Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1977
****½
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Francois Truffaut, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon, Cary Guffey; bob Balaban

After numerous UFO sighting across the world, a group of scientists attempt to form a means of communication with the extraterrestrial beings, while a blue collar worker from Indiana becomes obsessed with the visions that follow his close encounter with the visitors. Steven Spielberg's intimate science fiction spectacle was one of the first ones to depict aliens who come in peace, and five years later the director explored the same topic in E.T.. This is an intelligent and captivating drama which has an unusually unsympathetic protagonist, manically played by Richard Dreyfuss. Vilmos Zsigmond's stunning cinematography won an Academy award and Douglas Trumbull's special effects still look amazing. Spielberg twice returned to tweak the details of his film in the 1980 Special Edition and the 1998 Collector's Edition.