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| Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1980) |  |
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Steven Spielberg likes films about nice aliens. After ET - The Extra Terrestrial, everyone knew that. So here's another nice aliens film. Like the more recent Contact we have a story about present day humans beig contacted by aliens. Unlike Contact, we have Richard Dreyfuss as an ordinary family man whose truck is 'flashed' one night by some kind of flying saucer. This, and a spate of other incidents around the globe, convince the powers that be that something is out there. Handily, there's no government conspiracy or anything like that, just a plain and simple deception of the public, by evacuating an entre village so that no one sees the aliens when they come to make their fist offical contact with scientists. Spielberg cleverly doesn't alienate the viewer by telling the story through the eyes of some extremely normal people, such as Dreyfuss' character. His gorwing obsession with the UFO sightings sparks tension in the family which plays out all during the film's length. The 'family' bits are mostly non-irritating and the children less annoying than you'd expect. There's a little more swearing and scariness than perhaps your usual Spielberg film but the feelgood factor is definitely there. While most of this film's time is simply spent potboiling until the really goob bits at the end, this does give time for the seeds to be sown that allow it all to be tied up satisfyingly at the end. While some may need an open mind for the way the finale plays out, the overall sense of wonder and awe is enough to captivate anyone. | ||
