Close encounter of the third kind
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Close encounter of the third kind |
| Original title | Close Encounters of the Third Kind |
 | |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1977 |
| length | 134 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Steven Spielberg |
| script | Steven Spielberg Paul Schrader |
| production |
Julia Phillips Michael Phillips |
| music | John Williams |
| camera | Vilmos Zsigmond |
| cut | Michael Kahn |
| occupation | |
| |
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Richard Dreyfuss . It shows a peaceful contact by aliens . The light and special effects with which Spielberg staged the landing of the alien spaceship are striking for the time .
Movie theme
The film is ostensibly about UFOs and a covert government operation led by the linguist, principal guest of the Montsoreau conference , Claude Lacombe, played by François Truffaut . The main focus of the film, however, is on a handful of authentically drawn small town dwellers from whose perspective the events are told.
The puzzle-like story, written by Steven Spielberg , leads to locations in Mexico, India and various places in the USA and, towards the end, results in the landing of a gigantic spaceship next to the Devils Tower in Wyoming . There the aliens communicate with the people via music and hand signals and finally invite the small townsperson Roy Neary to accompany them on their onward flight as a representative of humanity.
The film can, however, be interpreted as an allegory on biblical events. Spielberg used a consistently symbolic imagery with biblical motifs to depict his story. The film begins after a 10-second black screen accompanied by informal music with the portrayal of the Old Testament biblical opening " Let there be light ." ( Gen 1,1-3 EU ) in the middle of a desert. Analogous to this is the opening title of the film soundtrack as "Opening: Let There Be Light." titled. Based on the character Roy Neary, the story of redemption / enlightenment from a fickle unbeliever to an uncompromising believer is told. The religious dimension of Neary's career is clearly illustrated by the scene when he and his children watch the exodus scene in the film The Ten Commandments , as a result of which God first reveals himself to a man ( Moses ) and then to a whole group. Neary's life changes radically when, shortly after viewing the scene, he wanders around in the darkness with his car and is then hit by an unnatural light falling from the sky at an intersection ( cross symbolism ) and thus symbolically experiences the divine grace of enlightenment . ( Acts 9,3 EU ) . As a result of this awakening experience, according to co-screenwriter Paul Schrader, the character Neary literally develops from Saul to Paulus . This development culminates in the final scenes of the film, when Neary as a chosen one ascends to heaven and into eternal life . ( Rev 22,14-15 EU ) The film ends with the birth of the spaceship as a symbol for The New Jerusalem or the New World of God ( Rev 21,22 EU ) , the final chapter of the Revelation of John and thus the conclusion of the New Testament and the entire Bible.
Author John Kenneth found the film to be a testament to Spielberg's ability as a filmmaker and storyteller, and that it can be interpreted through two completely opposing worldviews. The American author Gregory Richards called Spielberg's work "more of a religious film than a science fiction film."
action
First, the researchers, apparently backed by the US government and marked by a white flag with a blue triangle, discover the aircraft of Flight 19, which mysteriously disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle in 1945 , in a junkyard in the Mexican Sonora desert . The planes prove to be undamaged and functional. The owner of the junkyard reports that the sun rose during the night and she “sang” to him. The Mexican has severe sunburn on his face . The next scene shows air traffic controllers in Indiana receiving reports from two line planes about UFOs. Then the action changes to the lonely house of the single mother Jillian Guiler, whose son Barry sees electrical phenomena in the house and lights in the garden at night and then leaves the house. Jillian wakes up, finds Barry has disappeared and goes in search of him. Around the same time, the electrician Roy Neary, who is in the middle of complicated family life, receives a call that he has to leave for a mission because of a major power outage. Neary gets lost and suddenly sees a UFO at a railroad crossing that brightly lights his car. In a panic, Neary races away and a little later almost runs over Barry, who is standing on a street, who can just be brought to safety by his mother. Neary briefly makes the acquaintance of Jillian, but then four UFOs moving along the road appear, which are pursued by police vehicles . Neary drives after the police vehicles and realizes that the objects in flight cannot be overtaken. Neary returns home and reports disturbed and fascinated to his incredulous wife Ronnie and the children about his sighting. However, they are also amazed at the strange sunburn that Neary has been wearing on his face since the night.
A little later, the researchers find the ship Cotopaxi , which originally disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle , and which has reappeared in the Mongolian part of the Gobi desert . Then examine Lacombe and his colleagues a phenomenon in Dharamsala ( India ), where thousands of devout Hindus constantly repeat a distinctive sequence of five tones in unison. When asked where the sounds came from, the assembled crowd points with their hands up to the sky. Lacombe then presented his discovery to a congress of scientists, because the tone sequence has a certain meaning in the planned language Solresol (HELLO).
Meanwhile, Neary and Jillian are swept away by a UFO hysteria. A meeting with like-minded people who are waiting for the arrival of the aliens is broken up by the police with helicopters. At the same time, it turns out that Neary, Jillian and Barry are obsessed with the vision of a strangely shaped mountain, which Neary believes he recognizes in his shaving cream and other places. The scientists are meanwhile using a radio telescope to contact the extraterrestrial intelligence. You send the recorded sequence of tones and only receive various figures back that don't seem to make any sense. Only the cartographer David Laughlin ( Bob Balaban ), who is now working as an interpreter for Lacombe, does not notice that the figures could be geographical coordinates . On a globe , the figure leads to the US state Wyoming .
Change of scene in Jillian's house. While Barry plays the sequence of notes on a carillon , his mother makes charcoal drawings of the mountain. When she threw away some of the seemingly imprecise drawings in the garbage, she noticed an approaching and strange cloud formation, illuminated from within . Jillian realizes that UFOs are approaching again and locks herself and Barry in the house. While the UFO bathes the immediate vicinity of the house in a reddish light, causes strong winds and makes electrical devices run crazy in the house, Jillan makes every effort to seal off her house and drive away the invisible intruders. Barry, on the other hand, is very positive about what is happening and is pleased about the "visit". Finally, Barry escapes the house via a cat flap and is thrown into the air, causing the UFOs to disappear. Barry's disappearance is the subject of a UFO congress, but the heated atmosphere does not allow for a factual discussion.
Then Neary's fate is shown again. Neary is getting more and more neurotic and obsessed with recreating the mountain from his vision in the house. He first tried this at dinner with mashed potatoes , then on the model railway - Diorama of his son. One night his wife finds him crying in the shower, complaining that he doesn't know "what all this means". Then Neary becomes even more manic and, in search of material for building a new model, devastates his own garden and that of the neighbors, which is ultimately too much for his wife. She travels with the three children to see her sister. Finally, Neary builds a huge model of a mountain out of earth and other materials in the middle of the living room floor. Only a report on television brings him the realization: The news reports of the accident of a freight train transporting nerve gas near the Devils Tower in Wyoming. This is exactly the mountain that never left Neary alone. Neary sets off with the car to find this mountain despite the impending danger.
What Neary does not know: In order to circumvent the environmental protection laws and the status of the Devils Tower as a national park, the group of scientists launched the news of the accident in order to be able to be active in the vicinity of the mountain undisturbed. With the support of the National Guard and the US Army , with camouflaged trucks and rented greyhound buses , they bring quantities of material and people dressed in orange overalls near the mountain. In the meantime, Neary meets Jillian, who also wants to go to the mountain, at a train station from which the people in the region in question are being transported by train. Neary takes Jillian in the car to get closer to the mountain. The two manage to get near the mountain via dirt roads, but there they are picked up by a military patrol. Neary is interrogated by Laughlin and Lacombe in a makeshift military camp, and Neary is convinced that the air is not poisoned, but clean. He is also asked whether he has had a “weird encounter with something unusual”. Neary then complains that his strange experiences, which drove him here and which allowed him to know the place exactly, are not paid any attention to.
Neary, along with other civilians who were caught in the area, is put in a helicopter to be taken away. Neary takes off the gas mask and demonstrates to fellow travelers that they can breathe freely. He decides to leave the helicopter; Jillian and another man named Larry Butler follow suit. The three flee - noticed by Lacombe and secretly approved - to the mountain; After the escape became known, the military combed the area and used a narcotic gas, to which Larry ultimately fell victim. However, Neary and Jillian reach the other side of the mountain by sundown and discover that the scientists have built a complex research facility there. The two first observe what is happening from a distance and discover feelings for each other.
As it quickly turns out, the base at Devils Tower is used to receive UFOs and their occupants. When three smaller UFOs stop above the system, which is arranged around a large landing area and respond to the communication via a sound organ, the mother ship appears very soon and to the astonishment of the researchers . The UFO's signal can soon be translated using a complicated light-sound code, whereupon the actual contact begins and the mother ship lowers a ramp. Dozens of missing people leave the spaceship via this, including Barry and the pilots of Flight 19 , who apparently have not or barely aged since the time of their “ hijacking ”, and the ramp closes again.
Eventually the spaceship opens again and an alien comes out. He spreads his long, skinny arms and numerous smaller aliens appear from the spaceship over the brightly lit ramp. They correspond to the frequently described short type with a large head. Neary, who has meanwhile ventured onto the landing area, is approached by Lacombe and finally brought to the people in orange overalls. They take part in a short prayer. The priest prays with them and gives a travel blessing, saying that the Lord has given his angels power over these pilgrims . Then the people leave the room and walk in a row towards the spaceship, whereby it can be seen that Neary now also belongs to this group. The small aliens approach and choose Roy Neary from the ranks of the "pilgrims" to accompany them on board the spaceship. To say goodbye, the larger alien then returns the Solresol hand signals to Lacombe opposite the ramp in the form of the five tones. The film ends when the spaceship takes off, Barry and Jillian wave after the ship in tears.
Premieres
- USA: November 15, 1977
- Germany: March 6, 1978
Awards
Close encounters of the third kind were awarded the following prizes:
| year | price | category | Award winners |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | Oscar | Best camera | Vilmos Zsigmond |
| 1977 | Special oscar | Best sound editing | Frank E. Warner |
| 1977 | Saturn Award | Best director | Steven Spielberg |
| 1977 | Saturn Award | Best music | John Williams |
| 1977 | Golden canvas | ||
| 1977 | National Board of Review | Special Mention ( Special Citation ) for the Extraordinary special effects | |
| 1978 | BAFTA Award | Best production design | Joe Alves |
| 1978 | David di Donatello | Best foreign film | Julia Phillips / Michael Phillips (Production) |
| 1978 | Grammy Award | Best album of original music written for a movie or TV special | John Williams |
| 1978 | Grammy Award | Best instrumental composition | John Williams |
| 1978 | Golden Reel Award | Best sound editing / sound effects | |
| 2007 | Library of Congress | Inclusion in the National Film Registry |
There were also other Oscar nominations in the categories of Best Director , Best Editing , Best Visual Effects , Best Sound , Best Supporting Actress , Best Original Music and Best Production Design . Many of the prizes went to Star Wars . For example, the composer John Williams was not awarded the Oscar for best film music for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, but for the best film music in “Star Wars”.
In addition to the regular awards and nominations, it is worth mentioning that it is included in the National Film Registry , a directory of American films that are particularly worth preserving.
The new versions
Three years after the film's appearance, Spielberg created a revised version titled Close Encounters of the Third Kind - The New Version .
Because of the great financial success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind , the studio first tried to persuade Spielberg to make a sequel. For Spielberg, however, the film ended with the lift-off of the spaceship in the finale.
As a compromise, Spielberg created “The New Version”. He added new scenes to the existing film. These include:
- the discovery of the missing freighter Cotopaxi in the Bermuda Triangle in the Gobi desert
- Roy Neary's nocturnal attack of depression in the shower
- entering the interior of the spaceship following the original finale.
At the same time, Spielberg removed (or shortened) other scenes, including them
- Roy Neary's arrival at work
- the press conference with the initial arrival of Jillian
- Roy Neary's manic trip through the neighborhood in search of building materials for his replica of the Devils Tower
This made “The New Version” three minutes shorter. The audience and criticism were mostly in agreement that the display of the interior of the spaceship was unnecessary, the majority preferred the old version. Among other things, it was criticized that the installation of the spaceship scenes with Neary in front of the sign language communication between Lacombe and an alien gave the impression that this alien was the Neary who had "transformed" into this figure on board the spaceship.
That is why Spielberg corrected the “errors” of the new version in his Director's Cut , published in 1998 (as Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Collector's Edition released on DVD) and removed the extended finale again. He also reinserted the originally cut scenes. The cargo ship scene in the Gobi desert was preserved.
background
The title of the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind is based on a terminology of the astronomer J. Allen Hynek , who was available as an advisor to the film project and can be seen briefly in the film lighting his pipe in view of the UFO landing. Hynek was also a scientific advisor for a number of UFO research projects for the US Air Force for decades . a. for Project Sign and Project Blue Book . Hynek had proposed a scale for UFO sightings in his book The UFO Experience: A Scientific Study in 1972 . Based on this classification, the film describes an encounter of the first type (CE1) as a sighting of a UFO, an encounter of the second type (CE2) as the presence of physical evidence of the UFO and an encounter of the third type (CE3) as contact with one UFO or its occupants. The French ufologist Jacques Vallée , who worked closely with Hynek, served as a model for the film character Claude Lacombe.
Spielberg's request to get involved in the unknown and to communicate (again) with one another was understood by many as a global message of reconciliation. This reflected the positive mood of those years. During this time, the office of American President Jimmy Carter falls , with whose policy the first thaw between the great powers began.
Michael Hesemann claimed in 1994 in his book The UFO Secret Matter that part of the funding for the film as part of an educational program was indirectly borne by Jimmy Carter, who himself had a UFO encounter. “At his (note: Carter's) instruction, NASA contributed millions to fund Steven Spielberg's' Close Encounters of the Third Kind ', a film that, like no other, was designed to raise public awareness of the fact that' we don't are alone, 'as the subtitle of the film said. The first copy of the film was flown from Hollywood to Washington in 1977 to be presented to President Carter in person. "
Others
- The acoustic signals that are so characteristic in the film, combined with the gestures of sign language, come from the musical planned language Solresol of the French François Sudre . This five-tone sequence (g '- a' - f '- f - c', based on the root key f) later appears in various films, including as the door code in the James Bond film Moonraker - Top Secret . There is also a secret room in the computer game Indiana Jones and the Tower of Babel , which can only be accessed by pressing five switches in the order 4 - 5 - 3 - 1 - 2.
- Hal Barwood, who helped create the story of various LucasArts computer games, plays a small supporting role in the film as one of the returning Navy pilots.
- Most of the aliens were played by children. Only the “big” alien who welcomes people with open arms was a doll.
- At the end of the scene in which the cartographer Laughlin decrypts radio signals as earth coordinates, a famous poster of the sex symbol Farrah Fawcett , known from Charlie's Angels , is emblazoned in a bathing suit. While Lacombe plays the tone sequence on a keyboard and whistles along (from 0:46:30), the poster can be seen blurred in the background, making her skin-colored swimsuit barely recognizable and she appears naked. It wasn't until 1996 that Fawcett actually got nude photos posing for Playboy .
- The working title of the film was "Watch the Skies". These are the closing words from The Thing from Another World .
- Douglas Trumbull was nominated for an Oscar in 1978 for special effects , but lost to Star Wars . Interestingly enough, Star Wars was done by John Dykstra , who in turn was recommended to George Lucas by Trumbull.
- Producer Julia Phillips made several attempts to fire cameraman Vilmos Zsigmond during production . The reason for this was his idea of filming the finale using numerous powerful and expensive light sources and with severe overexposure of the film material in order to visualize the presence of the aliens. However, there was no substitute for Zsigmond, the camera and lighting for the finale were implemented as planned and Zsigmond was finally awarded an Oscar.
- The sequences shot by the Second Unit team were also realized under the camera work of renowned cameramen such as John A. Alonzo , William A. Fraker , László Kovács and Douglas Slocombe .
- In the final act, the silhouette of R2-D2 can be seen on the alien spaceship . The numerous struts on the model of this spaceship are cranes that come from model kits from Jacques-Yves Cousteau's research vessel Calypso .
- It is Spielberg's first film to be released on Blu-ray Disc .
- The finale of the film Paul - An Alien on the Run takes place in the same place, near the Devils Tower , and the spaceship is also a direct reference to the original ending.
- Along with Star Trek: The Film and ET - The Extra-Terrestrial , the film is one of the few science fiction films from Hollywood that were shown in GDR cinemas.
reception
- The English band Yes used 1977/1979 excerpts from the soundtrack as the opening for their concerts; in addition, the 1978 album Tormato included a song called Arriving UFO . Also Motörhead used temporarily the distinctive tone sequence as the opening concert.
- Isao Tomita adapted the acoustic finale of the film on the album The Bermuda Triangle in 1978 under the title The Venus Wearing The Space Uniform Shining In a Fluorescent Light Color , an exception to the work mainly determined by Prokofiev adaptations.
- The book for young people published by Franz Schneider Verlag 1978–1979 - Trilogy Unheimliche opponents of the fourth (fifth, sixth) kind by Rainer M. Schröder ties directly to the film story and continues the adventures of Roy Neary (for copyright reasons, this character in the book is called “ Raymond Leary ”) and the other members of the earthly delegation aboard the alien spaceship.
- American ufologists like Milton William Cooper claim that the film describes in a barely veiled form real events that took place in the 1950s; the United States government sponsored the film to persuade the audience that the aliens, with whom it had allegedly been in secret for a long time, were well-meaning "space brothers". The same applies to the film ET - The Extra-Terrestrial .
- The German astronaut Alexander Gerst played the distinctive five-tone sequence of the extraterrestrials live from the Columbus module of the ISS as a greeting to the audience as part of a joint appearance with the electro-pop band Kraftwerk during the Stuttgart Jazzopen on July 20, 2018.
Reviews
“[...] A visually fascinating science fiction fairy tale, entirely from the spirit of Walt Disney , which describes the utopia of an extraterrestrial world filled with harmony and bliss. The naive belief in salvation from space can hardly be understood as a serious answer to the problems of modern man, but as a cinematic cabinet piece, the film is nevertheless an imaginative pleasure. In his best moments he also becomes a witty caricature of an adult world that is tired of technical things. "
“[…] The ecclesiastical and sacred structure of the film (especially the final part) corresponds to the current 'need' for mysticism, the doctrine of salvation and escape from the rational world as well as the content. Instead of tackling irrationality (the contradictions of the capitalist world), the subordination of all human life to profit interests, the marketing of all human areas, or alienation - escape into irrational dreams [...] A film that Erich von Däniken will like. "
literature
- Steven Spielberg: Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Science Fiction Novel. (The book for the film) (OT: Close Encounters of the Third Kind ). Goldmann, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-442-23297-X
- To the movie
- Roland Vogler: Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In Filmstellen VSETH & VSU (ed.): Science Fiction. Documentation. Association of Students at the University of VSU, Zurich 1990, without ISBN, pp. 147–153
- Ronald M. Hahn / Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Science Fiction Films. 720 films from 1902 to 1983 , Munich (Heyne) 1983. ISBN 3-453-01901-6
Web links
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Close encounters of the third kind in the online film database
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release Certificate for Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Special Edition . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2007 (PDF; test number: 49 762 DVD).
- ↑ Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Retrieved October 15, 2018 .
- ↑ Eric Marcy: An Unlikely Knight of Faith: Roy Neary's Religious Journey in Close Encounters of the Third Kind Christ and Pop Culture, August 17, 2015
- ↑ John Kenneth, When You Wish Upon A Star: Exploring the Spirituality of Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Flashbak, February 12, 2014
- ^ Gregory Richards: Science Fiction Movies,, Gallery Books, 1984, p. 61
- ↑ Vilmos Zsigmond in the Academy Awards Database ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Frank E. Warner in the Academy Awards Database ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Past Saturn Awards ( Memento of March 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Past Saturn Awards ( Memento of March 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ National Board of Review of Motion Pictures ( Memento of the original from April 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Joe Alves in the BAFTA database ( memento of the original from April 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Grammy Award winner 1978
- ^ Grammy Award winner 1978
- ↑ Motion Picture Sound Editors
- ↑ Close Encounters of the Third Kind on the National Film Registry
- ^ A b Glenn Erickson: Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In: DVD Savant Review. May 25, 2001, accessed on December 15, 2017 (English): “I always felt that the cut from the spaceship interior back to the original film gave the inappropriate impression that Neary had been transformed by the shower of pixie dust into an alien! [...] He walks out and smiles, and blinks his eyes so sadly ... but the cut, and the unique appearance of the critter implies that it IS Neary. "
- ↑ Michael Hesemann: Secret thing UFO: The true story of the unknown flying objects . Silberschnur-Verlag Neuwied 1994, pp. 295-320, ISBN 3-8289-3392-0
- ↑ American Cinematographer, 9/2008, p. 62.
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075860/trivia IMDB.com
- ↑ Michael Barkun : A Culture of Conspiracy. Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America . University of California Press, Berkeley 2013, p. 29 f.
- ↑ http://blogs.esa.int/alexander-gerst/de/2018/07/21/good-evening-kraftwerk/ Marco Trovatello: Good evening Kraftwerk! esa , July 21, 2018, accessed December 21, 2018 .
- ↑ Close encounter of the third kind. In: Lexicon of international films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ SCIENCE FICTION TIMES , quoted from Hahn / Jansen, p. 531.
- ↑ Vogler, the article has compiled and translated into German. With filmography, as a director of motion pictures, 12 titles. These are various excerpts from specialist books or magazines, mostly in the USA, also from Newsweek , as well as from: Tony Crowley: St. Sp., A success story. Munich 1989
