Loyola Greyhound

Issue date: 4/24/07 Section: Arts & Society

Pictured here is a spaceship passing over the Devil's Tower National monument, a scene from the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." The film looks at the three different types of associations that people can have with extraterrestrials

I presume that a majority of the students currently attending Loyola have taken the time to enjoy "E. T.", "Independence Day", "Men in Black" or other sci-fi features. However, I think it would be a safe bet to say that few have watched another classic from the genre, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

This engaging and visually stunning film sucks you into a journey in a realm far outside our knowledge. There is abnormal evidence left behind as well as actual sightings of UFOs that often leads to more questions unanswered. Why are planes reported missing in World War II suddenly found in the desert, without any signs of aging? Why does Roy Neary hear the same five musical notes in his mind after witnessing an alien space craft? These questions are steadily revealed in a movie that never leaves you less than breathless.

The story is structured by the three encounters one can have with an extra- terrestrial. The first kind is the actual witnessing of a UFO. Roy Neary (played by one of Hollywood's best, Richard Dreyfuss) is a worker for the local cable company who sets out in the middle of the night to fix a power outage. While lost in the back roads of rural Indiana, his car is suddenly engulfed by a powerful light that, upon flying away, reveals itself to be an alien spacecraft. This night takes a normal family man down the path of obsession with any reports of similar encounters, five repeated musical notes, and a vision of some sort of mountain structure. As his family life begins to unravel, so does the mystery behind his descent into madness.

The second plotline involves the second kind of encounter which is the evidence of life forms unknown to man. This follows the government agents who find unexplainable occurrences such as the missing World War II planes as well as a long list of witnesses, among them Roy Neary. All of these elements lead to a thorough investigation that they dutifully try to cover up as they mock the claims of sightings in the public eye.

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