Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

I had never seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  Can you believe it?  Embarrassing, I know. Here was one of the major films of the 1970s, a sci fi classic from one of the greatest directors of his generation, and I had never taken the two hours to just sit down and watch it.  So after kicking myself profusely, I decided to do just that.

Close Encounters is the story of Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), who one evening has a run-in with an alien spaceship.  It is a brief encounter, but the aftermath has done something strange to Roy.  He starts to become obsessed with a mountain, constantly picturing it, ranting about it, and even shaping it in his mashed potatoes.  What does the mountain mean?!  Meanwhile, scientists led by Frenchman Lacombe (played by legendary French director Francois Truffaut) are making contact with the aliens, using musical notes as communication.  What does that have to do with Roy?  And about those other people who have also had close encounters?  How do they figure into the puzzle?

So since almost everyone has seen Close Encounters, my review is going to go a bit into spoiler territory. For the few who have not seen the movie: here is my summary - in many ways, this film is a masterpiece.  But Roy is such a tedious main character that it kind of ruins the whole movie for me. There you go.

Now for more details.  SPOILER ALERT.

So does this film live up to its "masterpiece" status?  In many ways, absolutely.  There are some brilliant moments of supreme filmmaking.  Spielberg's direction is superb and inventive.  The appearances of the alien spaceships, for example, are ingenious. Take for instance Roy's encounter.  He sits in his truck in the middle of the night, lost and frantically looking at a map.  The headlights of a car pull up behind him and Roy waves him by.  The headlights don't go around; instead they lift up above him, and when Roy looks up he sees the UFO flying over him.  I was struck at such a creative and cool way to introduce the aliens.  The whole film is full of inventive moments like that. The spinning ships chased by police cars, the alien arrival at Jillian's house (which truly is a terrifying scene), the arrival of the mother ship at the end of the film.  Spielberg uses the same technique he did in Jaws in that he holds back from showing too much until the end of the film.  Until the climax, you don't see any aliens; the ships are either moving too fast or are hidden by clouds, and what you do see is a kaleidoscope of light (brilliantly filmed by Oscar-winning cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond). There are moments where the film transcends into something truly sublime; such as Lacombe's visit to India and the arrival of the mother ship.  That is when I felt like I was watching the masterpiece Close Encounters is reputed to be.

But there is a 'but.'  And it is a big one for me in this movie.  Roy Neary is a jerk.  His obsession tears his family apart.  And at the end of the movie, he happily accompanies the aliens to space and just leaves his wife and kids behind without a second thought.  Even Spielberg has said that this was probably a mistake and he would have played the ending differently had he made the film today.  But my problem goes back further, to even before the alien encounter fries Roy's brain. Because he is a selfish and obsessed jerk even before that.  Just look at the introductory scene, where he is playing with a giant train set assembled in his family's living room.  The house isn't that big and he's hogging most of the space with his trains.  His son needs help with his homework and Roy doesn't care.  His attention is completely on his models...and when he finally agrees to help, he tries to explain the math problem using the train set...in a way that doesn't even really make sense.  He already has a selfish and obsessed personality.  All the alien encounter does is amplify that.  So even if that makes the movie consistent, it still makes it hard to root for the guy.  He's just a jerk and not someone I want to follow around for two hours, even if I love everything else going on in the movie.  And the fact that he gets a happy ending that he frankly doesn't deserve...the fact that he basically tortures his family and then just deserts them and then gets to go live happily ever just really rubs me the wrong way.  And it sort of ruins the movie for me.

So there you go.  In some ways, this film is a real masterpiece, but Roy is too much of a problem and drags the movie down with him.

TRIVIA:
When designing the mothership, the special effects team hid all sorts of cool items on it, including model airplanes, a mailbox, a cemetery, and most awesomely, R2D2.

MVP:
I think I have to go with the Visual Effects team.  They really did some remarkable work that is still awe-inspiring today, decades after the film's release.  The use of the lights on the ships is a brilliant visual stroke, and beautifully executed.  And when you see those bright orange and red lights lighting up the clouds, it is truly an eerie site.  And I was in awe when I saw the giant cloud formation circling around the Devil's Tower, and then the mother ship emerging.  It was amazing.  When I heard it had lost the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, I was infuriated.  Then I saw that the movie that beat it was Star Wars.  So...well, okay then.  There's really no competition there!  It's Star Wars!!!

OSCARS: Best Cinematography, Special Achievement Award for Sound Effects Editing

OSCAR NOMINATIONS: Best Supporting Actress (Melinda Dillon), Best Director (Spielberg), Best Visual Effects. Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Original Score (an amazing score by John Williams that would have won the Oscar if not for...well, John Williams' Star Wars, only one of the greatest film scores of all time!!!) 

BEST LINE: 

Organist (while having a musical "conversation" with the mother ship: "What are we saying to each other??"

Movie Review: Tootsie

Tootsie - 25th Anniversary Edition

Let's get this straight - when I was a kid, I didn't really get this movie. It had one or two funny lines, but was it THE awesomely funny cross-dressing movie? Nope. That honor belonged to Miss Doubtfire.

Oh, how things change. Miss Doubtfire still is amusing, I suppose, but when I re-watched Tootsie, I realized how good, clever, and deep a film it actually is. Dustin Hoffman plays Michael Dorsey, a struggling actor and acting coach who pretends to be a middle-aged woman named Dorothy in order to land an acting gig on a General Hospital-like soap opera. While on the show, he falls in love with one of the actresses, played by Jessica Lange. There you go. That's the story. Simple set up.

The movie is dated in some ways - for example, the gender wars and glass ceiling are not as hot button topics as they used to be - but it doesn't make the movie any less effective. It does make it a bit of time capsule for viewers today - "wait, a minute, in the early 80s, bosses could really just walk around and smack their secretaries on the butt?? That's crazy!" It's valuable for people to see that this country had strong walls, equality in the workplace was rare, and it was a struggle to knock those walls down. Maybe seeing how those walls came tumbling down twenty years ago will inspire today's fighters to pull down other walls that need breaking.

But this is comedy, for crying out loud! So let's talk about that. Is it funny? Mostly, yes. Some of the comedy is also dated, but there is just as much that still works. Most importantly, the comedy all comes from character. The movie isn't just about set pieces or slapstick or "look at me, I'm wearing a bra" jokes. The humor comes from character, makes sense in the context of character, and propells the story forward effectively. Dustin Hoffman is fantastic, Bill Murray is at his deadpan best as his playwright roommate (who clearly ab-libbed most of his dialogue, and I thank him for it!), and Sydney Pollack shows he is just as good an actor as he is a director.

I definitely recommend the movie to people who have never seen it, but more to those who already have. As I get older, I find myself connecting with the characters a lot more. These are people with the same emotional problems and insecurities as the rest of us. That level of reality is why it does hold up so well.

BEST LINE: "Look, you don't know me from Adam. But I was a better man with you, as a woman... than I ever was with a woman, as a man. You know what I mean? I just gotta learn to do it without the dress."

TRIVIA: Apparently Dustin Hoffman could be incredibly mercurial on the set. The cast and crew would only give him bad news when he was dressed as Dorothy because they all said "he was much nicer as a woman."

THE MVP AWARD: Jessica Lange won the Oscar for her performance, but I strongly disagree. She does good work, but when it comes down to it, she is the typical wounded, needs-to-be-loved romantic interest. She's had better roles. But has Teri Garr? Also nominated, she plays Michael Dorsey's insecure and gullible acting student and friend. She is brilliant, taking a character who should be whiny, pathetic and desperate and turns her into a sympathetic and deeply funny, funny woman. Every time she is on screen she steals the show. Her fantastic (and earned) temper tantrum at the end of the movie about feminist literature and being in charge of her own orgasm probably got her the Oscar nomination. It should have brought her the Oscar.

Oscars: Supporting Actress (Jessica Lange)

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Supporting Actress (Teri Garr), Best Actor (Dustin Hoffman), Best Editing, Best Screenplay, Best Song, Best Sound, Best Cinematography.