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Quick question about Close Encounters of the Third Kind

post #1 of 7
1/12/08 at 7:09am
Thread Starter 
[Moderators: not sure this is in the right bit of HTF; please move if inappopriate here]

*** WARNING - CONTAINS PLOT SPOILER ***

I don't know if this was because the BD disc made me see Close Encounters properly for the first time or maybe I've just been unobservant in the past. At the end of the movie, is the Richard Dreyfuss character

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
the only human who actually boards the mother ship and flies off?


In the past I'd always assumed that it was him *and* the assembled 'official' travellers (if I recall correcly, 12 of them plus the bearded Dreyfuss - duh, spot the symbolism). But looking at the movie in high def for the first time and seeing clearly what was going on in the murk

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
you only see the aliens approach and touch Dreyfuss - the other people seem to be ignored, presumably because the 'message' hadn't been delivered to them


Am I right in this or did I miss something?
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post #2 of 7
1/12/08 at 7:14am

Re: Quick question about Close Encounters of the Third Kind

You are right and I picked up on that many years ago.

I'm moving this thread to Movies and we can continue the discussion there since it's not format-related.





Crawdaddy
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post #3 of 7
1/12/08 at 7:21am
Thread Starter 

Re: Quick question about Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Many thanks. I saw the movie twice (original and special edition) at the theater, but both times in appallingly bad screening conditions, and then on VHS. And frankly, it was hard to work out what was going on at times. It now makes a lot more sense.

It also makes me speculate what the aliens thought of all this:

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
we send this message to thousands of you guys, and only one of you turns up?
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post #4 of 7
1/12/08 at 7:31am

Re: Quick question about Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Quote:
Originally Posted by andrew markworthy
Many thanks. I saw the movie twice (original and special edition) at the theater, but both times in appallingly bad screening conditions, and then on VHS. And frankly, it was hard to work out what was going on at times. It now makes a lot more sense.

It also makes me speculate what the aliens thought of all this:

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
we send this message to thousands of you guys, and only one of you turns up?
That earthlings are a little dense.
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post #5 of 7
1/12/08 at 7:31am

Re: Quick question about Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Quote:
duh, spot the symbolism
13 brings bad luck?
I always thought what you think now, but I must agree that the final scenes weren't totally clear to me (us) either.


Cees
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post #6 of 7
1/12/08 at 1:11pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Quick question about Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Quote:
but I must agree that the final scenes weren't totally clear to me (us) either.

I should perhaps have added that when I'd previously seen this movie not only was the picture quality pretty bad but on at least two of the occasions I was watching it at late night screenings after the pubs had shut with a bunch of fairly inebriated fellow students, half of whom were asleep by the end. Accordingly, my attention was probably not as acute as it might have been

I've similar experiences of a couple of other movies -e.g. when I watched Jaws on DVD a year or so ago I realised that for twenty or so years, my 'memory' of the film had been largely the memory of the plot of the book.
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post #7 of 7
1/12/08 at 4:30pm

Re: Quick question about Close Encounters of the Third Kind

According to a magazine article I read back in 1980, this was one of the plot points Spielberg was trying to make perfectly clear with the Special Edition.

The Cracked magazine parody I read in the 70's presumed all of the red jumpsuited people got to go aboard too.
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