Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Aliens, the friendly kind, come down to chill with Richard Dreyfuss. They speak in music, and Francois Truffaut leads the team to understand them. Off to Wyoming! Directed by Steven Spielberg.

I have marked this as not previously seen because the only version I had seen was on TV, edited for content and pan and scan. Seeing it on the big screen was like seeing it for the first time.

The film was constructed around the music. John Williams was meeting with Spielberg at the time that writing was occurring, so Williams had already written most of the music by the time filming began. This allowed Spielberg to construct the visual elements of the film around the music, instead of vice versa. The effect is very interesting, almost lyrical at times.

This is during the period of Spielberg's "happy aliens" (as opposed to his more recent "mean aliens"). The thrills come less from fear and more from a sense of the unknown and exploration. I do have to say that I sometimes wished we were following the government research team a little more often, but the movie generally keeps a lively pace.