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Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Close Encounters takes the favoured dream of every UFO enthusiast (that the US government has been operating a cover-up) and turns it into a majestic and finally unprecedented adventure story. As early references to The Ten Commandments and Chuck Jones's Warner cartoons show, the film seems less concerned with science fiction than with recapturing the wonder of a child's first experience of the cinema, and the surprising thing is that Spielberg moves into this territory so effectively. There are some awkward touches (Truffaut never ceases to be Truffaut, while some of the comedy scenes are a little overplayed), but they're small price to pay for the first film in years to give its audiences a tingle of shocked emotion that is not entirely based either on fear or on suspense.Author: DP
Cast & crew
Director: Steven Spielberg
Producer: Julia Phillips, Michael Phillips
Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon, Bob Balaban, Warren Kemmerling full cast
Genre(s): Science Fiction
Duration: 135 mins
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