Dish of the Day
Just some film musings of a more succinct, spontaneous and sometimes seditious nature:
Friday, March 10, 2023
Today on TCM:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)...
is recommended by this critic more for its soundtrack (reviewed separately here) than anything else. Its dramatic structure is set up in such a way that every single development witnessed from beginning to end leads us, along with the story’s main character, to that final reveal. Even with the impressive special effects, advanced scientific breakthroughs by visiting aliens, and communicative friendliness amidst all the razzle-dazzle of sight and sound (as significant as the contributions are from Vilmos Zsigmond’s cinematography and John Williams’ music), Steven Spielberg (the director and screenwriter this time out) cannot disguise the fact that as far as drama is concerned, almost none exists (at least that of consequential value). No explanation is given for our visitors’ previous hostile actions of taking humans (or any other activity for that matter). Had those abductions been left out of the equation (especially regarding the young boy and his distraught mother) attentive filmgoers could be satisfied that the lack of conflict at the end was consistent with everything presented beforehand. Here, Spielberg is in boy wunderkind mode showing off what his enormous resources can achieve with what has become a familiar blend of adolescent wish fulfilment with technological awe and wonder. At the same time, he implies to those more discerning viewers that when a discovery of such magnitude is this great, not to mention so warm and fuzzy, our puny concerns over purpose or intent (including our central character taking off to another planet leaving his family behind) should be made irrelevant. Close encounters will occur on TCM (updated) Saturday, July 6 (2024) at 5 pm PDT.
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Hope to see you tomorrow.
A.G.