CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND Returning To Theaters

My whole thing for me is, you left your wife and kids to go off with a giant spider alien and little alien baby's?

Came off really sick lol

I thought it was pretty well established, maybe not in the original theatrical version, but in the Final Cut, it restored all the cut scenes of Dreyfus' character really being an alien in his own right to his family. His marriage wasn't the strongest and the I thought it conveyed just how much of a stranger he was for them. I think it made it all the more sad and tragic that the family unit fell apart because of him, if not because of the alien contact, but because he was a man caught in a situation he wasn't equipped to handle in the first place. The fact that he became obsessed with the cosmic call was all the more heart-wrenching, putting that above his family, compounding the already bad situation he was in.

Sure he had a family, but unlike ET, this film is more tragic in the sense that the family unit wasn't strengthened because of the encounter, but ruined by it, and it's partly due to the character flaws of the protagonist, and I think that's what makes this film so much more interesting than ET. And I think that's why I like this film more. It feels more mature like that. He's an adult, a grown man with children and a family; he should have his life together at this point. But his greatest flaw is that he never grew up (a recurring theme in the movie is Pinocchio), a man who saw wonder like a child but trapped by the confines of the "real" world, and in the end, it cost him everything but satisfied his child-like wonder and it's all beautifully, and sorrowfully, captured in the last 30 minutes of the film.

His last meaningful contact with another person, who genuinely understood him and loved him, was with Jillian, and he sacrificed that to capture and bask in that wonder that possessed him in adulthood, but ultimately, stemmed from his childhood. Something he never let go to his detriment. The film is very tragic in that sense.
 
As a side note, Bob Balaban wrote a pretty fun book about his experience while working on the film called "Spielberg, Truffaut & Me." He had never been involved with such a gigantic production before and was in a state of constant awe and amusement at the sheer scope and weirdness of a big Hollywood film. It's a very fun read if you're a fan of the movie.
 
I thought it was pretty well established, maybe not in the original theatrical version, but in the Final Cut, it restored all the cut scenes of Dreyfus' character really being an alien in his own right to his family. His marriage wasn't the strongest and the I thought it conveyed just how much of a stranger he was for them. I think it made it all the more sad and tragic that the family unit fell apart because of him, if not because of the alien contact, but because he was a man caught in a situation he wasn't equipped to handle in the first place. The fact that he became obsessed with the cosmic call was all the more heart-wrenching, putting that above his family, compounding the already bad situation he was in.

Sure he had a family, but unlike ET, this film is more tragic in the sense that the family unit wasn't strengthened because of the encounter, but ruined by it, and it's partly due to the character flaws of the protagonist, and I think that's what makes this film so much more interesting than ET. And I think that's why I like this film more. It feels more mature like that. He's an adult, a grown man with children and a family; he should have his life together at this point. But his greatest flaw is that he never grew up (a recurring theme in the movie is Pinocchio), a man who saw wonder like a child but trapped by the confines of the "real" world, and in the end, it cost him everything but satisfied his child-like wonder and it's all beautifully, and sorrowfully, captured in the last 30 minutes of the film.

His last meaningful contact with another person, who genuinely understood him and loved him, was with Jillian, and he sacrificed that to capture and bask in that wonder that possessed him in adulthood, but ultimately, stemmed from his childhood. Something he never let go to his detriment. The film is very tragic in that sense.

His marriage would still have been a mess if he had been more 'mature',because they were on different 'frequencies' in terms of personal development.He may have been 'the child' in their relationship,but she was behaving like a bigot (instead of defending and supporting her spouse,she laughed in his face along with the rest of the crowd during the meeting where he was questioned by a committy of some sort).
In that sense,it's better to 'be like a child' who at the right time knows how to be responsible; regardless of the cosmic call,in the beginning he was taking care of his children and thus taking his responsibility of parenthood seriously.I believe that adulthood and childhood can exist together,as long as you manage to be adult when you need to.His mistake was to be taken over by the miracle and turning it into an obsession,for as far as he was able to help himself.The calling as an external influence was stronger than he was,so I wonder to what extend he was responsible.
 
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Maybe he was called because he was somewhat child like, and able to hear that call, representing that humanity was still a child, entering the spacecraft was entering a galactic adulthood.
 
Who wouldn't get on a spaceship for a lifetime of discovery and adventure as opposed to staying on Earth to be married and raise a family just like everybody else, especially with the witch he was married to? I'm surprised he didn't skip up the gangway.

And the stupid kids always wanting to play Goofy Golf instead of watching classic animated Disney films!
 
Roy Neary — Klingon Cruiser model maker and future RPF member:

Roy's-Klingon-model.jpg
 
Is this part of the TCM program? If so I hope the 4K release will be better than Fast Times at Ridgemont High theater release. My wife and I saw that recently and the quality was horrible. Looked like they recorded it from a TV screen. It was very hard to watch.
 
Went to a screening in Phoenix last night with my 10 year-old daughter. Sound and print were fantastic! I don't think I've seen it on the big screen since the '80 Special Edition and there were lots of little details that I had either missed or forgotten about. Like how wrinkly the giant alien is at the end!
 
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