Great Moments From Cinema - 12

Chariots Of The Gods
Movie: Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (Columbia Pictures and EMI Films; 1977)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Screenplay: Steven Spielberg
Major Cast: Richard Dreyfus, Melinda Dillon and François Truffaut

Film Synopsis: One night during a power outage, Dreyfus sees what he believes to be alien space-crafts from another world. After this, he is plagued by vision of a mountain and certain musical notes, to the point of going insane. It all leads to a final encounter with intelligent species.

My Favorite Moment: The aliens and humans trying to communicate using musical notes.

Why I Like It: If “2001: A Space Odyssey” leaves us in wonder of the Universe, then this film makes us awestruck because of our fellow inhabitants. If “Independence Day (1996)” is about war, then this is about healing. If “Star Wars” is a rock concert, then this is a ballet. If “Contact” is about our quest for finding alien life, this movie is about what we have been missing for so long.

Dreyfus has a nice family whom he adores and lives a typical suburban life, till he sees the alien craft. One night, as he is out checking a power outage, his utility truck is enveloped in blinding light which transfixes him and changes his life forever. Since then, he becomes obsessed with an image of a mountain and 5 musical notes. Because of this insanity, his wife and kids leave him, which doesn’t seem to bother him one bit. All he wants to do is unlock the puzzle in his mind. When he learns that thing which he seeks is ‘Devil’s Tower’ in Wyoming, he sets off on a journey, accompanied by Dillon who has similar visions and who believes that these aliens have abducted her son. On reaching there, they find that US government has cordoned the area. They are able to sneak inside and see an elaborate camp site which is filled with scientists and military, assembled to make contact with these aliens. Truffaut is an UN scientist who helps them in this mission.

The scene is towards the climax as huge spacecrafts approach the area. All of them have colorful lights which seem almost hypnotic. What follows is an inspired effort with both life-forms using musical notes in order to communicate their peaceful intentions. It is as much a triumph for John Williams’s score as for Spielberg’s direction. The entire sequence is played out not as an attempt at making contact, but more as an emotional bonding with a species from whom we can learn so much. Spielberg uses blinding lights throughout the film, perhaps to portray the aliens as hostile visitors. However, the actual encounter reveals them to be friendly, peaceful and someone who are just as curious about us as we of them. It ranks as one of the best spiritual experiences in cinema and those 5 musical notes which are the primer for this new friendship, have become a part of movie legend.

The film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards and is universally loved by young and old. It is one of the most dazzling pictures ever, not because of the colorful lights from the spaceships, but because of the awe with which it fills us. Awe, that we may have billions of friends out there, who are just waiting for our call.