It is time for another Unpopular Movie Opinion here at Last Movie Outpost. This is where any Outposter can put forward an opinion about the world of movies that might just be a little unconventional, and controversial.
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Today, we look at a movie considered an all-time Steven Spielberg classic – Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.
Spielberg’s second major blockbuster film after Jaws really put him on the map begins with an intriguing sequence.
In the Sonoran Desert, French scientist Claude Lacombe, his American interpreter, cartographer David Laughlin, and other researchers discover Flight 19, a group of United States Navy Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bombers that went missing over the Bermuda Triangle on December 5, 1945. The planes are in perfect condition but without any occupants. An elderly witness nearby claims “the sun came out at night, and sang to him”.
Meanwhile, near Indianapolis, air traffic controllers watch two airline flights narrowly avoid a mid-air collision with a UFO. A really strong opening that grabs attention. However, after this, when re-watching the movie recently something dawned on me:
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind isn’t a cinematic masterpiece.
There, I said it. Now, I am clearly in line for a virtual beating, but let me expand.
The story is procedural, everything advances but at no point does it feel propulsive. The character motivations are often suspect. Neary’s entire arc is carried completely on the shoulders of Dreyfuss and, examined dispassionately, is unconvincing and often aimless.
The run-time feels padded when you think critically about the notions of storytelling. There are huge swathes of the movie where nothing actually happens and it becomes dominated by tedious terrestrial subplots that are given great importance but build to nothing.
The whole thing builds to a sequence of humanity-altering importance which looks spectacular but is ultimately handled like a high school exchange program. Neary’s inclusion in the potential traveler group comes completely out of nowhere for the scientists, he just has to be there to be selected by the aliens because it’s in the plot.
When you place it in between the movie sandwich of near perfection that is Jaws and Raiders Of The Lost Ark, it really does not stand up as the epic touchstone of cinematic achievement it is often held to be.
It is beautiful to look at, but ultimately beneath the veneer, it is really quite lightweight.
Oh shit.. am I gonna be in trouble now…
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