Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
After seeing The Fabelmans I wanted to go back to some classic Spielberg and rewatched this. This was my childhood alien movie but it most have been in the VHS days since I last saw it.
The 4K restoration look (and sound) absolutely gorgeous. I was transfixed all the way through. What I like about the story is that it has a very unique balance with elements of curiosity and being awed by the unknown and the universe, but also the rather tragic character arc of Roy slowly losing his mind and his family by something he doesn’t understand. Even though the alien abduction of Barry is quite scary - and impeccably well made, the whole film has a general aura about it that tells us that these are not evil aliens. While the military with the coverups is sort of the “bad guy” here, there aren’t really evil and there aren’t any outright bad people in this movie. Yet we still get some very tragic scenes with Roy’s family and feel a great deal of sympathy for his wife, but also for Roy who is simply just caught in something bigger than himself.
Rewatching it so many years later it also became quite apparent how much it has influenced some of my other favorite science fiction movies, like Contact and Arrival. The X-Files series needs to be included as well. Evil aliens can be fun too. I even like Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, but the positive alien first contact movie will always get high marks from me.
Easily in my top three Spielberg along with Jaws and Jurassic Park.
Rating: 5