8. The Aliens Are Benevolent - Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
The best understanding of our mind bending moment is gained in comparing Close Encounters with its Sci-Fi predecessors. Up until then, almost every encounter with an alien had been hostel. Even in Star Wars, which contains but does not dwell on alien relations, we see Greedo and the I dont like you either creep antagonizing the human characters. And this was for a good reason. The way Americans felt about our foreign enemies was fearful and hateful, and that was reflected in how we interacted with actual aliens in film. But it was Steven Spielberg who signified our drastic change in temperature with the climax of Close Encounters. This wasnt princesses a long time ago in a galaxy far away. This was us. This was you and your family, wearing bell-bottoms and running after flying saucers. We were fearful of the aliens through the whole film, throughout the history of film for that matter, but in the end something beautiful and unexpected happened. We didnt start tearing into them with machine guns and they didnt start blasting lasers. We played a song. They let go of all the abducted humans and we let go of all of our hate and baggage. They looked us in the eye and invited us to go on a journey with them. It was an overwhelming mind-bending thing of beauty. It softened our hearts, so we could accept ET into our homes shortly after, and friendly aliens into our films. Sadly, butt-kicking alien scum returned swiftly (who could resist the action?), but the casting call for a friendly little green dude would remain a staple of the industry.