An Obsession Made of Clay: Why Close Encounters Remains Spielberg's Golden Standard

Written and directed by Steven Spielberg, the 1977 sci-fi classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind follows ordinary people whose lives are upended after witnessing UFOs, focusing heavily on blue-collar worker Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss). Roy develops an intense, consuming obsession with a distinct, mountain-like shape that he subconsciously sees everywhere... from his shaving cream and mashed potatoes to random debris. Driven to the brink of madness by an urge he cannot explain, he destroys his own yard to build a massive dirt-and-wire replica of the structure right inside his living room. Meanwhile, as Roy unravels, a secret government task force discovers that the extraterrestrials are trying to communicate, ultimately preparing for a historic rendezvous using a distinct, now-iconic five-note musical sequence.

So, I’ve been going through all of Spielberg’s films recently, and I’ve been going at it in three separate categories. First, I covered all of the movies Spielberg made that I never saw before. There were about 10 of those. Then, I rewatched and covered all of Spielberg’s films that I hadn’t seen in a long time... I needed to revisit them, I had no scores for them at all. I’m done with that. Now, because I have some extra time, I’m revisiting the movies I’ve seen the most often, I have scores for them already. These are the movies I didn’t NEED to rewatch, however, it’s good to do so because these are the movies I have rewatched for a reason. These are the best of the best for a lot of people, including myself.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind, of course, is often regarded as the golden standard when it comes to alien film. One of Spielberg’s best-known genres in film, at least in my experience, is science fiction. He has a big love for alien stuff overall. You got this film, you got E.T., which I’ll be covering soon enough. You have War of the Worlds. You have his lesser known, but shouldn’t be lesser known mini-series Taken, and this year, he’s got Disclosure Day. A lot of people love each and every single one of these movies, but it’s often Close Encounters that people gravitate towards the most, and it’s hard not to understand why.

Even though this movie is science fiction, I almost want to say it also feels the most grounded and relatable, even though it’s very much about aliens. It’s mostly focusing on Richard Dreyfuss and his very normal family in the late ‘70s. It feels very relatable and down to earth other than Dreyfuss losing his mind after seeing a UFO. He also plays off this madness really well. It’s pretty hilarious, but it also reflects the same drive to get something out of your head that creative types feel, often when writing. A musician hears a song in their head and they have to write it down. An author dreams up a story, and spends the next week writing it down. This film is very much like that, just more on a galactic scale.

It’s also a very simple, straightforward narrative that bounces back and forth between Dreyfuss and the government agency planning this rendezvous with the aliens and by the end, everything kind of collides with each other, and it’s just so smooth. So natural, but it shouldn’t really be ignored that this film feels so... so... Spielberg. The way that it is shot. The cinematography, the angles... it’s subtle, but it’s so distinctly Spielberg that if I were to tell you one of Spielberg’s films to watch in order to understand his style, Close Encounters would definitely be one of the films I’d suggest. Some of the others might be early Indiana Jones or E.T. or something.

This film is simply iconic. It’s the best of both worlds with Spielberg. Something that is family friendly, something that is thrilling and exciting, something that makes you think, something that is highly quotable and memorable and ultimately something that ends up being, understandably, the golden standard for films that feature aliens. There’s very little to complain about here. You can tell that it is an older film, mostly because of the camera quality, and maybe hairstyles and wardrobe choices, maybe some stuff with the graphics of the UFOs, but really... it still holds up extremely well given how old it really is. It has some practical work done with the aliens. It has some unique effects work done earlier on in the film that I thought was smart. There’s just... I have very little notes. This is a movie you can easily get engrossed watching.

Technical/Unbiased Score: 47/50 or 94%

Biased/Entertainment Score: 49/50 or 98%

Combined Total Score: 96/100 or 96% or 5/5 on Letterboxd