Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1977 · Steven Spielberg · 132 min · Sci-Fi / Drama
Close Encounters of the Third Kind remains one of the most optimistic science fiction films ever made, and Spielberg's vision of first contact as an act of wonder rather than war still feels radical. Richard Dreyfuss gives a performance that's both magnetic and unsettling, and the final sequence at Devil's Tower is filmmaking at its most awe-inspiring. The human cost of Roy's obsession complicates what could have been a simple feel-good story, and that tension is what gives the film its lasting depth.