In Steven Spielberg’s 1977 classic film Close encounters of the third type, an ordinary man caught up in the momentous events involving alien guests. TV writer Andrea Kail says the film continues to amaze her.
Kail said in episode 498 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy audio file. “It was shocking how well done it was. It doesn’t look dated in any way. I think it’s a great movie. ”
Science fiction author Matthew Kressel said that the film should be a role model for screenwriters everywhere. “This is Spielberg’s best film,” he said. “I studied it. I don’t write for television or film — I write novels — but just rhythm, timing. It’s so wonderful. Everything went very smoothly.”
Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy organization David Barr Kirtley agree that Close the meeting works well visually and emotionally, but finds the alien behavior a bit confusing. “If they’ve kidnapped people from World War II, why do they need to communicate by music?” he says. “How do they not realize that the mother will be scared when they kidnap her baby?”
But the writer is funny Tom Gerencer loved many of the film’s mysteries, which had captivated him for more than 40 years. “I really like that they don’t come back and do a prequel or a sequel to try to answer all the questions,” he said. “I don’t want someone to walk in and say, ‘This is the official official explanation of what’s really going on.’ Because what I love more than what it created in my mind, this huge mystery that I can continue. ”
Listen to the full interview with Andrea Kail, Matthew Kressel, and Tom Gerencer in Episode 498 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). And check out some highlights from the discussion below.
Andrea Kail on Close encounters of the third type:
If one [movie scene] seems so long, I’ll go back in time to it, just for my own good, as a writer. Every scene that seemed really long — each time — came out after 3 minutes. Anything that seems too long is 3:30. So I actually started timing the scenes in this movie while I was watching it. The longest scenes are 3:30 — the air traffic control scene and the indoor fight scene right at the beginning, where the kids are screaming, and she screams at him, and he ignores her. It is really painful to watch. Both of those scenes are 3:30, which usually means it’s a really stretchy scene. But both of them I find really, really stressful. I think they did a great job.
Matthew Kressel on The Explorer:
I remember as a kid I hated it when we met aliens, because I thought they were really cheesy and stupid. But as an adult, I think there’s actually a really smart message in there. It’s almost like the oppositeClose the meeting. We expect the aliens to be large, intelligent, spiritual beings who impart all this wisdom, and they might as well be as tangled as we are. I love where the kid watches the giant alien scream at two alien kids, and he says, ‘Oh, that’s dad.’ He knows. He realizes that there is a lot of mess all over the universe, not just at home on Earth. That’s part of it, I enjoyed a little bit.
David Barr Kirtley on Dark Star:
It’s a collaboration between [John Carpenter] and Dan O’Bannon, when they were film students at USC. It was originally a 45-minute school film, and then somehow it was shown to an executive who said, ‘Oh, we can make it a real movie. ‘ So they added a bunch of stuff, including the whole thing with beach ball aliens, to give it length. … [O’Bannon] added to this, where he was hunting for aliens, and it was supposed to be funny, but when he showed it to everyone no one laughed. And he said, ‘Hmm, maybe I should make this no fun.’ So he rewrote it to Alienand that’s where the movie Alien from.
Tom Gerencer on Tron:
“It’s one of those movies that I watch every few years and I really love it. It has an interesting story. It’s not science fiction – it’s fantasy with a tech background. It takes a lot of interesting elements that someone my age grew up immersed in — gladiator movies, video game culture, religion — and pulls them all together and synthesizes them into the world. this completely new, imaginative. … The video games huge when it came out. It’s my favorite video game in the arcade. When I get my free tokens for getting an A in school, I’ll go right into the arcade near us and I’ll pump them in Tron game. And now when I watch the movie, that video game comes back to me. It’s fun. ”
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