Steven Spielberg’s 1977 Science Fiction drama remains today
one of the most highly decorated and successful Sci-Fi films of all time,
garnering eight Oscar nominations and two wins for cinematography and sound
editing. The film was also nominated for nine BAFTAS and four Golden Globes. I’d
been looking forward to seeing it for a long time and when I noticed it was on
offer on Blu-Ray at HMV I jumped at the chance to buy it. As is often the case
when you hear so much positivity about a film before you see it, Close Encounters didn’t live up to my
expectations but is still a very good film with obvious influences on the last
thirty-five years of Science Fiction.
While investigating a large scale power cut, electrician Roy
Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) has a close encounter with what appears to be a UFO. As
he follows the flashing lights in the sky he comes across others who have
spotted the phenomenon including single mother Jillian (Melinda Dillon) and her
young son Barry. Their claims are met with scepticism but neither can get the
image of a mountain out of their head and when they discover what the image is,
feel uncontrollably drawn towards it. Meanwhile Scientists are working on linguistic
and musical possibilities in case aliens ever make themselves known to
humanity.
