Almost Cancelled: How Spielberg saved Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a movie that was initially scrapped but went on to become a surprisingly introspective classic film it's not just your typical UFO film either writer and director Steven Spielberg's own search for answers of meaning and existence bled through to make this film deeply moving we're here to reveal its hidden layers and how it came to be Spielberg got the idea of Close Encounters from a childhood memory of watching a meteor shower with his dad back in New Jersey so in 1973 he began writing several changes occurred during this process the original title was watch the skies and it was about people who believed in UFOs but writer Gloria Catz thought that it was one of the worst idea she had ever heard so the movie went on the shelf for a while and Spielberg went on to make Jaws so in 1974 the next script came out it was called Kingdom Come Spielberg called it one of the most embarrassing screenplays ever turned in to a Motion Picture studio so he decided to take a hand in writing it himself he was inspired by the song When You Wish Upon a Star from Pinocchio and the title was changed from watch the skies to close encounters with the Third Kind during pre-production however Spielberg did not throw away the title watch the skies it was actually an Easter egg in the Spielberg produced movie Gremlins in the background of one scene you can see a movie theater Marquee with two films on it one is called watch the skies and the other is a boy's life which was the working title of Spielberg's ET Close Encounters of the Third Kind was released in the summer of 1977 but Spielberg was not happy with the final product he actually wanted six more months to shoot it and was hoping to get a release date in 1979 but the studio really wanted this movie out fast so part of the bargaining with that was he can do a special edition the special edition was released in 1980 Spielberg added 7 Minutes of new footage he deleted or shortened several scenes by 10 minutes bringing the runtime to 32 minutes which was 3 minutes shorter than the original version some of the new scenes included finding the SS kotap paxy in the GOI desert and a shot of inside of the mother ship in 1998 yet another version of Close Encounters was released this time it was the director's cut it was a re-edit version of the original film with some elements of the special edition the shot of the inside of the mother ship was removed cuz Spielberg thought it should never put it in there in the first place and the inside should have remained a mystery this is the longest version of the film it runs at 137 minutes Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a story that follows Roy NRI portrayed by Richard dfus normal guy living in Muny Indiana it's actually 1970s Muny Indiana so those of you there now it's a little bit different back in the day anyway on a random night he happens to see a UFO and this really really affects him he starts to become very very obsessed to the point where he starts driving away his family throughout the movie Roy actually crosses paths with Jillian who's played by ralphy's Mom Linda Dylan and her son has been abducted by these aliens so the two of them kind of have a common goal one being obsessed with the aliens the other looking for the aliens to get their son back and they're following the clues and getting little signs they both are seeing this mountain that they just can't describe they don't know what's going on of course in the 1970s uh seeing a mountain like that wouldn't be as obvious to some people as it would now because everything's online they end up finding out that this is happening at the Devil's Tower they uh head out there and actually get a witness that we find out throughout the movie that a lot of people know about this extraterrestrial sighting and the first Contact that's about to happen and so they make it there and they play a little Simon Says at the end they release a few people that they have abducted from what we find back in World War II and then take on a new group of people including Richard dfus because when you're sending up experts and scientists you also want to send a electrician from myy Indiana which was a little bit weird but all in all a fun movie there were some intense Parts but nothing too scary so definitely kids could watch it and it was an interesting way to tell the story of first Contact although I did have a couple small issues I don't want this to take away from the enjoyment of the movie because it was a good movie however towards the end few things seem a little bit rushed and it all comes down to Richard dri's character first off he gets invited to go with them and you know they're sitting there and like what's your blood type and he's like I don't know seems a little bit weird that just you know these Nas I'm assuming NASA scientists are just like yeah send this guy too it's cool so that seemed a little bit rushed on my part but two he is about to go up in a UFO now the guys who got off the UFO before him have been missing for at this point 30 plus years so he left his family back in Indiana and he's out in Wyoming and he's just like okay I'm going to go and gets on this ship he's got three kids at home he's got a wife I understand they're strange they've had some issues because of this but you'd think he'd want to say bye to his children cuz there's a chance when he comes back they're all going to be in their 40s so that part bothered me a little bit because I mean I don't have kids but I mean just saying bye to a brother to a friend if I'm leaving for 40 years I mean I moved down to Florida and cried my eyes out when I had to say bye to everyone up here for a little while to go away for that long and that distance and not even think about calling your kids calling your wife parents I don't know does he have parents still alive you know it was just that part of the movie was kind of rushed for me and it took me away because I can't see a father doing that without saying goodbye I mean I don't care how much you've been fighting with your wife I mean the last thing you want for her to find out is like you know oh I haven't seen Roy in about six weeks what's he doing oh he got in the spaceship and left forever so other than that the rest of the movie did float really well and the special effects were done very well considering it was done in 1977 barely got any Star Wars out of that he still was able to kind of hang in there with it so was pretty cool okay let's go a level deeper with our analysis one of the most intriguing threads to follow in this film is Roy's transformation and how other people around him react to what's happening to him while Roy feels his life finally has a purpose his wife is totally disinterested in finding an explanation for their encounter with a UFO she doesn't feel the need to look for answers but several times when she asks Roy why he was so focused on finding answers Roy says it's really important he never really says why though and I kind of wondered if maybe he doesn't really know he just feels something tugging at him but the movie highlights what sometimes happens when one person in a relationship goes through some kind of change or transformation and the other person does not on the other hand Roy already seemed totally disengaged from his wife and children at the beginning of the film unhappy and lost so he was already disconnected from them but the UFO becomes a catalyst for his transformation I wondered though does Ronnie not join him in his quest because she doesn't recognize what's happening to him and maybe she thinks he's going crazy she knows he's changing but she doesn't know if it's for the good or if it's going to be for the worst and his transformation will cost him friends relationships family neighbor and job and this kind of isolation is something that we experience in real life when we go through a period of significant change or a shift in our personal beliefs Roy's search is actually spiritual in nature though a search for a higher power or intelligence that actually coincides with a period of searching in director and writer Steven Spielberg's own life Steven Spielberg actually grew up Jewish but stopped practicing the religion for a Time he was fascinated with UFOs though and that's part of the reason he was drawn to make this film and he would eventually return to the Jewish faith but this movie was made during a period where he was still searching and questioning so Spielberg's own search for answers in existence may actually be part of what made him able to draw these performances that were so convincing out of the characters in the film hidden throughout the film are subtle hints that the aliens may actually represent the search for God or some kind of higher power for instance in ancient religion including Judaism mountains were thought to be a place where the gods live and in the Old Testament this is true too this is where Moses met with God on Mount Si so in the film The People are drawn to you guessed it a mountain to meet the aliens on the drive there dead animals are everywhere possibly an illusion to the idea that animals had to be sacrificed as a peace offering a symbol of Good Will before approaching God just like the sacrificial system in the Old Testament Roy even brings a canary in a cage and sure it is true that canaries were used to detect poison gas but there's another hint when the people approach the alien ship in the Old Testament it was viewed as dangerous to approach god without serious caution when the scientists began trying to speak to the aliens using music as a universal language at first the alien ship inter acts positively but then it plays the Jaws theme hinting at potential danger at approaching the ship if there were still any doubt that the film was hinting at some kind of spiritual Quest a priest reads scripture over the human explorers before they Bard the ship the people who are thought long dead aboard the ship might actually be an illusion to the Book of Revelation when the dead will be raised in the future and finally the movie gives an interesting picture of what pursuing God is intended to do but we we unfortunately don't always see in real life from religion you see it most clearly between Roy and Jillian when their search actually brings them not only closer to the answers and to this higher power but closer to each other it's a a picture of how things are meant to be in a stark contrast to the division that we sometimes see in the world if things had been different maybe Ronnie could have joined Roy on his search but the film is more thought-provoking this way as is showing the true cost of change little bonus content before we wrap things up uh we found a little Easter egg in Close Encounters and it's one of those Star Wars references could have probably put this one in one of our other videos but this film was released in November of 77 6 months after Star Wars so this is probably the first movie to do a Star Wars reference R2-D2 makes an appearance on the bottom of the Mother Ship he's actually turned upside down and there's a quick shot of him as the ship is coming in and uh if you know where to look you can see R2 hanging upside down so that might be the first ever Star Wars non-star Wars movie reference it's one of his many cameos in the many movies that he's been in a similar Alien Abduction movie is Fire in the Sky and it's supposedly based on a true story so how true is the story in the film find out in this video next [Music]

Channel: Movies Are Spiritual

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Keywords: close encounters of the third kind, steven spielberg, richard dreyfuss, classic sci-fi fantasy, close encounters of the third kind review, close encounters, close encounters of the third kind clip, sci fi, alien sci-fi, sci-fi, science fiction, film sci-fi, close encounters of the third kind film analysis, close encounters of the third kind movie reaction, close encounters of the third kind retrospective review, movie review, sci-fi dramas, close encounters of the 3rd kind

Id: yexZIS8R5dQ

Length: 12min 7sec (727 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 18 2024