Close Encounters of the Third Kind
(★★★★½)
I don’t know when I first saw this… I would guess on TV in the 70’s… But, back then, some of it really stuck with me and I’ve had bits of it that I have thought about recurringly over the years. I assume I’ve seen it since then? But, even so, it’s been too long to have much of a firm memory beyond the general idea and those memorable scenes, so it was great to rewatch it!
In Close Encounters, we follow two stories: firstly, vehicles that disappeared years ago in the Bermuda Triangle are turning up, crew-less, and un-aged, in weird areas of the world. Most odd would be the ship Cotopaxi, which vanished 50 years early in the Atlantic, but turns up now in the sands of the Gobi desert. A team of scientists led by Francois Truffaut (??) and Bob Balaban are chasing these weird occurrences down.
At the same time, weird power issues start occurring in Indiana and some people start becoming fixated on subliminal images or feelings that they are having. Most notably would be Roy Neary. This is a great performance by Richard Dreyfus; watching his weird fixation in piling things into pillars is really pretty interesting, and, once he gets into his “move the garden indoors”, and you see how much he is freaking out his family, you really have to wonder just how far gone he is.
Of course, these threads come together at a very exciting moment!
Honestly, the big UFO reveal is possibly just about the best reveal of anything I’ve seen in a movie. It seems so much different then other alien contact things I’ve seen, and the combination of audio and visual and the sense of amazement really makes it something. Even 48 years later it still resonates well and looks great.
Poltergeist
(★★★★)
Haven’t seen this in 20 years but I think it’s held up pretty good. Especially since I got to see it in a theater this time!
I still like the cast, the TV screen, the whole haunted house bit (which usually is not a genre I like) I think is interestingly done, the build-up to it (from fun with spirits to waaay not fun) is great, and Tangina (the medium) is still one of my all-time favorite movie characters.
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