User Reviews

For my taste, the first hour and a half of this movie is the greatest stretch of filmmaking ever. Up until Roy and Jillian reach the "dark side of the moon" on Devil's Tower, this movie is perfect. No, it's beyond perfect -- it's sublime. It takes me to a level of bliss that no other movie can do.

Many critics and viewers -- including a number on this site -- don't like this movie at all. Those who do like it almost uniformly like the final sequence, the "alien landing," the best. For me it is the rest of the movie that is the most remarkable. Some of my favorite sequences:

1. The blinding flash of light that ends the opening credits and leads us to a sandstorm in Sonora Desert, Mexico -- Present Day, with various team leaders, Bob Balaban, and Francois Truffaut speaking three languages as they find a whole bunch of old Navy planes lost in the Bermuda Triangle and an old geezer who saw something very strange. "El sol salio a noche. Y me canto," he keeps saying. Translation: "He says the sun came out last night. He says it sang to him." Then Balaban translates for Truffaut: "Il dit que le soleil etait venue ici hier soir, et qu'il chantait pour lui." Then Balaban disappears in a cloud of dust. The mystery created in that sequence is incredible -- the greatest opening of all time, if you ask me. Trivia note: that sequence was the last Spielberg filmed before the movie's release. The shooting script opens with Indianapolis Flight Control, but Spielberg decided he wanted a new opening and shot this after production had wrapped. Supposedly this sequence was inspired by the Iraqi prologue in the Exorcist.

2. Roy's first encounter with the aliens in his power company truck -- a brilliantly conceived and edited sequence. I love the dolly in to Roy's window as he pants in shock in the shadows, then the comedy of his reaction when the lights in the truck come back on.

3. The "sky speeders" disappearing into the clouds over Muncie, followed by lightning and then the lights of the city coming back on, bit by bit. Spielberg's use of miniatures here is breathtaking -- as it was in 1941 and as it is later in CE3K when the UFO believers gather again to await another encounter and the lights from the government helicopters move toward them across the plains below.

4. The entire sequence of Roy going crazy. This was controversial with critics -- Pauline Kael, who loved the movie generally, hated Roy throwing the bushes into the kitchen -- and Spielberg actually cut the entire digging up the garden sequence from the so-called "Special Edition." To me, though, this is the absolute heart of the movie. Ask people what they remember from CE3K and the first thing they'll say is "mashed potatoes." To my mind, the garden sequence is one of those magical moments that is so funny and so sad it's just perfect. I believe every second of it, every time. The reactions of the kids are perfect -- the oldest son is big enough to be angry, while the middle says, "Dad, when we're finished with this can we throw dirt in my window?" (In the dinner sequence, little Sylvia has arguably the best line in a movie full of them -- "I hate, I hate these potatoes. There's a dead fly in my potatoes." An ad lib, of course.)

In recent years, Spielberg has expressed concern with the fact that Roy leaves his family to pursue the aliens, and has said that if he were to make the movie over again, he would change that part. To my way of thinking, if you take that out, there is no movie. What this movie is really about is Roy's obsession, and that, I think, is why it has such a hold on me personally. This movie is about what it's like for a person whose life has lost its meaning suddenly finding there is a really important purpose, and pursuing that purpose at all costs. Is it right for him to turn his family's life upside down and ultimately leave them behind to do that? No. But his obsession is understandable, I think, and the purpose Roy finds is something a lot of people would like to feel. Also, it's clear that Roy is not acting entirely of his own free will -- he has been "commanded" subliminally to make his way to Devil's Tower.

I am not aware of any other movie -- or book, or any other source, for that matter -- that portrays 70s suburban life so accurately. The street, the house, the cars, the toys, the furniture -- it is like an archeological document. And the way the kids act, and the family conflicts -- to my way of thinking, they are all portrayed with unerring accuracy and realism. Some have contended that Ronnie is unflatteringly portrayed, but to me that's not fair. She can't be blamed for reacting the way she does to Roy -- many people in her shoes would. Garr's performance is brilliant; she and Dreyfuss are magical together. Melinda Dillon, too, is brilliant in her role. In the shooting script, the sexual attraction between Roy and Jillian was more overt, but Spielberg wisely downplays it in the finished film. It's only hinted at, although it is there.

The actual "alien landing" sequence, in my opinion, is a letdown. It's brilliantly photographed and realized, but once Roy and Jillian make it to the dark side of the moon, the primary tension in the story is gone. If I could edit this movie, I'd take a major pair of shears to the final sequence, cut it down to maybe half its current length. I do get choked up when I see Roy in his red suit at the end of the line of astronauts, though, and Jillian wiping tears away as she clicks away with her Kodak.

As with the original Star Wars, my other all-time favorite movie, I have a problem with the way this picture has been hacked and altered from its original release through various special editions. I understand it's possible to watch the original 1977 cut on the DVD, and I'm glad of that. That original version is the best. I first got to know this movie on ABC in the early 1980s, when it was shown with all the original and Special Edition footage edited together. Personally, I don't think the special edition footage adds much (even the Gobi desert sequence, which is an interesting concept that was in the shooting script, stands out because it was obviously shot by a different DP and doesn't have Truffaut in it).

Anyway, I will always cherish this movie. "You tell Crystal Lake we're going to candlepower in ten minutes!" "Zey belong here more zan we." "There's always some joker who thinks he's immune." "You can't fool us by agreeing with us." "What the hell is going on around here? Who the hell are you people?" "Ronnie, everything's fine. All this stuff is coming down."

A spectacular film in every sense of the word. This is the sort of thing that elevated Stephen Spielberg to dizzying commercial heights and enabled him to go on to tackle more demanding subjects.

Richard Dryfus is a telephone lineman, a suburban husband and father of three living in the Midwest. Sent to investigate a power outage, he undergoes an extremely unsettling encounter with a giant spaceship that appears to have implanted ideas in his head -- something about Devil's Tower, a volcanic plug in Wyoming -- that leaves him besotted. A dozen or so others have undergone similar experiences, including Melinda Dillon. They are all drawn to Devil's Tower for the climax.

There are children involved, of course; not just Dreyfus's three kids but Dillon's cute little boy who becomes a thoroughly willing kidnapped kid. The abduction is seen mainly from his point of view. In the middle of the night he's awakened by blazing lights outside the farmhouse. His toys mysteriously turn themselves on -- a plastic monkey plays a tin drum, a miniature locomotive rolls around its track. I was swept up in the kid's experience and didn't turn back into an adult until Melinda Dillon swung her long, slim, very tan limbs out from under the covers to look into the goings on.

In the background of all this brouhaha is a gaggle of mostly faceless scientists trying to figure out what's up. They're led by the French director, Francois Truffaut, whose gentle presence is missed in today's cinema. There is the expectable government cover up. J. Allen Hynek appears briefly as himself, bearded and smoking a pipe, in a cameo. He was a thoughtful observer of the UFO scene and the movie's title is taken from one of his easily accessible books.

The film is essentially a loosely strung together series of scenes leading up to the final meeting of humans and -- well, whatever they are. Some of the scenes are startling. A mid-size freighter abandoned in the middle of the desert? The discovery of half a dozen World War II era TBMs appearing in a Mexican village in pristine condition? A horde of villagers in northern India chanting a tune and, when asked where it came from, simultaneously jabbing their forefingers to the sky?

The plot, such as it is, is only a springboard for these miraculous events. The story itself doesn't make sense and is full of holes. The enigmatic visitors have all sorts of preternatural powers. They not only turn electrical devices on and off. They make window shades roll up, flip carpets over, cause screws to unscrew themselves, run vacuum cleaners without human help (that's a skill I wish I had), and shake mailboxes like crazy -- yet they can't undo a simple door latch. What Zoltan Kodaly's hand positions, or indeed his tonal signals, have to do with communications, I don't know. Makes for engaging listening though. It was turned into a pop tune in hopes of cashing in on the movie's popularity. The person responsible for the score, John Williams, seems to have been more influenced by symbolists like Debussy and Ravel, with their lush, soaring, stringy scores and heavenly choirs, inspiring awe.

What they've been doing is subjecting people from all around the world to extraordinary rendition. Zip, and they're gone, vehicles and all. Then, apparently on an arbitrary schedule, they return the kidnapees and take others aboard, voluntarily this time. Why they do this is left for us to wonder about.

Richard Dreyfus is one of the volunteers. After his family leaves him because of his self-destructive obsession with Devil's Tower, he drives there, meets Melinda Dillon once again, waves good-bye to her, and, stricken with wonderment and anticipation, he boards the ship. I guess he's still nuts. No power on earth could get me aboard that ship. I don't care how seductive the invitation of the spidery aliens was.

The film illustrates what Hynek called the ETH -- the extra-terrestrial hypothesis. They're genuine space craft and carry alien beings just like a peculiar Airbus. Well, that's a leap of faith that Hynek never made. Nobody knows what they are, only THAT they are. This isn't the place to get into that controversy but my own experience is listed with hundreds of others at Peter Davenport's NUFORC web site.

Well, it's a landmark film. Not a masterpiece but a gripping display of technical skill and an almost magical ability to enthrall the viewer. If you haven't seen it, you'll be impressed if you do. Just don't go leaping aboard strange space ships just because they offer you candy -- especially when there isn't any candy.

I love Steven's movies and brought this for £3 at the store today, simply because his name was attached to it and figured "hey if it's not great, it'll at least be fun"... unfortunately I was wrong.

Me and my fiancée sat watching it, but the film never really seems to grip you in any shape or form. I really enjoyed the character development in the film, showing excellent emotion and the lead character was quite amusing with his crazy moments.

My disappointment was down to the fact we were never really given anything to sink our teeth into... then the ending resulting in a bunch of song playing between ships and a keyboard with little lights?.... then more ships come to play a song... followed by a really BIG ship who out plays the musician..... it just seemed something and a whole lot of nothing in the end.

They fly light years to return a bunch of people and old planes, to kidnap a child for a couple of days and then take a guy, breaking his family up on the sole purpose of seeing some lights and hearing them play five keys of music? The end?....

Now I'm not bashing those who like it and don't want a flame war on here, at the end of the day it's just my opinion, but it really felt like two hours of nothing, with the opening ten minutes being the best part of the movie. A real shame as the opening ten mins seemed to be building up to an interesting movie.

Perhaps the first sociological science fiction film, probably one of the best overall. A story like this could have made Kubrick jealous. Spielberg domonstrated the emotional power of an image: thrill and fear in the two Barry kidnaping sequences respectively, the ecxitement of what is unknown in Rory's close encounter, the sadness of the downfall of a family and many others. This film is a pure mix of the best elements of science fiction pur together.

This is probably considered "a classic" by now, along with a few other 1970s Steven Spielberg movies. At the time of its release almost 30 years ago, the special-effects in here were astounding to view....and still hold up! They are still fun to watch.

The scenes in the beginning of this movie and at the end, are indelibly imprinted in my memory cells as well as millions of others. Who can ever forget that opening scene in the farmhouse when the little boy (Gary Guffey) is kidnapped or that ending with the gigantic spacecraft hovering over Devil's Hole in Wyoming, or the sound sequences emitted by the scientists trying to communicate with the aliens? There are many, many memorable scenes in this film - probably its biggest attribute.

To me, the only uncomfortable scene is the yelling match with Richard Dreyfuss and his family. The only message I didn't care for also involved Dreyfuss' character, who is "envied" at the end. Funny, I don't see a man who thoughtlessly leaves his family beyond as someone to be envied. Overall Dreyfuss looked more like a "Doofus" in here.

There are other credibility problems in here, too, but overall it's extremely interesting storytelling, great colors and special-effects and just about everything that director Steve Spielberg is noted for in his successful box-office films which translates to one crucial factor: entertainment.