57. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - Steven Spielberg

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - Steven SpielbergA line worker, after a encounter with UFO's, feels undeniably drawn to an isolated area in the wilderness where something spectacular is about to happen. Steven Spielberg is not the same director he use to be. In the last 10 years he seems to have lost his love for wonder.. his love for fantasy...his love for the child like awe of looking up to the images on our screens. That's not a knock on Spielberg at all. This new "dark" and more grown up Spielberg has given us Munich, Saving Private Ryan and War of the Worlds in recent years. Not to mention Schlinder's List in the early 90's. However these movies will never match up to the sugar rush movies of the 70's, where Spielberg would fill the screen with scenes of wonder and imagination. Close Encounters was the first film I can remember that showed aliens on screen in a different light. These are not the monsters or killers here to take over the planet that was so often portrayed in movies past. These aliens were explorers, here for peace. It's a movie full of hope and wonderthat if there is extra-terrostial life on other planets then they might actually be friendly. Richard Dreyfuss as Neary, the everyday guy that is so much of a constant in Spielberg movies, does a terrific job of grounding the film and giving it a much needed reality for all the supernatural events that occur. To see how much Spielberg has changed, you just need to look at his potrayl of Aliens in War of the Worlds. He is a film maker that has lost his "innocenct" view of the world but again it's not a knock on the legend.. I like the new Spielberg even if it's not quite what we had before.