Written by Robert Scucci | Published
I have children, as well ET the Extra-Terrestrial you get a lot of mileage out of my house. Just last year, there was a retro night screening in my drive-thru, and we got to enjoy it on the big screen with all the right snacks. It's a fun film, full of hope, surprises, professional-level product placement, and plenty of foreign antics for good measure. But when ET it's the perfect kid's movie, as true Spielberg art should be Close the Third Kind of Encounterand it's the kind of movie that hits differently when you're older.
Sure, the film is about mysterious visitors, but it's also about the disintegration of a family, something that hits hard when you have children of your own and think about what's at stake. Not having watched the film since I was too young to fully appreciate it, I also saw Homer Simpson's mashed potato circus tent being lifted from Richard Dreyfuss' dinner table trance as Roy Neary began to take hold.
Strangers are Cars, But Family is the Story
One thing I like to do is revisit movies and shows where I was the same age as the main character, just to see how different or similar our lives are. I am too few years old to donate The Sopranos a decent watch, but that will be fun when I realize that the only thing I have in common with Tony is my affinity for cured meats. In Close the Third Kind of EncounterRichard Dreyfuss's Roy Neary is also my age, and the first thing I realized was how much I saw myself in him. He is a working-class guy who lives a somewhat comfortable life with his wife Ronnie (Terri Garr) and their three children. His house is a mess, but his life is full.
Roy works as an electrical lineman, and one night he sees an unidentified flying object that changes his life forever. He worries, and meeting is all he can think about, until his behavior becomes increasingly erratic as he tries to recreate the monolithic structure he always sees in his mind. At the same time, Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon) experiences a similar incident, which leads to her 3-year-old son Barry (Cary Guffey) going missing, possibly abducted by aliens.
Meanwhile, scientists Claude Lacombe (Francois Truffaut) and David Laughlin (Bob Balaban), who have been racking their brains over the reappearance of a Navy plane that disappeared earlier in 1945, are on the road to find out who these visitors are and what their arrival means to the world.
These three stories all play out with great sophistication, and when the third act culminates with everyone meeting at the Devil's Tower in Moorcroft, Wyoming, everything falls into place. It's amazing, visually stunning, and absolutely heartbreaking.
It's hard to watch you as a father
What I didn't prepare for when I rewatched Close the Third Kind of Encounter as the father watched Roy slowly lose an unknown power that made him behave in a strange way. The look of worry on his family's face as his full concern is the same look my family got when I said I was going to lose 20 pounds and get my abs back. He knows they love him, but they're not ready to tell him he's lost his mind either.
Naturally, Roy gets close to Jillian, one of the few people who believes him, and you can't really blame her. Given his strange behavior, his family is right to be concerned for his, and her, well-being. However, thinking about it from Roy's point of view, I could only imagine how alone he felt trying to unravel what was clearly a traumatic event and find some clarity in the aftermath.
The result is a complete breakdown of his family because they didn't see what he saw, and he comes off a little upset about it. Meanwhile, Ronnie, who is just trying to hold the family together, starts to resent him because there is no way he can understand what he is going through, and he needs to come back to reality.
Family drama in Close the Third Kind of Encounter it does so much heavy lifting that you almost forget there's an array of flying aliens talking in mathematical semitones. It also made me appreciate Spielberg's original nature of not showing the inside of the Mothership, and I understand why he regretted including those scenes in the 1980 Special Edition before removing them again in the 1998 Director's Cut. The film is about aliens, yes, but the most compelling story is the one told about Roy and his family.
It's been a while since he last enjoyed watching Close the Third Kind of Encounteris still as impressive today as it was in 1977. The special effects hold up remarkably well, and considering its $19.4 million production budget, it makes you wonder why they don't make movies like this anymore. I understand that $19.4 million was a lot of money back then, but the movie still looks better than the movies coming out today with budgets north of $200 million.
Close THIRD TYPE MEETING
For fantasy, spectacle, drama, and the hope that foreign visitors come in peace, you can broadcast Close the Third Kind of Encounter in Peacock as it is written.
