Mistaken Genre: Science Fiction What It Actually Is: Fantasy/Drama Steven Spielbergs 1977 classic was dubbed by noted science fiction writer Ray Bradbury as the greatest science fiction movie ever made. Starring Richard Dreyfuss as Roy Neary, a blue collar worker in Indiana whose life changes after an encounter with an unidentified flying object, Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a long-time pet project for Spielberg after he first cut a deal with Columbia Pictures in 1973 to explicitly develop a script for a brand new sci-fi film. But like other Spielberg films from this era, Close Encounters contains plenty of whimsy and fancy, while being light on any actual science. Close Encounters is actually a dramatic fantasy film about human alienation. The aliens and spaceships are used primarily as a device demonstrating Roys inability to connect with those around him.