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Movies / On DVD / Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind

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Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

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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

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Close Encounters of the Third Kind

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; UK critics are listed first)
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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.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
06/27/01
Almar Haflidason
Almar Haflidason
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

. . . this is thrill-a-minute stuff.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
01/01/00
Neil Jeffries
Neil Jeffries
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The first film in years to give its audiences a tingle of shocked emotion that is not entirely based either on fear or on suspense.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

No review available.

comment Comment
10/04/03
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

[A] great movie, and one of the rare uplifting experiences in modern cinema.

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
01/01/00
Dragan Antulov
Dragan Antulov
rec.arts.movies.reviews

Build a monolith, and they will come.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
03/10/03
Marjorie Baumgarten
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is unquestionably a great movie.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
07/11/02
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews

Spielberg is nothing if not adept at punching our buttons and making us puppets in his hands.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
05/30/01
James Brundage
James Brundage
Filmcritic.com

Masterwork thriller about UFOs.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
09/01/02
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

The best -- the most elaborate -- 1950's science fiction movie ever made, a work that borrows its narrative shape and its concerns from those earlier films, but enhances them with what looks like the latest developments in movie and space technology.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/20/03
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The film...lacks blockbuster detachment.

Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | comment Comment
05/21/01
Bill Chambers
Bill Chambers
Film Freak Central

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) is director/writer Steven Spielberg's first film after the enormously successful Jaws (1975).

Full Review Source: Tim Dirks' The Greatest Films | comment Comment
01/01/00
Tim Dirks
Tim Dirks
Tim Dirks' The Greatest Films

One of the great moviegoing experiences.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
09/08/07
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

May be the greatest film ever made about the meeting of the rational and the mystical.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Rob Gonsalves
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com

Real smart and touching, in an unusual way.

Full Review Source: Montreal Film Journal | comment Comment
09/10/02
Kevin N. Laforest
Kevin N. Laforest
Montreal Film Journal

Though made the same year, Spielberg's awe-inspiring sci-fi fable has held much better than Star Wars due to his sublime crafstmanship, which benefits from sharp imagery and F/X, and engaging story and charcaters, well-acted by Richard Dreyfuss and others

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
11/11/07
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

A thrilling adventure story and a brilliant example of the art and craft of movie making.

Full Review Source: Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies | comment Comment
05/11/02
Nell Minow
Nell Minow
Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies

A daring film concept which in its special and technical effects has been superbly realized.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
06/05/07
A.D. Murphy
A.D. Murphy
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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.

Full Review Source: Nashville Scene | comment Comment
01/01/00
Rob Nelson
Rob Nelson
Nashville Scene

Not even Spielberg makes them as they used to.

Full Review Source: Sci-Fi Movie Page | comment Comment
12/05/03
James O'Ehley
James O'Ehley
Sci-Fi Movie Page
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; UK critics are listed first)
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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...

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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...

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