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Close Encounters
came out in 1977 the same year Voyager I and Voyager II were launched into
space. Everybody was excited about the
possibilities of space and what discoveries would be made out there.
Folks were looking up at the sky and dreaming about
man’s venture into the cosmos. Close
Encounters tapped into our deep
desires to explore space. Steven Spielberg
guides audiences into a search rather than presenting an invasion underway.
First it’s a search for answers to why we are seeing what we are seeing. Then
it becomes an urge, a desire to express or explain what is being seen. And
before you know it, audiences are
filled with a grand sense of homecoming, of returning. That joy of return and
exploration is what powers Close
Encounters. A lot has been said about the movie’s special effects. An
obvious child of the ’70s with its lack of home computers and portable
technology, they’re wonderful, practical special effects that still hold up
today. But you don’t really notice the tech; what you do notice is its
vibrating core message of exploration and hope which continues to make Close Encounters a great movie.
[J4]“Hungry”
changed to “deep” to strengthen the sentence structure and meaning. Another way
to say this is “…tapped into our deep hunger to explore space.” I think that
this is a stronger sentence.
[J5]“Rather
than feeling that an invasion was underway, Steven…” seems to mean that
Spielberg may have felt that an invasion was underway.
[J6]Changed
to “audiences” to reflect that audiences everywhere felt this rather than only
one audience. You may want to substitute “movie-goers” for “audiences.”
