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Over in the United States, contemporary commercial air-liners are finding themselves forced to share air-space with unknown craft. All hell breaks loose when a collision seems imminent, yet the unidentified intruder breaks away at the last moment, leaving watching professionals baffled. The actions of the UFOs are somewhat more daring in Indiana, however, with little kid Barry Guiler (Cary Guffey) being rudely awakened as every one of his electrical toys jerks into life. Unfazed by this, he scrambles out of bed and heads downstairs, towards the bright lights outside and a presence only he can sense. Just in time his mother Jillian (Melinda Dillon) realises what's happening and helplessly spots Barry in the field outside. By the time she gets downstairs and out of the door, she is all alone. Across the city, an unwelcome darkness falls as the power grid fails. Bright lights flash in the sky, etching thunder-clouds in sharp relief and drawing local cops on a fruitless chase.
For electrical engineer Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), all it means to him is a midnight call-out, leaving his wife Ronnie (Teri Garr) with their boisterous kids. However, as he scoots around the countryside in his pick-up, vainly struggling with maps, a life-changing occurrence takes place. While stopped at a level-crossing, his truck is suddenly bathed in blinding white light, akin to a physical force in its intensity. Dials start to smoke, post-boxes jostle and the car goes haywire. Then, just as rapidly, the visitation is over and the lights fly off down the road in front of him. Without a thought, Roy gives chase and barely avoids running down Barry as he stands transfixed in the middle of the road. Like Roy, Barry, Jillian and many others have found themselves drawn, by the unearthly phenomena, to a hillside in the middle of nowhere. While they don't know it yet, all have been touched by this experience and their intense sunburn is merely an outward and superficial sign of this.
A prime example of the non-violent alien genre, Close Encounters of the Third Kind is drenched with Spielbergian trademarks. For a start, the child which inhabits all of his films (to a greater or lesser extent) finds itself elevated to providing the physical form of the extra-terrestrials. Without exception, they appear small, fragile, almost underdeveloped in feature. Yet allied with this vulnerability is a keen intelligence, as evidenced by their advanced technology. The somewhat contradictory response which this unsettling package causes is a reassurance that they're harmless underscored with fear (the realisation that they're in charge). It's this delicate balance that illustrates the deftness of Spielberg's touch, allowing neither side of the equation to dominate unduly. A few years later the same trick was repeated with E.T., apart from one crucial difference. In that movie the protagonist himself was a kid and the whole story was viewed through his eyes, whereas here Roy is an adult, an ordinary man. Over-awed and emotional, he reacts in a way that seems credible, if a little crazy. The two movies make a great double-bill.
While the film features impressive special effects, the key to its success is that Close Encounters of the Third Kind could exist quite happily without them. This is the tale of a quest for knowledge, a search embodied by Roy and Jillian, when faced by something beyond comprehension. Since time immemorial, mankind has been plagued by questions of who we are, what our place is in the Universe and is there a force greater than us out there. All that Close Encounters of the Third Kind does is update this theme, tone down the religious aspects and provide a cracking score. This is its strength and, fortunately, the casting perfectly propels such a story towards its inevitable conclusion. Dreyfuss is pleasingly balanced as an engineer, a man of science, who finds himself driven by an irrational desire. It's no wonder that Garr abandons him when he ceases to be the man she married. Dillon is also excellent as his companion, committed to finding her son and a victim of perhaps the most frightening scene in the entire movie.
Paralleling these two (who never emit a whiff of adultery despite their obvious attraction), Truffaut and Bob Balaban (Laughlin) represent the professionals. Through sheer dedication and effort they force the fragments to coalesce, painfully piecing together the location of first contact. Yet in some ways they are victims of their governmental partners. The authorities have no wish to see their power-base undermined and do all that they can to ensure that only a chosen few are present at the meeting (it's lucky that the aliens pick a remote Wyoming peak), in stark contrast to the open arms of the visitors. Again Spielberg plays up contrasts (naivety vs cynicism) and it works.
A further notable feature of Close Encounters of the Third Kind is the heavy use made of links to attach scenes. Through the media of music, dialogue, images and action, separate events are given a sense of continuity, reflecting the alien influence behind it all. It's an effective technique, especially so when the storyline seems so broken up, and Spielberg handles it well. Another favourite method is that whenever anything occurs, the camera stays on the protagonists. That way we only get to see whatever is happening filtered through their reactions, which builds up the suspense nicely and adds a rather humanistic sheen to the proceedings. Ultimately Close Encounters of the Third Kind is pure optimism, yet darkness lingers below the carnival light-show and Spielberg never lets you forget that.
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