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