User Reviews

For my taste, the first hour and a half of this movie is the greatest stretch of filmmaking ever. Up until Roy and Jillian reach the "dark side of the moon" on Devil's Tower, this movie is perfect. No, it's beyond perfect -- it's sublime. It takes me to a level of bliss that no other movie can do.

Many critics and viewers -- including a number on this site -- don't like this movie at all. Those who do like it almost uniformly like the final sequence, the "alien landing," the best. For me it is the rest of the movie that is the most remarkable. Some of my favorite sequences:

1. The blinding flash of light that ends the opening credits and leads us to a sandstorm in Sonora Desert, Mexico -- Present Day, with various team leaders, Bob Balaban, and Francois Truffaut speaking three languages as they find a whole bunch of old Navy planes lost in the Bermuda Triangle and an old geezer who saw something very strange. "El sol salio a noche. Y me canto," he keeps saying. Translation: "He says the sun came out last night. He says it sang to him." Then Balaban translates for Truffaut: "Il dit que le soleil etait venue ici hier soir, et qu'il chantait pour lui." Then Balaban disappears in a cloud of dust. The mystery created in that sequence is incredible -- the greatest opening of all time, if you ask me. Trivia note: that sequence was the last Spielberg filmed before the movie's release. The shooting script opens with Indianapolis Flight Control, but Spielberg decided he wanted a new opening and shot this after production had wrapped. Supposedly this sequence was inspired by the Iraqi prologue in the Exorcist.

2. Roy's first encounter with the aliens in his power company truck -- a brilliantly conceived and edited sequence. I love the dolly in to Roy's window as he pants in shock in the shadows, then the comedy of his reaction when the lights in the truck come back on.

3. The "sky speeders" disappearing into the clouds over Muncie, followed by lightning and then the lights of the city coming back on, bit by bit. Spielberg's use of miniatures here is breathtaking -- as it was in 1941 and as it is later in CE3K when the UFO believers gather again to await another encounter and the lights from the government helicopters move toward them across the plains below.

4. The entire sequence of Roy going crazy. This was controversial with critics -- Pauline Kael, who loved the movie generally, hated Roy throwing the bushes into the kitchen -- and Spielberg actually cut the entire digging up the garden sequence from the so-called "Special Edition." To me, though, this is the absolute heart of the movie. Ask people what they remember from CE3K and the first thing they'll say is "mashed potatoes." To my mind, the garden sequence is one of those magical moments that is so funny and so sad it's just perfect. I believe every second of it, every time. The reactions of the kids are perfect -- the oldest son is big enough to be angry, while the middle says, "Dad, when we're finished with this can we throw dirt in my window?" (In the dinner sequence, little Sylvia has arguably the best line in a movie full of them -- "I hate, I hate these potatoes. There's a dead fly in my potatoes." An ad lib, of course.)

In recent years, Spielberg has expressed concern with the fact that Roy leaves his family to pursue the aliens, and has said that if he were to make the movie over again, he would change that part. To my way of thinking, if you take that out, there is no movie. What this movie is really about is Roy's obsession, and that, I think, is why it has such a hold on me personally. This movie is about what it's like for a person whose life has lost its meaning suddenly finding there is a really important purpose, and pursuing that purpose at all costs. Is it right for him to turn his family's life upside down and ultimately leave them behind to do that? No. But his obsession is understandable, I think, and the purpose Roy finds is something a lot of people would like to feel. Also, it's clear that Roy is not acting entirely of his own free will -- he has been "commanded" subliminally to make his way to Devil's Tower.

I am not aware of any other movie -- or book, or any other source, for that matter -- that portrays 70s suburban life so accurately. The street, the house, the cars, the toys, the furniture -- it is like an archeological document. And the way the kids act, and the family conflicts -- to my way of thinking, they are all portrayed with unerring accuracy and realism. Some have contended that Ronnie is unflatteringly portrayed, but to me that's not fair. She can't be blamed for reacting the way she does to Roy -- many people in her shoes would. Garr's performance is brilliant; she and Dreyfuss are magical together. Melinda Dillon, too, is brilliant in her role. In the shooting script, the sexual attraction between Roy and Jillian was more overt, but Spielberg wisely downplays it in the finished film. It's only hinted at, although it is there.

The actual "alien landing" sequence, in my opinion, is a letdown. It's brilliantly photographed and realized, but once Roy and Jillian make it to the dark side of the moon, the primary tension in the story is gone. If I could edit this movie, I'd take a major pair of shears to the final sequence, cut it down to maybe half its current length. I do get choked up when I see Roy in his red suit at the end of the line of astronauts, though, and Jillian wiping tears away as she clicks away with her Kodak.

As with the original Star Wars, my other all-time favorite movie, I have a problem with the way this picture has been hacked and altered from its original release through various special editions. I understand it's possible to watch the original 1977 cut on the DVD, and I'm glad of that. That original version is the best. I first got to know this movie on ABC in the early 1980s, when it was shown with all the original and Special Edition footage edited together. Personally, I don't think the special edition footage adds much (even the Gobi desert sequence, which is an interesting concept that was in the shooting script, stands out because it was obviously shot by a different DP and doesn't have Truffaut in it).

Anyway, I will always cherish this movie. "You tell Crystal Lake we're going to candlepower in ten minutes!" "Zey belong here more zan we." "There's always some joker who thinks he's immune." "You can't fool us by agreeing with us." "What the hell is going on around here? Who the hell are you people?" "Ronnie, everything's fine. All this stuff is coming down."

This is probably considered "a classic" by now, along with a few other 1970s Steven Spielberg movies. At the time of its release almost 30 years ago, the special-effects in here were astounding to view....and still hold up! They are still fun to watch.

The scenes in the beginning of this movie and at the end, are indelibly imprinted in my memory cells as well as millions of others. Who can ever forget that opening scene in the farmhouse when the little boy (Gary Guffey) is kidnapped or that ending with the gigantic spacecraft hovering over Devil's Hole in Wyoming, or the sound sequences emitted by the scientists trying to communicate with the aliens? There are many, many memorable scenes in this film - probably its biggest attribute.

To me, the only uncomfortable scene is the yelling match with Richard Dreyfuss and his family. The only message I didn't care for also involved Dreyfuss' character, who is "envied" at the end. Funny, I don't see a man who thoughtlessly leaves his family beyond as someone to be envied. Overall Dreyfuss looked more like a "Doofus" in here.

There are other credibility problems in here, too, but overall it's extremely interesting storytelling, great colors and special-effects and just about everything that director Steve Spielberg is noted for in his successful box-office films which translates to one crucial factor: entertainment.

A lot of the movies I saw when they first came out I haven't seen since, so I'm getting around to all of them once again in due time. I had forgotten how clever the set up to this one was, with so many early scenes suggesting more of a horror element to the story rather than a sci-fi slant. With a less suggestive title, Spielberg might have kept the viewer on the hook until the first alien actually appears at the end of the story.

The whole notion of Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) becoming totally obsessed with finding an answer to his pyramid problem seemed credible enough, but as the picture progressed, I think his bizarre behavior robs the picture of some of the magic and warmth that the director was trying to achieve. When Roy kisses Jillian (Melinda Dillon), the thought of betrayal crossed my mind and I no longer saw him as a sympathetic character on a quest. The earlier segments in which he begins to alienate his family would have been unsettling enough if it involved just Roy and his wife (Terri Garr), but seeing the kids torn up like that probably isn't fair game for a family night at the movies. When he boards the spaceship to fulfill his obsession, I kept wondering how this was all going to settle out with the rest of the Neary's. Like so many pictures, this one closes out with no afterthought of what will happen to the rest of the characters once the finale has played out.

With all that, the movie still has it's place among Hollywood's premier attractions, and is a visual treat with it's many special effects. The mother ship presents a stunning blend of color and sound, and this was the first film I can remember that suggests the appearance of aliens along the lines of Whitley Strieber's visitors, popularized almost a decade later in his non-fiction work 'Communion'. The one thing I couldn't fathom though, was the amount of dirt it would have taken to build the mock Devil's Tower in the Neary living room. Those four or five shovels of dirt lobbed through the kitchen window wouldn't have cut it, and as I think about it now, is one more of those afterthoughts that poor wife Ronnie would have had to deal with if she ever returned home.

When I come to this movie I ask myself two questions: what is the point of it and is it here just to show off special effects. The answer that I come up with is: there is none and yes. I haven't seen this movie seen I was a kid and the only thing I could remember was a scene where a number of spaceships fly over a road and a small boy cries out "Icecream". I really only watched this movie for the special effects, and one must say that for the time, the effects were very good. Watching it now, I just think that it is Spielburg saying, "hey, look how much money I can spend on a pointless movie." This movie indeed has not real point or plot. What seems to be happening is that machinery that has disappeared, allegedly because of alien abductions, is now appearing around the world. Then there are some strange lights appearing over Idaho and this kid runs out of the house and stands on a road as space ships fly over. There are a number of other people here as well. One of them is a guy that ends up losing his wife and kids because of this experience. Personally that scene just made me sick because it revealed the problems with marriage, people think it is great until they hit the first obstacle, and then marriage is horrid. People simply don't take note of the marriage vows anymore – to be with that person through all manner of hardships. The breakup of this marriage is simply pathetic.

All these people have been implanted with the knowledge of a mountain where the aliens are going to land. The army also knows of this place and forces everybody else out. Two people manage to get there though, even though the army tries to stop them by using a nerve gas scare and then sleeping gas. When they reach the place, the aliens appear in a huge ship that makes the mountain looks small, they speak with music (even though I doubt the humans actually know what is being said), and then the aliens return their abducties (all Americans), another lot are sent on board, we have a look inside the mothership and the movie ends.

From this synopsis there seems to be a big indication that there is no point to this movie. In my comments of this movie, I am probably going very much against what the critics say, but I seriously feel that this movie is long winded, dull, and pointless. It is not pointless in the existentialist style, but pointless in that it seriously has a non-existence plot. It is a movie simply made to show off special effects, and even Jurasic Park had more of a plot to it than this. There is the government conspiracy in this movie, but is still leads to a pointless ending. The boy is abducted by aliens, but why did the aliens take an interest in him in the first place? There is no answer to this and I feel that this was only done for some scene.

No, I do not like this movie. It may be quoted as a Steven Spielburg masterpiece, but I refuse to say that it is. It probably didn't flop, but that is because people were dazzled with the special effects. What is interesting though is that at the time of the creation of this movie, we have the government coverups. Cover-ups never came into constant use until the late 80's and the 90's so it is interesting to see it used here. The cover up is not as evil as it is in such movies as Conspiracy Theory or series like the X-files, but it is used. Possible it deals with the distrust of the government after Watergate, but moreso it is seen as for the publics safety rather than anything else.

There are no antagonists here, except maybe the army, and they are not portrayed in a genuinely evil light either. Rather they have their goals and they don't want people around to see it. Personally I think this is a movie that can be missed. There is a special edition that I saw, which means that it is longer and more boring than the original.

Spoilers Herein.

I give Speilberg little credit, even claim that he has taken us several steps backward in how we use our visual imagination. And for that he deserves distain. But he was not always excessively vulgar, visually lowbrow. Before `ET,' he did some strongly visual work and he tried hard to work in an intelligent way.

This film is his most purely visual. You can watch it entirely with no sound, or if you are clever, with music but no dialog. It is not well framed. It does not do anything interesting with the camera eye. It does not invent a style, or innovate in any way. But it does read visually. And it does paint effectively with light. Today after 25 years, that use of light still shines.

This film is also his experimentation with exposure to great thinkers in film. The film itself doesn't have any great ideas, but you can see Speilberg's striving. He casts Truffault in the role of the representative of the human race, the one man who knows more than anyone else. For those who don't know, Truffault was possibly the most articulate person ever in the film world: he weaves so compelling a story that after a career as a critic he launched the `new wave,' a notion that is all intellectual force but completely devoid of ideas.

Pairing him with Balaban is symbolic. He (with his dad) is one of the intellectuals of Hollywood. Speilberg was also able to enlist Attenborough's help for the Indian scenes. (Attenborough was filming `Ghandi.') Attenborough was also considered a fulcrum of thought in Hollywood. Paul Schrader wrote the script, the man at the time with the most visual writing style.

Schrader's first script focused on the idea that visions create themselves with the obvious extra level that films and everything in them are invented by the viewers. Thousands or millions of people simultaneously converge on a single meme (here a musical theme or a landscape feature or the very notion of `others') and bring it into existence. When talking about film, this is an idea expressed by Schrader, Truffault, Balaban and Attenborough. Framing it in terms of UFOs is a brilliant conceit. Unfortunately, Speilberg tarted it up along the way, but that sort of proves the point doesn't it?

I believe that films invent the collective imagination, so it is no surprise that after this appeared the details of UFO sightings changed to conform. Just as shark attacks, both real and imagined, greatly increased after `Jaws.'

As the vision itself, one is tempted to contrast this with `Contact,' `2001' and `Mission to Mars.'

`Contact' was wonderless, and lacked a center -- either visual or philosophical -- but had a clever machine. `M2M' had a much more intelligent eye (the audience becomes god), a more elaborate encounter, and better attention to consistent art design. Same with `2001.' The difference between the two is in what god they invest. Kubrick invests in a god of space (not outer space) so infuses his film with environmental causality. This is what dePalma does more directly with the eye that makes things happen. Either is vastly more intelligent than what Speilberg can do, but not what he set out to do here.