Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Great story, great acting, amazing effects for its time. The story is good, but it’s amazing how much “smarter” movies like Contact are about this kind of material. Not only are modern audiences more UFO-savvy, but they are more film-savvy. If it was made today, they would have cut about 45 minutes of “boring footage” from it…

Dreyfuss is funny as usual. That night-to-day transition was cool, repeated in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Same shot in E.T. with the lights streaming off the cliff. Why the clouds with the mother ship? Is there a scientific reason for that?

Nice “When You Wish Upon a Star” Disney music at the end and homage to Jaws.

Lots of branding.