Build a monolith, and they will come.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:39
Fresh:37
Rotten:2
Average Rating:8.7/10
Consensus: Close Encounters' most iconic bits (the theme, the mashed-potato sculpture, etc.) have been so thoroughly absorbed into the culture that it's easy to forget that its treatment of aliens as peaceful beings rather than warmongering monsters was somewhat groundbreaking in 1977.
Runtime: 6 hrs 44 mins
Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy
Synopsis: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND is Steven Spielberg's extraordinary film about a man named Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) who becomes obsessed with meeting extraterrestrials after encountering a... CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND is Steven Spielberg's extraordinary film about a man named Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) who becomes obsessed with meeting extraterrestrials after encountering a UFO on an abandoned road one night. Against the wishes of his wife (Teri Garr) and children, Neary, along with another witness to the sighting (Melinda Dillon), travels to a mysterious mountain where the government has built a landing strip hoping to attract the aliens. Director François Truffaut costars as Claude Lacombe, one of the organizers of the project. Spielberg hoped to follow up the huge success of JAWS with a low-budget film that would be an easy shoot, but, thanks in part to the complicated special effects, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS quickly snowballed into being an expensive endeavor but a commercial and artistic success. No one who has seen the film has ever looked at a plate of mashed potatotes the same way again. [More]
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon, François Truffaut
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon, François Truffaut, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, Pat McNamara, Warren Kemmerling, Roberts Blossom, Lance Henriksen, Carl Weathers
Director: Steven Spielberg
Director: Steven Spielberg
Screenwriter: Steven Spielberg
Producer: Julia Phillips, Michael Phillips
Composer: John Williams
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Reviews for Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Viewing Close Encounters we are reduced to a childlike perception, overwhelmed by the luster and might of the vision before us.
Definitive cut of director Steven Spielberg's masterpiece isn't just great science fiction: It's great art.
A thrilling adventure story and a brilliant example of the art and craft of movie making.
By the end, we’re swept away by the wonder of discovery; it's enough to thrill even a sci-fi sceptic.
Saturated with imagery that fascinates, terrifies, and utterly consumes the viewer with the desire to discover the secret that's eating away at the on-screen characters.
Spielberg is nothing if not adept at punching our buttons and making us puppets in his hands.
...a masterful motion picture all around...where the interactions of its characters are equally important as the wizardry of the special effects.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a humanistic postmodern masterpiece.
[A] great movie, and one of the rare uplifting experiences in modern cinema.
May be the greatest film ever made about the meeting of the rational and the mystical.
This 'collector's edition' will probably go down in film history as the definitive one unless, like me, you think the movie works best in its original version, wherein the special effects of adult delinquency are left unknown.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) is director/writer Steven Spielberg's first film after the enormously successful Jaws (1975).
Latest News for Close Encounters of the Third Kind
January 03, 2008:
New Indy 4 Interviews, Pictures Online!
May 22 still feels awfully far away, but if the nearly six-month gap between your eyeballs and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has you feeling forlorn, fear... More...
December 13, 2007:
Jurassic Park T-Rex, Life-Sized Terminator, More Up For Auction
This Christmas, we're asking Santa for Sam Jackson's Star Wars: Episode III lightsaber, Neo's Matrix Reloaded coat, and a full scale T-800 Terminator 2 endoskeleton for that... More...
June 28, 2005:
Critical Consensus: Aliens Invade, Critics Cheer
Steven Spielberg has made a couple movies -- Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. -- about benevolent aliens who come in peace and gently help us to reflect on our place... More...
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 14% 14% | The Ugly Truth |
| 98% 98% | Up |
| 36% 36% | G.I. Joe: The Rise of … |
| 52% 52% | The Taking of Pelham 1… |
| 45% 45% | Ice Age: Dawn of the D… |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 68% 68% | Funny People |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 45% 45% | Shorts |
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