Yet of all the movies I’ve ever seen the one I most wish would actually come true is the original version of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).  It isn’t Steven Spielberg’s best film (it may not be in his top five!) but it is the one which resonates deepest within me.  I want to be Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), driven almost insane by the mental image planted by alien intelligence, risking everything to reach the place I cannot stop thinking about and seeing with my own eyes the most momentous moment in human history.  Having witnessed this glorious cinematic adventure, I yearn for something of the sort to happen to me in real life.

As a science-fiction buff I am thrilled that Spielberg imagined this generally benign convergence of civilizations the way he did.  Far too many sci-fi films depict aliens as monsters or egocentric conquerors intent on destroying our Earth and taking it for themselves.  Spielberg imagines aliens with an insatiable curiosity that really mean no harm even when they kidnap children and recklessly immobilize entire power grids in Indiana.  His film is all about having faith, no matter what the government or one’s own senses indicate to be otherwise.  I’m not a religious guy but this movie delivers as close to a religious experience as I will ever get.

I happened to visit Devil’s Tower, Wyoming just a few months before the film was released, which adds to its raw power for me.  And though the climax is superbly awesome it is the middle section that I find gut-wrenchingly compelling; Neary’s confusion about his obsession is the heart of the story.  It is the one movie that I wish were telling my story rather than Roy Neary’s.  My rating:  ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆.  (10:4).