Close Encounters of the Third Kind

What’s the Story?

When Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) and Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon) "encounter" a UFO, they travel to its landing site, Devil's Tower, Wyoming. Jillian is seeking her son, who went bye-bye with the alien ship. Roy's obsession with the UFO sighting drives his family away. Inexplicably drawn to Devil's Tower, Roy and Jillian realize that they're not the only ones who feel they've been called there. French scientist Claude Lacombe (Francois Truffaut), top-secret U.S. government agents, and ordinary folks are there to meet an enormous spacecraft, which, when it shows up, returns humans taken over decades (including Jillian's son). When the aliens appear, Roy boldly boards the ship in an intergalactic exchange program. (In the reissue, which added some new scenes, viewers get a glimpse of the inside of the spacecraft.)

Is It Any Good?

This is a thrilling adventure story and a brilliant example of the art and craft of moviemaking. The story unfolds with extraordinary power, involving viewers as much in Roy's inexplicable compulsion as in Jillian's search for her son. And the story itself is so different from many other alien movies -- it posits the idea not just that "something" is out there, but that it's something wonderful. Watch how Spielberg lets viewers know that the aliens are friendly.

There's something very believable and compelling about the way that the aliens use music to communicate and to teach the people on earth. Spielberg creates a sense of wonder not just in Jillian's son Barry (Cary Guffey) but in the adult characters and in the viewers, making them children again, with the aliens as the "adults," who -- reassuringly -- look and behave like gentle children, giving us a sense of comfort.