Because it’s so majestic. It’s saying goodbye to all you know and love, for something greater than yourself. John Williams says it all in music. This is his all time favorite of all his movie scores, because he says, “This film, is alive”.
During my youth, it was because of this movie that I asked my G-parents to take me to Devils Tower on one of their annual vacations. One of the best experiences of my life. Would love to revisit the place, as an adult, and see what new changes are around the area. Thank you, Mr. Spielberg, for inspiring me to make "the journey."
I watched Close Encounters at a Drive-in theater with my parents during the summer of 1978. Like you, the picture made a strong impact on me. I recently visited Devil's Tower late August 2020. There is a large convenience store which contains a display case filled with memorabilia from the film. I asked the lady behind the counter "how much for the Close Encounters lunch box and thermos?" She indicated that the materials belonged to the owner who is a long-time fan of the picture. Then she told me that Close Encounters is shown in the campground every evening an hour after sunset. I would have stayed and camped -- plus enjoyed the film -- however, I had appointments back in Washington State. I hope you take the opportunity for a road-trip to Devils Tower. Cheers.
@@patrickgrengs7594 Sept. 2017. We did watch the movie outside of the store at the campground. An amazing experience as dusk and then nightfall came on with everything dwarfed by the Tower.
@@nealwhite9636 I am happy that you were able to partake in that experience. Now that I am retired and enjoy traveling, I will make it a point to get up to Devils Tower and the Campground this August 2022.
I always find this movie emotional, especially the end scenes. The links between extra terrestrials and religion is frightening, beautiful confusing and affirming all at the same time.
Kinda perplexing how eager people jump on to ideas that every significant achievement of the humanity was actually just handled to them by somebody else.
i just love the scene when the aliens pick him out of the crowd and lead him to the front of the ship....i get emotional every time with the music also...its like the whole movie builds up to this point with him finally achieving his dream of facing the unknown and the disney wish upon a star score was a lovely addition to the scene.
Love how at 1:07 we get a cameo of J. Allen Hynek, who was a famous UFO investigator and created the original classifications for Close Encounters 1- 3. I believe he was also a consultant on this film.
He was a consultant for this movie, he was also the scientific consultant for Project Bluebook and the founder for CUFOS (Center for UFO Studies). Sadly though he passed away in 1986, RIP DR J Allen Hynek
You are right about J Allen Hynek. He was a consultant. It was government involvement. That led to the movie being made the way it was. Including some of the UFO flying around scenes , one of them was based on the levelland Texas UFO incident in 1957. As well as the physical and facial look of the short aliens that walked off the ship in the scene. And the 12 astronauts in red flight suits that were to board the UFO. Really did happen in real life. There was a UFO landing at the Nevada test site. April 1965. They picked up 12 of our astronauts. 10 men and two women. Their real life mission was to go to the planet that UFO in the movie came from. The name of the mission was Project serpo. As an astronaut exchange program with the race of humanoids that crashed outside of Roswell New Mexico in July of 1947. Known as the Ebens. They were supposed to be there for 10 years. But because the way they measure time is different. They were there for 13 years. In exchange for our astronauts. A few of the Ebens stayed behind on Earth 🌎. When our astronauts came back 13 years later. Only eight of them came back. Because one of our astronauts died on the way there. One of our astronauts died when they got there. And two of our astronauts liked the planet the people in the culture so much they stayed behind instead of coming home. And they never came back. The name of the planet is Serpo. In The Zeta reticuli solar and 39.17 light years from Earth 🌎. God bless them all. Amen. That landing scene, in Close encounters is based on that real-life landing and that exchange of astronauts. Amen.
@@MrCyclejay1967I always 9:43 was curious what happened to our astronauts from this exchange, where were you able to find the numbers of them passing away, returning, and staying at? I would like to read that information for myself. I’ve heard of this exchange program Project Serpo from several whistleblowers and my own independent research, I wonder if they were clones themselves lol.
In the scene (1:47) when the two scientists discuss Einstein. If you take a look to your left you will notice a very famous actor playing a cameo. It's a young Lance Henriksen, you may remember him playing the android Bishop in the movie Aliens.
I saw this movie 🍿 in High School 🏫 in 1977.A lot of people didn’t like it,but I didn’t see what was wrong with it.I thought that Steven Spielberg did a marvelous job with it!The other High School student’s didn’t like,but,I thought it was an interesting 🤔 🍿 🎥 movie!This is when I started High School!That’s what’s scary 😱 to me!
Is anyone else grateful that Hollywood hasn't wrecked this perfect ending yet by cashing in and making some shitty sequel where Roy is in space or come back to Earth in like 200 years or something?
@@kaynaramiranda7381 nah. Not even Villeneuve can do it. His work in Blade runner 2049 was good, but he didn't surpased (or came closer) the original. This is the kind of movie that should be lefted alone. The ending is peefect, give it to the spectator imagination and awe (the same awe Roy feels), something wich is very dificult to achieve. No need to change that for a more "Hollywood esque family friendly/sometimes dark" explanation.
@@milesr4609 Well, first off I agree that this movie does not need touching at all. Leave it be. I think Villeneuve did a great job with 2049. It's impossible to equal the original story and the impact of the movie at the time, but it was a worthy sequel, which is a huge achievement already, comparing it to basically all late sequels to older classics. So if anyone could, I'd say it's him. But honestly, I hope he scales down for his next movie, make something completely different and more intimate.
@@kaynaramiranda7381totally agree!. And if i may give a fun fact, did you know that the original Blade runner was a "flop" back in '82? It lost hard with movies like E.T (a great movie) and Tron (not that great but cool concept), but the time give it the reason and it ended being a cult classic, only another movie of that era had the same kind of fate, The thing.
Watched it for the first time when I was in St Croix on Vacation 2022 during Hurricane Fiona and I balled my eyes out at this movie and was awestruck.. we had a big hurricane party at the hotel and this was the movie that they played on a big projector screen and we had like 50 people out in hotel ballroom watching this movie.. such a great time ❤❤ miss everyone on island 🏝️
Roy was chosen because of his child like innocent nature. That is why the child in the film was the last abductee the childs innocence was the final determinative factor that made the Aliens reach out and make contact this theme runs through the entire film starting with the little boy and then moves to Roy showing his child like nature and how his wife feels like she has to be a parent to him, Man in his most honest form is the innocent nature of the child within us and this the main sequence point throughout the entire film that Speilburg was.trying to make. Although many who see the film tens to miss it.
You are so right, but also more than anything, they chose him because he was invited. He was the only person invited via the implanted vision there to make it that far. One of my favourite cinematography shots of all time, massively backed up by Williams' score, is Roy glancing back and surveying the world as he knows it for the final time before committing himself to his destiny. Genuinely beautiful.
I also think they chose him because they sensed his desire to seek the unknown and that he would give up everything, including his family to acheive it. The aliens were elated that he made it when all the other ones they chose didnt.
Something I just noticed in the sound track, when the aliens surround Roy and escort him toward the ship, the soundtrack plays a snippit of the song "When You Wish Upon A Star". That got me right in the feels...
I think i only saw Pinocchio once, maybe twice, so didn't realize it was from that movie, and didn't pick up on the tune until someone mentioned it elsewhere.
Many sci fi novels set in future space, describe a genetic branch of humans adapted to zero G, with long limbs and heads. Eg The Expanse. Perhaps this is such a branch of the alien race ?
Yes, that is the tune that is heard. Spielberg claims that it was the lyrics of this song that helped him write the screenplay for this masterpiece. The tune is actually heard a couple of times throughout the movie and at the end credits of the Special Edition.
I always loved the prayers from Psalm 91, and The Pilgrims Prayer that the priest recited with the people trying to go with Roy on the ship, and how that bittersweet symphonic melody cuts into it as they depart for the ship, and Roy is chosen. It took me a long time to figure out what scriptures he was reciting. Beautiful!
Watched this great movie when I was a young boy, I am still fascinated by this movie, particularly the ending scene, so touching and amazing in many ways. Thank to Steven Spielberg for his creativity and imgaination
I don't think Spielberg considers that "the director's cut;" it may be the "extended version for TV." He got the money to film some more investigation scenes like them finding a ship in the Gobi Desert as long as he filmed inside the space ship. The third version which may be "the director's cut" takes the latter out but keeps some of the extra scenes he filmed for TV. I was hurt that it wasn't on the VHS, and was one of the last VHS tapes I ever bought.
I have this same collector's edition, there are 3 DVD'S, one of which Steven Spilberg puts the scene that the character Roy asked him so much to see the ship from the inside as it should be and it's very beautiful.
I had seen that version first, so really missed it when I got the movie on VHS, (one of the last VHS tapes I bought) and it wasn't on it. I can see how he'd want to make you imagine what Roy might experience. But the ending as the credits roll with the ship leaving, made me feel, "that's it?"
He's brilliant, but some say he's derivative based on what's come before, whether Holst's _The Planets_ or Aaron Copland's works. He seems like he plays inside the box of the London Symphony Orchestra. Nothing strikes me as avant-garde like using unusual instruments as Ennio Morricone did in the Clint Eastwood movies. Some rock and rollers want to do a song or two alongside an orchestra (however impractical for live performances), like Richard Dreyfuss's titular character did in _Mr. Holland's Opus._ The Wonder Woman theme was played on an electric cello, and Trans-Siberian Orchestra is popular but I don't see John Williams doing something like that. The Cantina Theme from _Star Wars_ is the only thing I noticed that was "different." He says he wants to do a James Bond theme: electric guitar plus orchestra plus female vocals. Will they ever let him?
@ Rose G That's absolutely right. However it's a shame that he couldn't have done a cameo in this movie, because at around (1:07) Dr J Allen Hynek (god rest his soul) plays a cameo role. So I couldn't understand why Jacques Vallee did not. Getting François Truffaut to appear in this was the next best thing. Oddy enough, I'm also half French and have been studying the UFOs and other paranormal subjects for over 35 years.
What a brilliant film..it's wonderful sci fi but man! It makes me tear up every time I watch this masterpiece....the music, the sentimentality of it all...just perfect and beautiful!
Steven Spielberg actually said in an interview that he wrote Close Encounters back before he met his wife or had his children, and if he were to write it today he would never have had Roy fly off with the aliens, because now that he was a married man and a father he understood the love a dad has for his kids. Back then he didn't "get it."
@@chooseyourpoison5105Glad Steven had a change of heart. As great it would be that friendly aliens would give me an offer of a lifetime to go with them, I wouldn’t leave my family for it.
05:27 This scene scared the bejesus out of me as a child. It still does. The score, the lighting. The Carlo Rambaldi alien is so strange, compared to the other guys.
I always wondered what the deal was with that "Slenderman" alien. Where does he go? You never see him again. And how come he was the only one that was like that? Did the aliens have a caste-system biology with different types, like workers, drones, soldiers, etc.?
I suspect that they don't share our body shame that we can't seem to shake. We could learn quite a bit from them if we could get past our attachment to clothes and our irrational shame of the human body. My two cents.
I wish there was sequel made...there's so many unanswered questions, like when did we first discover the aliens, how did we know exactly who was abducted, did we have any aliens in exchange for people, how did they decide which people were going to go back onto the ship, what was the debriefing like for the people coming home, how many species of aliens were on the ship (it shows 3), where they aliens at all or future versions of us?
There was a documentary suggesting that for this film. But I think you have to be human and know something about other cultures to pick up on the conventions of music, whether Chinese instruments and presentation, or Andes guitar and flute, or even steel drum band.
I had watched this movie the first time in high school and when I watched this ending, I was crying tears of joy, it was so beautiful. Edit: dammit, I'm crying again!
Great storytelling and film. I grew up on this movie fantasizing that maybe one day in my lifetime I would at least witness a UFO. Not a vague look...but see one clearly. Even if it meant possibly being in danger. As there are some ufo encounters that ended up in illnesses or even death from unknown causes or radiation poisoning.
There are also those that result in inexplicable healing. It's difficult to tell just how many dimensions exist...ones that interact with our own, that is.
I'd like to see a real SETI discovery, like a radio signal or laser from another planet around a star within 1000 light years. _Contact_ suggested they might send plans to send one or more people on a journey there and back again. But I like the idea of them sending us an Encyclopedia Galactica (or even _The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy)_
Imagine if they actually return in the present day and the people who went with the aliens never aged a bit due to the aliens technology I don't know how they would react after seeing how the world has changed since they left it would had been an interesting concept for a movie and it's even more interesting if Roy finds his children as elderly people or at least middle aged adults and he well would still had looked like he did back in the 70's.
@@blue-sea8901 Except he DID. He chose his obsession about aliens OVER his wife and children. And ended up abandoning them completely, at the end of the movie, with a smile on his face. Very inspiring and uplifting. 🙄
Well he was also scared of whether the aliens are peaceful or dangerous too. But yeah, I wished they would've made the scene where his family sees him go.
Roy did what Jesus told his disciples that all men must do, to be with God..to make God the most important thing in life...even over your family....Roy just did it with his desires to seek the unknown which were the aliens
I have watched this movie from the beginning to the end, yet they have deleted the final scene where Roy meets the exterrestal,and takes his hand, looks back at the other humans and says GOOD-BYE, this has to be the best shot of the whole movie, it will actually leave you breathless, it's like when you die,and go to a different dimension of existence, as my father once told me about life, to the AFTERLIFE, which is Eternal life. Great movie.
Just like in action movies where the guns never run out of bullets, her camera never runs out of film. No matter; I want to see this entire film again.
I remember seeing this film when it was first shown at cinema's. Fortunately I had read the book prior to watching the film and it helped me to make sense of the various random scenarios that all merge into one story. In the later Special Edition version of the film, after Roy enters the spaceship, he is showered by lights & emerges physically transformed ( well that's how ive always interpreted it) and it is the transfigured Roy that afterwards emerges and presents himself to the scientists & communicates with the hand gestures. I've watched the movie many times since and still enjoy it as much as the first. Storyline and special effects were light years ahead of its time.
I like to think that the entire group of Aliens are actually on a Field Trip. That would explain why there was one lone adult alien and nothing but children alien. It would also make sense as to why they played around with us.
Interesting ending. I always imagined a slightly different ending where Roy's family witnesses wbats happenings, the wife apologizing for doubting him, the kids tearfully begging him not to leave, and Roy promising to return with some souvenirs for the kids
That kiss exchanged between Barry's mom, and Neary was not just a friendly kiss. You got the feeling that their relationship was a lot more then casual. Soulmates you could say, simply because they were drawn together by this encounter. I liked how he just leaned into her, and she sensed that, and instantly responded. He would have had one of those Bridges Of Madison County decisions if he was to leave his wife and kids. I think Neary would not have done so, simply because he loved his wife and children too much to leave them. His character was one in a million at that.
Can you imagine how tough it would be for the abductees being released? Go missing in 1890 and now you're in 1980 or so, and nearly 100 years have passed, it's a totally different world and your family is dead. Hell, even the ones who went missing in the 50s would have a tough time as they haven't aged but everyone they love did.
I love this film (the late film critic Stanley Kauffmann compared it to an opera, with its key sequences as arias); but I never understood what a terrifically advanced race could learn from ordinary men and women that they couldn't learn simply by monitoring our airwaves and popular culture. (God help us all......)
@Lalealyn True. Interestingly, the movie Explorers depicts a pair of young aliens who "learned" about humanity through popular media (well. the one from 1985).
every time I watch this scene I can't help but think, when the Tall Alien is coming out of the ship they couldn't have raised the ship up just a couple more feet so dude didn't have to crawl out of his ship like that? LOL.
why? he was gone for seconds from his perspective. she appreciated the fact that he had just gone on a privileged journey that billions would give their lives for.
Voyage 60.3K subscribers Turns out these aliens are actually misunderstood, as they were mistaken for hostiles, but are actually very friendly. And seeing this scene again I still have a question in my mind that bugging to me as to, "Why did these Aliens chose Roy instead of both Roy and those other people selected for the visit to the Alien Mothership?"
Cause Roy has alot of questions need answered. He's addiction when he was sculpting the mountain with the marsh potatoe scene & the clay scene in his home. He was far more worthy than the rest of the people.
@@JinxedByZ Oh, thank you. It's been a long time since I watched this movie. Also will there ever be a sequel to the movie (either a book or movie sequel)?
@@jamieolberding7731 Also the rest were more like scientists who uses science for knowledge. Where Roy is just a regular guy who doesn't have a clue what's going on but he has like imprinted memories in his head seeking for answers. I dont think there was or ever will be a sequel. The movie basically ended with Roy being taken by aliens.
@@JinxedByZ That's a shame, but I would like to see Roy come back to Earth as an official interplanetary ambassador to Earth and being reunited with Joy.
Because unlike the others , Roy has child like wonderment. He's not there on behalf of any government, or organization. He's there because as he said he just wants to know that its real. Like. His curiosity and wonderment are worthy of the visitors trust to welcome him to travel and learn!
I am thinking of writing a story about aliens only it’s about alien dogs. It’s called The Heart of Alien Dogs where there will be Dachshund dog aliens with telekinesis powers.🐶👽
Since this film came out we've had aliens this, aliens that and aliens the other. All wonderous visions captured on film. But at the time, this is what we'd all been waiting for. There's no describing how amazing this seemed, how hopeful ...
8:48 WHEN ROY LOOKS BACK AND THE MUSIC GOES UP IN THE HIGH NOTES, WOW I'M CRYING
Because it’s so majestic.
It’s saying goodbye to all you know and love, for something greater than yourself.
John Williams says it all in music. This is his all time favorite of all his movie scores, because he says, “This film, is alive”.
During my youth, it was because of this movie that I asked my G-parents to take me to Devils Tower on one of their annual vacations. One of the best experiences of my life. Would love to revisit the place, as an adult, and see what new changes are around the area. Thank you, Mr. Spielberg, for inspiring me to make "the journey."
Awesome
I watched Close Encounters at a Drive-in theater with my parents during the summer of 1978. Like you, the picture made a strong impact on me. I recently visited Devil's Tower late August 2020. There is a large convenience store which contains a display case filled with memorabilia from the film. I asked the lady behind the counter "how much for the Close Encounters lunch box and thermos?" She indicated that the materials belonged to the owner who is a long-time fan of the picture. Then she told me that Close Encounters is shown in the campground every evening an hour after sunset. I would have stayed and camped -- plus enjoyed the film -- however, I had appointments back in Washington State. I hope you take the opportunity for a road-trip to Devils Tower. Cheers.
@@patrickgrengs7594 Sept. 2017. We did watch the movie outside of the store at the campground. An amazing experience as dusk and then nightfall came on with everything dwarfed by the Tower.
@@nealwhite9636 I am happy that you were able to partake in that experience. Now that I am retired and enjoy traveling, I will make it a point to get up to Devils Tower and the Campground this August 2022.
@@patrickgrengs7594 Many of us were motivated to visit Devil's Tower after seeing this movie, as was I a couple of years after I saw it.
"Einstein was probably one of them", the best line ever, you know he was!
Einstein didn't die .....he just went home
i think you mean stupidest line ever
I always find this movie emotional, especially the end scenes. The links between extra terrestrials and religion is frightening, beautiful confusing and affirming all at the same time.
What nonsense.
Kinda perplexing how eager people jump on to ideas that every significant achievement of the humanity was actually just handled to them by somebody else.
47 years and film still stands up and fresh. Great director and cinematography.
i just love the scene when the aliens pick him out of the crowd and lead him to the front of the ship....i get emotional every time with the music also...its like the whole movie builds up to this point with him finally achieving his dream of facing the unknown and the disney wish upon a star score was a lovely addition to the scene.
The whole movie was emotional for me! First time I saw it in the theater I just sobbed
I completely agree, especially since the line-up he was in were all trained military. This is the most wonderful part of this movie.
It was like that for me, too. I also have been “taken” several times.
This. All of this. You summed this up beautifully. Thank you.
😔🌄🏀
Love how at 1:07 we get a cameo of J. Allen Hynek, who was a famous UFO investigator and created the original classifications for Close Encounters 1- 3. I believe he was also a consultant on this film.
Alien Abduction: Incident in the Lake County 1998
He was a consultant for this movie, he was also the scientific consultant for Project Bluebook and the founder for CUFOS (Center for UFO Studies). Sadly though he passed away in 1986, RIP DR J Allen Hynek
You are right about J Allen Hynek. He was a consultant. It was government involvement. That led to the movie being made the way it was. Including some of the UFO flying around scenes , one of them was based on the levelland Texas UFO incident in 1957. As well as the physical and facial look of the short aliens that walked off the ship in the scene. And the 12 astronauts in red flight suits that were to board the UFO. Really did happen in real life. There was a UFO landing at the Nevada test site. April 1965. They picked up 12 of our astronauts. 10 men and two women. Their real life mission was to go to the planet that UFO in the movie came from. The name of the mission was Project serpo. As an astronaut exchange program with the race of humanoids that crashed outside of Roswell New Mexico in July of 1947. Known as the Ebens. They were supposed to be there for 10 years. But because the way they measure time is different. They were there for 13 years. In exchange for our astronauts. A few of the Ebens stayed behind on Earth 🌎. When our astronauts came back 13 years later. Only eight of them came back. Because one of our astronauts died on the way there. One of our astronauts died when they got there. And two of our astronauts liked the planet the people in the culture so much they stayed behind instead of coming home. And they never came back. The name of the planet is Serpo. In The Zeta reticuli solar and 39.17 light years from Earth 🌎. God bless them all. Amen. That landing scene, in Close encounters is based on that real-life landing and that exchange of astronauts. Amen.
@@MrCyclejay1967citation?
@@MrCyclejay1967I always 9:43 was curious what happened to our astronauts from this exchange, where were you able to find the numbers of them passing away, returning, and staying at? I would like to read that information for myself. I’ve heard of this exchange program Project Serpo from several whistleblowers and my own independent research, I wonder if they were clones themselves lol.
In the scene (1:47) when the two scientists discuss Einstein. If you take a look to your left you will notice a very famous actor playing a cameo. It's a young Lance Henriksen, you may remember him playing the android Bishop in the movie Aliens.
It comes out 2 more times in this scene, although at another time
aliens, tons of bigfoot movies and something else i forgot.
Lance has a really unique face --- just like Willem DaFoe
I took a look to my left just like you said and I strained my neck, now I’m in a neck brace for the next 2 months…..thanks man.
I saw this movie 🍿 in High School 🏫 in 1977.A lot of people didn’t like it,but I didn’t see what was wrong with it.I thought that Steven Spielberg did a marvelous job with it!The other High School student’s didn’t like,but,I thought it was an interesting 🤔 🍿 🎥 movie!This is when I started High School!That’s what’s scary 😱 to me!
Is anyone else grateful that Hollywood hasn't wrecked this perfect ending yet by cashing in and making some shitty sequel where Roy is in space or come back to Earth in like 200 years or something?
Agree.
You can be sure they will and it will be bland and forgettable. I mean unless maybe they give it to someone like Denis Villeneuve.
@@kaynaramiranda7381 nah. Not even Villeneuve can do it. His work in Blade runner 2049 was good, but he didn't surpased (or came closer) the original. This is the kind of movie that should be lefted alone. The ending is peefect, give it to the spectator imagination and awe (the same awe Roy feels), something wich is very dificult to achieve. No need to change that for a more "Hollywood esque family friendly/sometimes dark" explanation.
@@milesr4609 Well, first off I agree that this movie does not need touching at all. Leave it be.
I think Villeneuve did a great job with 2049. It's impossible to equal the original story and the impact of the movie at the time, but it was a worthy sequel, which is a huge achievement already, comparing it to basically all late sequels to older classics. So if anyone could, I'd say it's him. But honestly, I hope he scales down for his next movie, make something completely different and more intimate.
@@kaynaramiranda7381totally agree!. And if i may give a fun fact, did you know that the original Blade runner was a "flop" back in '82? It lost hard with movies like E.T (a great movie) and Tron (not that great but cool concept), but the time give it the reason and it ended being a cult classic, only another movie of that era had the same kind of fate, The thing.
"tell my family 'fuck you, I'm going to space. '"
😂😂😂😂
nowadays that would be the norm😀
Fairly sure if your family was as awful as his, you'd be off in to space too. I know I would.
All they did was take him for a ride around the block.
Al Universo...
I can’t recall how many times I saw this in the theater. One of the most incredible films ever.
Me to
5:29 a ominous yet majestic part right here is my favorite
Watched it for the first time when I was in St Croix on Vacation 2022 during Hurricane Fiona and I balled my eyes out at this movie and was awestruck.. we had a big hurricane party at the hotel and this was the movie that they played on a big projector screen and we had like 50 people out in hotel ballroom watching this movie.. such a great time ❤❤ miss everyone on island 🏝️
Spielberg doesn’t miss a trick! There’s a cameo, a closeup shot of J. Allen Hynek, UFO expert in this scene. He’s carrying a pipe. I love it!
Just non-stop awe. Spielberg and Williams made sure it's moments of awe stacked on top of each other.
Roy was chosen because of his child like innocent nature.
That is why the child in the film was the last abductee the childs innocence was the final determinative factor that made the Aliens reach out and make contact this theme runs through the entire film starting with the little boy and then moves to Roy showing his child like nature and how his wife feels like she has to be a parent to him, Man in his most honest form is the innocent nature of the child within us and this the main sequence point throughout the entire film that Speilburg was.trying to make.
Although many who see the film tens to miss it.
You are so right, but also more than anything, they chose him because he was invited. He was the only person invited via the implanted vision there to make it that far. One of my favourite cinematography shots of all time, massively backed up by Williams' score, is Roy glancing back and surveying the world as he knows it for the final time before committing himself to his destiny. Genuinely beautiful.
I also think they chose him because they sensed his desire to seek the unknown and that he would give up everything, including his family to acheive it. The aliens were elated that he made it when all the other ones they chose didnt.
And you just know they went and conducted an autopsy on him
Aliens are a bunch of pedos.
@@explorer47422 Or had him for dinner.
Something I just noticed in the sound track, when the aliens surround Roy and escort him toward the ship, the soundtrack plays a snippit of the song "When You Wish Upon A Star". That got me right in the feels...
Also the Craft plays the der dum part from Jaws ) John Williams did both soundtracks )
The “Extended Edition” has an additional music sequence with a full orchestration of “Star” in the end credits, and it is beautiful!
Yes he hears it earlier in the film when a Pinocchio song box is spinning next to him. Fitting its heard again before his journey.
I think i only saw Pinocchio once, maybe twice, so didn't realize it was from that movie, and didn't pick up on the tune until someone mentioned it elsewhere.
Easter eggs!
2023: This movie, 46 years old, is better than anything made today
Arrival is really good.
The first, insect-like alien is really scary.
We would be pretty scary to beings not at all like us.
I like how the face was kept in shadow --- probably had really creepy eyes and teeth (for munching on human flesh)
Many sci fi novels set in future space, describe a genetic branch of humans adapted to zero G, with long limbs and heads. Eg The Expanse. Perhaps this is such a branch of the alien race ?
Also, where did he disappear to?
Dont be sacred. Its just our alien overlord coming to harvest our souls for energy.
Take a good listen starting at 9:00. You'll hear the tune "When you Wish upon a Star". Well, that's what I hear anyway.
Yes, that is the tune that is heard. Spielberg claims that it was the lyrics of this song that helped him write the screenplay for this masterpiece. The tune is actually heard a couple of times throughout the movie and at the end credits of the Special Edition.
me too
I didn't notice that ever..thanks
Roy and his family was having a Disney moment there
The cinematography of this movie is truly impressive. The scenes have an artistry and a depth of field that is so rewarding!
The moment that little boy says "bye-bye" still makes my eyes well up.
Only thing taking impact away from it was that he had already said it prematurely around 10 minutes prior.
2:05 I loved the part where he's walking out of the Mother ship with everyone else then running into his Mother's arms!
Cary Guffey was told the filming was over.
I always loved the prayers from Psalm 91, and The Pilgrims Prayer that the priest recited with the people trying to go with Roy on the ship, and how that bittersweet symphonic melody cuts into it as they depart for the ship, and Roy is chosen. It took me a long time to figure out what scriptures he was reciting. Beautiful!
We all know they picked him because he wasn't one of the weirdos wearing sunglasses at night.
The Sun never sets on badass
"You're everything we've come to expect from years of government training." _Men in Black_
i saw that. i think he was use to the bright light.
Roy was the only one of the "imprinted"people that made it to the back side of the Devil's Monument...
So that's why Cory Hart sang that! All these years wondering why ... 😂
I got somewhat emotional watching this scene (I haven't seen the movie for many years). The perfect match between visuals and music. Beautiful.
These are sof the most beautiful scenes ever committed to cinema.
8:18
I love the quotation from "When you wish upon a star", extremely fascinating.
John Williams, in his brilliant score, wrote out an interpolation of When You Eish Upon a Star. It’s recognizable and beautiful
I'm not hearing it, but, you may believe whatever you eish.
@@CoCotheTurtleIt's right there
There was also a special edition of this movie which showed him going into the ship and seeing how amazing it was. I liked it too.
"IT'S A COOKBOOK!!!" 😭
LOL
🤣 oh no
Isn't Roy's last name Chambers? 🤷🏽♂️
To serve man
😂
Watched this great movie when I was a young boy, I am still fascinated by this movie, particularly the ending scene, so touching and amazing in many ways. Thank to Steven Spielberg for his creativity and imgaination
In the directors cut Roy is inside the space ship looking around in awe
wrong
I don't think Spielberg considers that "the director's cut;" it may be the "extended version for TV." He got the money to film some more investigation scenes like them finding a ship in the Gobi Desert as long as he filmed inside the space ship. The third version which may be "the director's cut" takes the latter out but keeps some of the extra scenes he filmed for TV. I was hurt that it wasn't on the VHS, and was one of the last VHS tapes I ever bought.
@@sandal_thong8631 How could they climb to the top of the spaceship if they took the latter out?
just realized those red outfits and sunglasses look very similar to what the visitors wear in the original V miniseries
At least their not orange outfits
I have this same collector's edition, there are 3 DVD'S, one of which Steven Spilberg puts the scene that the character Roy asked him so much to see the ship from the inside as it should be and it's very beautiful.
I had seen that version first, so really missed it when I got the movie on VHS, (one of the last VHS tapes I bought) and it wasn't on it. I can see how he'd want to make you imagine what Roy might experience. But the ending as the credits roll with the ship leaving, made me feel, "that's it?"
For WW2 soldiers that haven't aged, I love their 1974 haircuts
Excellent point. I am surprised the WW2 buff Spielberg did not catch that and require military standard haircuts.
That spaceship had everything. You think they didn’t have a barber on board?
cant believe I never noticed that dog sliding down the ramp
Nobody notices the woman in 16th-century clothe. The aliens had been kidnapping people for centuries. All those lives they hijacked and destroyed.
I think John Williams is one of them. How can one composer be so epic!
He's brilliant, but some say he's derivative based on what's come before, whether Holst's _The Planets_ or Aaron Copland's works. He seems like he plays inside the box of the London Symphony Orchestra. Nothing strikes me as avant-garde like using unusual instruments as Ennio Morricone did in the Clint Eastwood movies. Some rock and rollers want to do a song or two alongside an orchestra (however impractical for live performances), like Richard Dreyfuss's titular character did in _Mr. Holland's Opus._ The Wonder Woman theme was played on an electric cello, and Trans-Siberian Orchestra is popular but I don't see John Williams doing something like that. The Cantina Theme from _Star Wars_ is the only thing I noticed that was "different." He says he wants to do a James Bond theme: electric guitar plus orchestra plus female vocals. Will they ever let him?
Fun fact: the French guy is based on real life UFO investigator Jacques Vallee.
@ Rose G That's absolutely right. However it's a shame that he couldn't have done a cameo in this movie, because at around (1:07) Dr J Allen Hynek (god rest his soul) plays a cameo role. So I couldn't understand why Jacques Vallee did not. Getting François Truffaut to appear in this was the next best thing.
Oddy enough, I'm also half French and have been studying the UFOs and other paranormal subjects for over 35 years.
Jacques still to this day claims that the aliens are demonic entities.
Um correction he calls them Ultraterrestrials meaning beings that operate in higher dimensions
What a brilliant film..it's wonderful sci fi but man! It makes me tear up every time I watch this masterpiece....the music, the sentimentality of it all...just perfect and beautiful!
this is the best alien movie ever made.
“Yay! I get to abandon my wife and kids to go into a UFO with aliens who don’t love me or care about me!“
"Whoa! Probing me already, huh? Aren't you going to at least ask me out to dinner first?"
Steven Spielberg actually said in an interview that he wrote Close Encounters back before he met his wife or had his children, and if he were to write it today he would never have had Roy fly off with the aliens, because now that he was a married man and a father he understood the love a dad has for his kids. Back then he didn't "get it."
Don’t threaten me with a good time.
@@chooseyourpoison5105Glad Steven had a change of heart. As great it would be that friendly aliens would give me an offer of a lifetime to go with them, I wouldn’t leave my family for it.
“But … that would also mean I have to leave the few people who do care about me and wanted to understand me…”
05:27 This scene scared the bejesus out of me as a child. It still does. The score, the lighting. The Carlo Rambaldi alien is so strange, compared to the other guys.
Good God this movie is just so incredibly fascinating.
My most favorite movie..I watched it at a theatre 4 times, and I have a DVD copy that I watch often !!!!!
Seeing this as a kid all them years ago really fucked me up a bit. Thinking of things I shoulden't even be considering.
Why not?
hahahahaha...good thing you didn't watch The Exorcists
@Logan Fiive Life, Death, travel, Aliens. Maybe a great beyond? I just wanted to play videos games as a kid and be a rebel from starwars.
Why shouldn't you be considering them? Are you just a sheep?
@@v05555 who are you?
Close Encounters…. A beautiful movie about hope and optimism that still has one of the most pants-shittingly freaky moments ever filmed at about 4:49.
I always laugh at that one..
"We gotta get this ramp fixed, I keep breaking my back at planetfall!"
That musical cue and that friggin' puppet. Oh yeah I know it shocked me as a child.
So many aliens were antagonistic to humankind before this movie. It really opened up another alternative for movies.
I always wondered what the deal was with that "Slenderman" alien. Where does he go? You never see him again. And how come he was the only one that was like that? Did the aliens have a caste-system biology with different types, like workers, drones, soldiers, etc.?
@@heatchills4093questions I've often wondered myself, but no answers.
Why are aliens always naked? With the technology they have, you'd think they could make some clothes.
I suspect that they don't share our body shame that we can't seem to shake. We could learn quite a bit from them if we could get past our attachment to clothes and our irrational shame of the human body. My two cents.
It is a outer covering holding their body together. Like a body suit.
i felt so happy for roy when he was able to go.
The aliens are criminals.
As Roy boards the alien ship, someone yells out,"It's a cookbook!"
Exactly what I was thinking. 😁👍
🤣😂😂 good one !
Nice! 🤣
LOL - very good!
Wait, there's a little space dust on here
Welcome back Navy!!..welcome back!
I wish there was sequel made...there's so many unanswered questions, like when did we first discover the aliens, how did we know exactly who was abducted, did we have any aliens in exchange for people, how did they decide which people were going to go back onto the ship, what was the debriefing like for the people coming home, how many species of aliens were on the ship (it shows 3), where they aliens at all or future versions of us?
That is the best sci fi movie ever in terms of alien movies. My all time favorite and also terminator 2
Very different but great movies! Encounters for the whimsy, T2 for the badassery. I would add Alien for the terror.
@@kaynaramiranda7381 my vote goes towards predator over alien.
The “When you wish upon a star” motif gets me every time.
I so loved the running theme of music being the universal language
There was a documentary suggesting that for this film. But I think you have to be human and know something about other cultures to pick up on the conventions of music, whether Chinese instruments and presentation, or Andes guitar and flute, or even steel drum band.
I had watched this movie the first time in high school and when I watched this ending, I was crying tears of joy, it was so beautiful.
Edit: dammit, I'm crying again!
Great storytelling and film. I grew up on this movie fantasizing that maybe one day in my lifetime I would at least witness a UFO. Not a vague look...but see one clearly. Even if it meant possibly being in danger. As there are some ufo encounters that ended up in illnesses or even death from unknown causes or radiation poisoning.
There are also those that result in inexplicable healing. It's difficult to tell just how many dimensions exist...ones that interact with our own, that is.
soon my friend.. soon
I'd like to see a real SETI discovery, like a radio signal or laser from another planet around a star within 1000 light years. _Contact_ suggested they might send plans to send one or more people on a journey there and back again. But I like the idea of them sending us an Encyclopedia Galactica (or even _The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy)_
8:32 Alien in the center already on his mobile phone texting his friends they got to freely abduct a guy yet again.
LOL
Hopefully Rory would come back one day.
No one aged a day, but they could "deep fake" the face with cgi now a days.
What do you mean?
They’re fattening him up with mashed potatoes
I don’t believe that, that’s silly.
@@rbryant100 Yeah....from the sci/fi story, "To Serve Man"
If there were a sequel, the humans from the Mothership would explain where they had been...
Yet all we get now are marvel trash and transformers.
Imagine if they actually return in the present day and the people who went with the aliens never aged a bit due to the aliens technology I don't know how they would react after seeing how the world has changed since they left it would had been an interesting concept for a movie and it's even more interesting if Roy finds his children as elderly people or at least middle aged adults and he well would still had looked like he did back in the 70's.
I’m sure for them it felt like a 40 minute trip.
Well they didn't keep Barry long, he was probably more than they could handle.
He wanted to keep hearing "The Square Song"
with all these recent UFO sightings lately we need a sequal…. “The Return of Roy Neary”
If only Rory’s family were here to see this, they would finally believe him.
If only Roy CARED about his family, he wouldn't have abandoned them to fly off with aliens.
But since the aliens came, his obsession grew, he was sad that he was forced to let his family leave him. It was hard, he had no choice.😔
@@blue-sea8901 Except he DID. He chose his obsession about aliens OVER his wife and children. And ended up abandoning them completely, at the end of the movie, with a smile on his face. Very inspiring and uplifting. 🙄
Well he was also scared of whether the aliens are peaceful or dangerous too. But yeah, I wished they would've made the scene where his family sees him go.
Roy did what Jesus told his disciples that all men must do, to be with God..to make God the most important thing in life...even over your family....Roy just did it with his desires to seek the unknown which were the aliens
Interesting how the musical theme at the end is very similar to what Williams later wrote for the ending of E.T.
9:04
I never noticed that part of the music! How did I miss that?!
I always wondered if the other volunteers were left behind or if they boarded the ship and we just didn't see it.
I think they were more than happy to oblige. Just they finally got a human they picked themselves to show up.
Those people were not invited like Roy was.
They went aboard they werent in the next scene and wouldnt have walked away.
I have watched this movie from the beginning to the end, yet they have deleted the final scene where Roy meets the exterrestal,and takes his hand, looks back at the other humans and says GOOD-BYE, this has to be the best shot of the whole movie, it will actually leave you breathless, it's like when you die,and go to a different dimension of existence, as my father once told me about life, to the AFTERLIFE, which is Eternal life. Great movie.
The aliens got off the ship and acted like they were first time at Disney world.
I'VE GOT THIS MOVIE ON DVD AND It's A GREAT SCIENCE FICTION ONE AND STVEN SPIELBERG DIRECTED THIS MOVIE 😁
Excellent film, masterpiece!
Just like in action movies where the guns never run out of bullets, her camera never runs out of film. No matter; I want to see this entire film again.
OH MY GOD I HOPE THEY BRING BACK ELVIS!!!!
Yes. The. Man. Voice. Does. Sound. Like. Elvis. Quaves. He. Said. And. This. Is. Made. After. Elvis. Went. To. Heaven. So. God. Has. Angal. Elvis. No. Coming. Back. To. This. Pea. Size. Planet. Trust. Me. They. Destroy. Elvis. Earthly. Body. Cause. They. Knew. God. Was. Showing. Offf. With. Mr. Presley. So. Earth. Don't deserve. Uniqueness. Let. Them. Love. Money.
I remember seeing this film when it was first shown at cinema's. Fortunately I had read the book prior to watching the film and it helped me to make sense of the various random scenarios that all merge into one story. In the later Special Edition version of the film, after Roy enters the spaceship, he is showered by lights & emerges physically transformed ( well that's how ive always interpreted it) and it is the transfigured Roy that afterwards emerges and presents himself to the scientists & communicates with the hand gestures.
I've watched the movie many times since and still enjoy it as much as the first. Storyline and special effects were light years ahead of its time.
Imagine what a bummer it would be if Roy gets inside, and finds out he's the snack on the way home.
Roy, NO. It's a cookbook
"This one. We wish to eat this one."
The adult alien never convinced me but the child ones are excellent..great film
I like to think that the entire group of Aliens are actually on a Field Trip. That would explain why there was one lone adult alien and nothing but children alien.
It would also make sense as to why they played around with us.
Interesting ending. I always imagined a slightly different ending where Roy's family witnesses wbats happenings, the wife apologizing for doubting him, the kids tearfully begging him not to leave, and Roy promising to return with some souvenirs for the kids
Roy should of just walked up the ramp and shut the door and be like, 'dis my ship now fools'
Haha! Hard out..👍
Sit down Roy, we just want to show you this long pokey thing and these gravity straps
5:29 Movies were made for images like these. Awe-inducing.
I still choke up when Gillian and Barry are reunited 💙💙
That kiss exchanged between Barry's mom, and Neary was
not just a friendly kiss. You got the feeling that their
relationship was a lot more then casual. Soulmates you could
say, simply because they were drawn together by this encounter.
I liked how he just leaned into her, and she sensed that, and
instantly responded. He would have had one of those Bridges Of
Madison County decisions if he was to leave his wife and kids.
I think Neary would not have done so, simply because he loved
his wife and children too much to leave them. His character was
one in a million at that.
Can you imagine how tough it would be for the abductees being released? Go missing in 1890 and now you're in 1980 or so, and nearly 100 years have passed, it's a totally different world and your family is dead. Hell, even the ones who went missing in the 50s would have a tough time as they haven't aged but everyone they love did.
Roy has actually gone full mental and this is all happening in his head
Not that kind of movie haha.
I think a lot of people would faint seeing aliens appear from a ship
I wouldn't! Send Santos DeSantis Trump Mitch McConnell and rest them with them!🤨
Except they already seen them before..
In my 41 years on Earth, I've never seen this movie! That's about to change real quick!
Bruh, why did the aliens send the big scary dude out first!
The Kanamits picking up their food to bring home. It’s a cookbook!!
I love this film (the late film critic Stanley Kauffmann compared it to an opera, with its key sequences as arias); but I never understood what a terrifically advanced race could learn from ordinary men and women that they couldn't learn simply by monitoring our airwaves and popular culture. (God help us all......)
Elliott: "How do you explain school to a higher intelligence?"
@Lalealyn True. Interestingly, the movie Explorers depicts a pair of young aliens who "learned" about humanity through popular media (well. the one from 1985).
Why do Humans visit other cultures on the other side of the globe? Same reason.
There's a place within me that's awed and terrified all at once...😮
They probably started torturing Roy as soon as the doors closed
every time I watch this scene I can't help but think, when the Tall Alien is coming out of the ship they couldn't have raised the ship up just a couple more feet so dude didn't have to crawl out of his ship like that? LOL.
If I was that kid’s mom I would be PISSED OFF at those aliens.
why? he was gone for seconds from his perspective. she appreciated the fact that he had just gone on a privileged journey that billions would give their lives for.
Barry was an alien too....look at his face😀
John Williams score is celestial.
Voyage
60.3K subscribers Turns out these aliens are actually misunderstood, as they were mistaken for hostiles, but are actually very friendly. And seeing this scene again I still have a question in my mind that bugging to me as to, "Why did these Aliens chose Roy instead of both Roy and those other people selected for the visit to the Alien Mothership?"
Cause Roy has alot of questions need answered. He's addiction when he was sculpting the mountain with the marsh potatoe scene & the clay scene in his home. He was far more worthy than the rest of the people.
@@JinxedByZ Oh, thank you. It's been a long time since I watched this movie. Also will there ever be a sequel to the movie (either a book or movie sequel)?
@@jamieolberding7731 Also the rest were more like scientists who uses science for knowledge. Where Roy is just a regular guy who doesn't have a clue what's going on but he has like imprinted memories in his head seeking for answers. I dont think there was or ever will be a sequel. The movie basically ended with Roy being taken by aliens.
@@JinxedByZ That's a shame, but I would like to see Roy come back to Earth as an official interplanetary ambassador to Earth and being reunited with Joy.
Because unlike the others , Roy has child like wonderment. He's not there on behalf of any government, or organization. He's there because as he said he just wants to know that its real. Like. His curiosity and wonderment are worthy of the visitors trust to welcome him to travel and learn!
Brilliant film. Steven Spielbergs masterpiece.
Yeah, nice and all but what the FRICK IS THAT NOODLY MONSTRUOSITY? 4:51 And why the creepy music??
That’s probably the top dog making sure everyone’s cool
In the 1980 Special Edition version, Roy Neary discovers inside the Mothership.
I am thinking of writing a story about aliens only it’s about alien dogs. It’s called The Heart of Alien Dogs where there will be Dachshund dog aliens with telekinesis powers.🐶👽
Sounds like The Cat From Outer Space.
I see. I never saw the movie before.
Check out the alien's hair style at 8:18 in the far left.
Are those photographs that she took, stored in Area 51?
Right next to the Ark of the Covenant.
@@KatriceMetaluna LOL!!
She sold them to THAT KOOK ALEX JONES😀
The other astronauts look like visitors from V:
Where’s Will Smith? Welcome to Earf!
no punching the aliens >:c
Now that's what I call a "close encounter!"
His buddies the Men in Black are at the 6:30 mark😃
Since this film came out we've had aliens this, aliens that and aliens the other. All wonderous visions captured on film. But at the time, this is what we'd all been waiting for. There's no describing how amazing this seemed, how hopeful ...