Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Full Length Reaction

I was just at Devil's Tower a few months ago. It's an amazing geological wonder. Sadly, all the stores now are alien oriented. But in the park there's still lots to see and do.

Greg in East TN

Here's a fun fact: at 2:03 in the film, an older man with a pipe steps out to look at everything going on. That man is actually J. Allen Hynek, the guy who ran Project Bluebook for the U.S. Airforce, the agency that investigated U.F.O.s. It isn't an actor portraying him. It's the actual guy.

Kaleigh Kaos

Kind of hard to keep synced . I have several version of this. 4k disk and streaming on vudu

John Cipolla

Ya I guess that makes sense! It definitely left me wanting more which is usually better than showing everything 👍

Jen M

Lol so true about the Bigfoot guy! Such an awesome movie, thanks for watching with me :)

Jen M

Jen: Please realize that the studio (Columbia) *forced* Spielberg to insert the “inside the mothership” shots (by refusing to fund The Special Edition unless said shot was filmed. Spielberg relented because he needed the completion money. The theatrical edition was rushed to theatres because Columbia was on the verge of bankruptcy. The moment Spielberg had the chance (the edition you watched here) he took it out! saying that he believed the inside should be “in the audience’s imagination”

David Olden

Okay, watch-along complete. So glad you loved it. I thought and thought and I think I might have found two candidate nominees for “The Worst” #1: Those two mean helicopter pilots who pranked all those perfectly nice people who just wanted another sighting. Jerks. And the #2 candidate for “The Worst”: That guy who told the Bigfoot story. Sucked any remaining credibility out of the room! Not cool, dude. Not cool.

David Olden

Oh awesome, thanks Dave! I loved this movie so much, I'm so glad you do too :)

Jen M

Oh Thank you Jen! When I was notified that the YouTube reaction was up I ran — did not walk — to my Patreon App and subscribed! Close Encounters of the Third Kind is the movie that made me a Steven Spielberg fan! Thank you!! Dave

David Olden

Awesome! Glad you liked it! I really loved this movie so much :)

Jen M

Out of the dozens of full reactions I've watched on Patreon with Jen and other providers this might be my favorite. You topped The Shining which is no small feat. Thanks Jen! 

Gideon James

Yes this does work and is a great suggestion!!

Jen M

Ya I wasn't sure if the aliens would be the villains! Very interesting to see them this way!

Jen M

Gonna wait a bit for Shawshank. As Chandler would say "I'm all cried out today." I need to stop trying to watch films at bedtime... 😴🤣 Pick back up in the morning, Again. (I may have woken up with a playful mood, comment to follow.) Another absolute classic! The imagery is spectacular, but some of the backstory details are vague. Don't get me wrong, I adore that about this film. It adds to the mystery of "what's out there." There can sometimes be too much emphasis on more packaged answers from modern films of this ilk. But in my head, simply for irreverent fun... Aliens visit Earth on their tour of the known universe. To recruit players for the intergalactic memory light and tone game Simon says. A tournament for which they are seeking players to compete at all levels. Challenge extended and accepted. Demonstrated by level two thousand and eight in that communicational light and tone display. 🤣 It's nice to see alien films when the extraterrestrials aren't necessarily the villian of the peice. A couple of films that spring into the old 🧠 📦 Batteries not included 1987 Arrival 2016

Daryl

Suggestion for you. Download the reaction and play it back on VLC player. If you are having sync issues, then adjust the playback speed by a factor of + or - 0.04 which will accommodate for the difference in frame rates speeds almost perfectly.

Daryl

I'm finally getting caught up on my viewing. It was so great to come back to Close Encounters. I saw this in theaters (yes, I'm that old). Only thing I remember is my Mom and aunt HATED this movie. Great reaction Jen!

That's interesting! I was wondering about that 👍👍

Jen M

Regarding Roy deciding to go with the aliens and leave his wife and kids behind without the slightest concern, this was a result of being written by a very young Steven Spielberg, who had no wife and no children at the time. Spielberg has said that, were he to write this story today, he would never have Roy leave his family behind.

MotoDork

That's so cool!!! Must have been very eerie!

Jen M

Hi Jen, great reaction, especially the last part, took me right back! We camped at Devil's Tower back in the 90's, they played the movie every night on an old VHS. So cool to watch it with the rock looming over us.

Hypnobob

DVD and Blu-ray should be noted too. I watched The Shining on DVD with you. I'm assuming you streamed it? Mine would never sync up. Which on horror movies can be troublesome because the jump scares are off and not shared. Hope that helps. Love what you do. Thanks

Gideon James

Loved your reaction. It seems like I've been waiting a long time for this movie. Ronnie, you have a working VCR?

Joseph H Searles

OH MANNN I kind of wish I watched that one LOL I keep wondering what's inside the ship. I'll need to watch that at some point 👍

Jen M

Thanks for the suggestion Gideon. What about when I watch a DVD ?

Jen M

Thanks Gary! I really loved it too 👍

Jen M

Terrific reaction! I saw one other reaction to this movie and they seemed bored. I'm glad you appreciated it. 😁👌 Though this is Spielberg’s preferred cut of the movie, the Special Edition cut shows Roy going up into the alien mother-ship and what he sees inside. Spielberg started to write a sequel but he changed his mind and adapted the idea into his film “E.T.”. So, some people like to believe “E.T.” is an unofficial sequel to “Close Encounters”, though Spielberg never said so.

Mr. Writhms

Hey Jen, what source did you watch? Most don't know that each source like Netflix, HBO, Amazon have different buffering speeds. If we use a different source then you it can be difficult to sync up. Might I suggest putting what your source was in the header somewhere? Thanks

Gideon James

I came to this movie late. Didn't see it until my early 30s (ish?). It was one of those that I always wanted to watch but never got around to until eventually, I did. And I loved it. The mystery and sense of wonder, and Spielberg is clearly working through some personal things in a fascinating way; really loved this movie, and a great reaction. Good stuff!

Gary Giaimo