Close Encounters Of The Third Kind

Communication Essay
“A film is- or should be- more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what’s behind the emotion, the meaning, that all comes later.” (Steven Kubrick). Close Encounters of the Third Kind was produced in 1977 by the famous director Steven Spielberg. On a budget of $20 million dollars, it took nearly four years to complete and was released to the general public in December of 1977. The third kind mentioned in the title refer to “aliens” or unidentified organisms. Spielberg used a variety of sounds, colors, props, and certain camera angles to relay information and communicate with the audience. He uses these methods to help the audience understand what the characters are doing and feeling, letting us know how they are developing throughout the movie. Character development is shown through sound, color, imagery, and actions.

John Williams’ score provides suspense, fear, and anticipation of danger through certain musical tones and phrases. In the scene where the mothership is ascending above the base on the top of Devils Tower, the music creates the feeling of suspense and amazement of the actual mothership approaching.Throughout the movie, a certain musical phrase is heard. It is broadcasted by the UFO’s to certain people including Barry, Gillian, and Roy. In the scene where the mothership is hovering over the base camp, both the operators and the mothership use the same series of sounds and correlation of color to communicate. The musical score and the sound and color musical phrase correlation used in the movie help develop the