Close Encounters of the Third Kind released

Close Encounters of the Third Kind Released: November 16, 1977 Studio: Columbia Genre: sci-fi Box Office (numbers in millions): Domestic: 135.20 Worldwide: 306.90 Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: 548.66 Worldwide: 1191.00

Directing: Steven Spielberg Screenwriting: Steven Spielberg Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Francois Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Cary Guffey, Teri Garr Review: Director/screenwriter delivers yet another blockbuster which wowed critics as well. This “A science-fiction epic and adventure story” FS “celebrates the possibility of friendly extraterrestrial life.” A98 Roy Neary is a utilities lineman from Indiana who “is confronted by a UFO on a deserted road at night as he investigates a power outage.” FS Because of the “near-religious, life-transforming experience” FS he is consumed by “the possibility of extra-terrestrial life after a brief encounter with them.” A07 “He becomes obsessed with unexplained, mountainous shapes, and five musical notes. By piecing together clues, he is ultimately led to a rendezvous on Devils Tower in Wyoming with Jillian (Dillon), a mother whose young boy Barry (Guffey) was kidnapped by the aliens. There in the exhilarating climax, they witness an arriving spacecraft, the dazzling mother-ship, greeted by a top-secret scientific establishment led by Claude Lacombe (Truffaut).” FS Sources: A98 American Film Institute (1998). “AFI’s 100 Years, 100 Movies” A07 American Film Institute (2007). “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition” FS Filmsite.org “100 Greatest Films”

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Genre Lists: Box Office: Awards: Oscars: Wins: 1 – Best Cinematography. Also a Special Achievement Award for Sound Effects Editing Nominations: 8 – including Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Dillon), Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Sound, Best Original Score, Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects Other Lists/Honors: First posted 6/2/2023.

 

50 years ago: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, a silent movie masterpiece, released

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans Released: November 4, 1927 Studio: Twentieth Century-Fox Genre: drama/romance/silent Box Office (numbers in millions): Domestic: -- Worldwide: -- Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: -- Worldwide: --

Directing: F.W. Murnau Screenwriting: Carl Mayer Starring: George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston Review: This is “considered a silent movie masterpiece,” MSN “an artistic, poignant, brilliantly-filmed, expressionistic, landmark.” FS It was actually “the first movie to use synchronized sound-on-film with a musical score.” MSN It was overshadowed at the box office because it premiered just days before the release of The Jazz Singer, the first talkie. MSN The screenplay, based on a story by Hermann Suderman, tells a “fable-like story” MSN “of redemption and forgiveness.” A07 A married farmer (O’Brien) is tempted by “a vampish seductress (Livingston).” FS He plans to drown “his pure, innocent wife (Gaynor)” FS but “realizes his love for his wife and can’t complete the act.” FS The “attempted murder is only the start; two thirds of the movie is actually about a couple making up.” T95 On their way home in the rowboat, “a storm looms up and takes her from him – a seemingly-just punishment from Fate itself.” FS “A cavalcade of urban images and horrific storms almost destroy the farmer when he thinks his wife is lost at sea in this expressionistic masterpiece.” A07 “The tension is allowed to drop in a glorious jazz-age city sequence, and then twisted into breaking-point as a journey of murderous rage is repeated. But its dreamlike realism is also to be enjoyed: when lovers appear to walk across a crowded city street, into (superimposed) fields, and back to kiss in a traffic jam, you have an example of True Love styled to cinema perfection. Simple, and intense images of unequaled beauty.” T95 This is a “triumph of direction, camerawork, art direction, and performances, all hauntingly beautiful.” LM “The poetic cinematography by Oscar-winners Karl Struss and Charles Rosher makes Janet Gaynor’s feat in ascending above a thankless role all the more amazing, and puts a definite thrill into George O’Brien’s transformation from homicidal lout to reborn romantic.” ML Sources: A07 American Film Institute (2007). “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition” FS Filmsite.org “100 Greatest Films” LM Leonard Maltin “100 Must-See Films of the 20th Century” ML Movieline (Dec. 1995). “100 Best Movies Ever Made” by Virginia Campbell and Edward Margulies MSN MSN Entertainment (7/19/2018). “100 Best Movies” by Shahnaz Mahmud T95 Time Out (1995). “Centenary Top One Hundred Films”

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Genre Lists: Awards: Oscars: Wins: 3 – Unique and Artistic Picture (a second ‘Best Picture’ Award), Best Actress (Gaynor), and Best Cinematography Nominations: 4 – including Best Interior Decoration Other Lists/Honors: "> Critics’ Picks: Francis Ford Coppola Leslie Halliwell/John Walker Leonard Maltin First posted 6/3/2023.

 

Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope released

Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope Released: May 25, 1977 Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Genre: sci-fi Box Office (numbers in millions): Domestic: 461.00 Worldwide: 798.00 Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: 1747.42 Worldwide: 3443.00

Directing: George Lucas Screenwriting: George Lucas Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Alec Guinness, James Earl Jones Review: Originally just titled Star Wars, this was “a landmark science fiction fantasy” A07 “and one of the most financially-successful films of all time.” FS “It’s also one of the only science fiction films ever nominated for Best Picture.” VD “The characters are proto-typical.” FS Luke Skywalker (Hamill) is a young farm boy who finds his calling as a Jedi warrior, thanks to local hermit and Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi (Guiness). With the help of hot-shot pilot and outlaw Han Solo (Ford), they embark “on a mission to rescue a princess [Fisher] and save the galaxy from the Dark Side” A07 and Kenobi’s old nemesis, Darth Vader (voiced by Jones). Marked by “amazing technological effects,” FS this “quasi-Western film” FS was an “elaborate, imaginative update of Flash Gordon” LM set “in a galaxy far, far away.” It launched a franchise with two sequels over the next six years, three prequels in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, and then another trilogy in the 2010s. Sources: A07 American Film Institute (2007). “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition” FS Filmsite.org “100 Greatest Films” LM Leonard Maltin “100 Must-See Films of the 20th Century” VD Video Detective (1997). “Top 100 Films of All Time”

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Genre Lists: Box Office: Awards: Oscars: Wins: 6 – Best Sound, Best Original Score, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Visual Effects. A Special Achievement Award for “creation of the alien, creature, and robot voices” Nominations: 10 – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Guinness), Best Screenplay Other Lists/Honors: Critics’ Picks: Roger Ebert Leslie Halliwell/John Walker Leonard Maltin First posted 7/27/2019; last updated 6/4/2023.