console, and they greet the great craft with an oboe solo variation on the five-note theme; the craft answers in deep, tuba tones. The dialogue becomes blissfully garrulous. And with light flooding out from the windows of this omniscient airship—it’s like New York’s skyscrapers all lighted up on a summer night—there is a conversational duet: the music of the spheres. This is one of the peerless moments in movie history—spiritually reassuring, magical, and funny at the same time. Very few movies have ever hit upon this combination of fantasy and amusement—The Wizard of Oz, perhaps, in a plainer, down-home way."[62]
Jean Renoir compared Spielberg's storytelling toJules Verne andGeorges Méliès.[18]Ray Bradbury declared it the greatest science fiction film ever made.[63]David Thomson wrote that "Close Encounters had a flawless wonder, such that it might be the first film ever made" calling it "a tribute to the richness of human imagination" and "as close to a mystical experience as a major film has come, but it's the mysticism of common sense... The movie could have been naive and sentimental—it was inspired by Disney—but Spielberg never relinquishes his practicality and his eye for everyday detail."[64]
| Release date | Version Description | Notes | Runtime |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11-16-1977 | Original Theatrical Version | 135 minutes | |
| 08-03-1980 | Special Edition | Adds SS Cotopaxi; and Mothership interior | 132 minutes |
| 05-12-1998 | Collector's Edition/Director's Cut | Removes Mothership interior | 137 minutes |
On thefinal cut privilege, Spielberg was dissatisfied with the film. Columbia Pictures was experiencing financial problems, and depending on this film to save their company. He explained, "I wanted to have another six months to finish off this film, and release it in summer 1978. They told me they needed this film out immediately. Anyway,Close Encounters was a huge financial success and I told them I wanted to make my owndirector's cut. They agreed on the condition that I show the inside of themothership so they could have something to hang a [reissue marketing] campaign on. I never should have shown the inside of the mothership."[12]
In 1979, Columbia gave Spielberg $1.5 million to produce what became theSpecial Edition. Spielberg added seven minutes of new and previously discarded footage, but alsodeleted or shortened various existing scenes by ten minutes, so that its 132-minute runtime is 3 minutes shorter than the original release.[18] TheSpecial Edition features several new character development scenes, the discovery of theSSCotopaxi in theGobi Desert, and a view of the inside of the mothership.Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Special Edition was released on August 3, 1980,[65] making a further $15.7 million, accumulating a final $303.7 million box office gross.[18][54]Roger Ebert "thought the original film was an astonishing achievement, capturing the feeling of awe and wonder we have when considering the likelihood of life beyond the Earth. ... This new version ... is, quite simply, a better film ... Why didn't Spielberg make it this good the first time?"[66]
The 1980Special Edition was the only version officially available for many years on VHS. It was RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video's biggest selling title with sales of 60,000 in its first three years of release in the United States.[67] Then, in 1990,The Criterion Collection offered two versions for LaserDisc, one a variant of the original 1977 edition (with subtle edits made by Spielberg which became the syndicated television version), the other theSpecial Edition (programmed by the viewer using the LaserDisc player's remote features that predate the seamless branching of DVDs).[68] This triple-disc LaserDisc set also includes an interactiveMaking Close Encounters documentary featuring interviews with Spielberg and other cast and crew involved with the film, and stills and script excerpts. In 1993, theSpecial Edition was released on VHS and LaserDisc with no further release for 14 years.
Vincent Misiano reviewedClose Encounters: The Special Edition inAres Magazine #5 and commented that "Artists in other media have always had the luxury of returning to a piece, reworking and refining it. For various reasons, money first among them, this opportunity has rarely been afforded to filmmakers. Steven Spielberg has been given the chance and used it well."[69]
On May 12, 1998, Spielberg recutClose Encounters again for theDirector's Cut, released as simply the "Collector's Edition" on VHS. This version is a re-edit of the original 1977 release with some elements of the 1980Special Edition, but omits the mothership interior scenes as Spielberg said they should have remained a mystery. The director's cut is the longest release of the film at 137 minutes, two minutes longer than the theatrical version and five minutes longer than theSpecial Edition.[10] A LaserDisc release of theCollector's Edition, on July 14, 1998, includes a new 101-minute documentary,The Making of Close Encounters, which was produced in 1997 and features interviews with Spielberg, the main cast, and notable crew members. Many other alternative versions were made for network and syndicated television, and the Criterion LaserDisc version. Some of these combined all released material from the 1977 and 1980 versions. However, most of these versions were not edited by Spielberg, who regards theCollector's Edition as his definitive version. TheCollector's Edition was given a limited release as part of aroadshow featuring select films to celebrate Columbia Pictures's 75th anniversary in 1999. It was the first time this version of the film had been shown theatrically. This was once again released in theaters on September 1, 2017, in tribute to the film's 40th anniversary.[70] It made $1.8 million in the weekend ($2.3 million over the four-day Labor Day holiday), pushing its career global gross to over $306 million worldwide.[71]
Close Encounters was released on DVD on May 29, 2001, in a two-discCollector's Edition set that contains only the director's cut.[72] This set contains several extra features, including the 1997 documentary, a featurette from 1977, trailers, and deleted scenes that includes the mothership interior from the 1980Special Edition. A single-disc DVD edition was released on August 27, 2002.[73] In tribute to the film's 30th anniversary,Sony Pictures released it on DVD and Blu-ray in 2007. For the first time, all three versions were packaged together.[74] Then in 2017, in honor of its 40th anniversary, the film was given a4K restoration of the original camera negative. Following its theatrical re-release of the director's cut, the film was released in 4K and Blu-ray with all three versions given the same 4K treatment.[75]
Observers credited theClose Encounters for launching the reemergence of a large market forscience fiction filmsin the 1980s alongsideStar Wars (1977) andSuperman (1978).[93][94][95][96][97] In 1985, Spielberg donated $100,000 to thePlanetary Society forMegachannel ExtraTerrestrial Assay.[15]
Shortly after the film's release in late 1977, Spielberg considered either asequel orprequel, but decided against it. He explained, "The army's knowledge and ensuingcover-up is so subterranean that it would take a creative screen story, perhaps someone else making the picture and giving it the equal time it deserves."[24]
When asked in 1980 to select a single "master image" that summed up his film career, Spielberg chose the shot of Barry opening his living room door to see the blazing orange light from the UFO. "That was beautiful but awful light, just like fire coming through the doorway. [Barry's] very small, and it's a very large door, and there's a lot of promise or danger outside that door."[20] In 2007,Close Encounters was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by theUnited States Library of Congress and was added to theNational Film Registry for preservation.[98] InAmerican Film Institute polls,Close Encounters has been voted the64th-greatest American film,[99] the31st-most thrilling,[100] and the58th-most inspiring.[101] It was also nominated for the top 10 science fiction films inAFI's 10 Top 10[102] and thetenth-anniversary edition of the 100 Movies list.[103] The score by John Williams was nominated forAFI's 100 Years of Film Scores.[104]
In 2011,ABC aired a primetime special,Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time, that counted down the best films chosen by fans based on results of a poll conducted by ABC andPeople magazine.Close Encounters of the Third Kind was selected as the #5 Best Sci-Fi Film.[105]The Guardian also selected the film as the 11th best Sci-Fi and fantasy film of all time.[106]In 2024, Close Encounters of the Third Kind was included in Rolling Stone's "The 150 Best Science Fiction Movies of All Time" list at #3.[107]
Many prominent directors have citedClose Encounters as one of their favorites, among themStanley Kubrick,[108]Edgar Wright,[109]Bong Joon-ho,Spike Lee,[110]Denis Villeneuve,[111]Guillermo del Toro,[112]Christopher Nolan,[113]Greta Gerwig,[114]Andrew Stanton,[115]Patrick Read Johnson andMichael Williams.[116]
