Close Encounters of the Third Kind (30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition) (1977)

"One of the most spectacular movies ever made.  Gene Shalit, NBC-TV
"Spectacular! Brilliant! Close Encounters deserves an historic place in movie entertainment.  Jack Kroll, NewsWeek
"...Spielberg's masterpiece isn't just great science fiction: It's great art.  James Rocchi, NetFlix
"Superb, intelligent sci-fi...Dreyfuss is perfect Everyman...Powerhouse special effects throughout, plus John Williams' evocative score...  Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
"Of all the UFO films ever made this is the most edifying...a feast for the eyes! The appeal of this film was enormous and still is.  The Motion Picture Guide

Editor's Note 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.

	Bob Balaban
	Carl Weathers
	Francois Truffaut
	J. Patrick McNamara
	Lance Henriksen
	Melinda Dillon
	Richard Dreyfuss
	Teri Garr
	Daniel A. Lomino - Art Director
	Joe Alves - Production Designer
	John Williams - Original Music By
	Michael Kahn - Editor
	Michael Phillips, et. al. - Producer
	Steven Spielberg - Director
	Steven Spielberg, et. al. - Writer
	Vilmos Zsigmond - Cinematographer

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND is director Steven Spielberg's mesmerizing movie about earth's encounter with spaceships and alien beings as experienced by one ordinary man. Richard Dreyfuss is Roy Neary, a man who, after encountering an unexplainable phenomenon one night, becomes obsessed with discovering more, to the dismay of his wife and family. Legendary French filmmaker François Truffaut plays the head of a government agency hoping to attract the aliens to an isolated mountaintop in this unforgettable sci-fi thriller. New York Times
"...The best -- the most elaborate -- 1950's[-style] science fiction movie ever made..." 11/17/1977 p.C19

New York Times
Included in the New York Times "10 BEST FILMS OF 1977" 12/25/1977 p.II:1

Entertainment Weekly
"...The only feature to date for which Spielberg has taken sole writing credit, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS is one of his most personal works....The story's primal appeal endures..." 06/08/2001 p.53

Total Film
"...An undisputed classic....It's Richard Dreyfuss's finest hour..." 08/01/2000 p.102

Uncut
"Where the film scores is in its portrayal of an ordinary man, whose brush with the unknown changes his life..." 07/01/2001 p.140

Empire
5 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t remains awe-inspiring stuff that has held up better than the other big science-fiction film of 1977." 01/01/2008 p.201

Wall Street Journal
"Steven Spielberg's shining, glowing masterpiece will never wear out its welcome." 11/06/2009

Reel.com 10 of 10
With Close Encounters, Spielberg became one of the first filmmakers to buck the still-popular "evil aliens attack Earth" formula. His otherworldly beings want only to investigate and communicate -- they're more or less benign explorers who are as excited to meet us as we are to meet them. But this novel concept -- which Spielberg went on to explore further in E.T. -- doesn't detract from the suspense of the aliens' arrival. The movie's momentum is relentless, piquing the audience's interest from the moment the UFOs play havoc with Indiana's power supply (the original rolling blackout?) all the way to the moving mountaintop climax...The cast is uniformly excellent; they seem to know they're making an important movie and push themselves accordingly. In addition to Dreyfuss, who plays Roy's frantic obsessiveness to the hilt, and the always-superb Truffaut, Teri Garr is a standout as Roy's wife Ronnie, pushed over the edge and beyond by her husband's single-minded quest to understand what's going on. And as Barry, the child who just wants to play with the pretty lights in the sky, Cary Guffey is almost eerily self-contained. - Betsy Bozdech

ReelViews 10 of 10
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is unquestionably a great movie, but it also benefited from peerless timing. Released on the heels of Star Wars, it was able to absorb the pro-Science Fiction atmosphere that had arisen as a result of George Lucas' unexpected blockbuster. Suddenly, everyone was into stories about space and aliens. And, while Close Encounters is a much different film than Star Wars, it played to the same audience...Its universal appeal gave movie-goers something to be excited about during the winter of 1977-78 as the first in a wave of post-Star Wars science fiction films broke (although, of course, Close Encounters went into production long before Star Wars reached screens). Today, the movie stands up remarkably well. The story is fresh and compelling, the special effects are as remarkable as anything that CGI can do, and the music represents some of John Williams' best work. Close Encounters is the complete package, and it shines as brightly in its sixth re-editing as it did in its first. - James Berardinelli