★★★★★

28 May 2017

A movie review of ​CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND.

By Hemanth Kissoon

Seen at the Berlin International Film Festival 2017. (For more information, click here.)

“I saw something last night I can’t explain,” Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss)
 
Forty years on, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (a.k.a. CE3K) still astounds. Computer generated imagery dates so quickly. Weirdly, techniques of a bygone era, optical effects, when done with this level of ingenuity do not appear to. Bravo to special effects maestro Douglas Trumbull. His work on 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and BLADE RUNNER share a similar timelessness. Is it any coincidence that all three films continually compete for the title of greatest sci-fi? Of course, it is not just landmark tech on display making CE3K so beloved.
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Finally getting a chance to see Steven Spielberg’s third best film on the big screen was a treat. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS has perhaps become a template for the modern disaster blockbuster for the wrong reasons. Lesser creatives have replaced awe with bombast. They have missed the marrying of spectacle to humanism. The multiple leads are believable and distinctive, rather than wafer-thin cannon fodder. We trot the globe as the evidence of something otherworldly mounts. We join disparate characters, from scientists, law enforcement and military, to ordinary citizens as they, like us, puzzle out whether the signs point to the benign or terrifying.
 
Darkness tends to be the preserve of fear. We cannot see what lurks. Light here is fear. Obscuring. Until disclosure, one wonders what being is almost turning night to day. The use of light in CE3K is remarkable. As with the entire film, it is not a sole method hooking us. Sound is deftly deployed, from the cacophony of a family argument to the simplicity of five notes of music.
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​CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. The first kind is sighting of non-Earth intelligence. The second kind is physical evidence of an unidentified flying object. The third is contact. There are dozens of movies about antagonistic initial encounters. A benign interstellar race might not be enough drama in less skilled hands. Here the opposite. CE3K is one of those rare experiences that infuse you with a sense of wonder. Not many filmmaking teams have that gift. See the work of Hayao Miyzaki for more examples.
 
The hand signs and music notes still impress. What a bold stroke as a means of communication. Contrast ARRIVAL, which bottles its cerebral start for bombast.
 
Jaw-dropping mystery and grandeur.

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