CE3K and Me
CE3K and Me
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Today is Steven Spielberg’s 67th birthday.
To celebrate this day, I decided to resurrect a relic from my past, an article first published in the Steven Spielberg Film Society newsletter, December 1987, complete with my original stream-of-consciousness grammar and punctuation. Happy birthday, Steven. Happy birthday, Close Encounters.
Watch the Skies in Eighty-Seven
By Joe Fordham (Dec. 1987)
Night skies have never been the same since December 1977. The interweaving story of two obsessive men, their starch for meaning in a mounting crescendo of gifts from the stars and the final meeting of worlds, powerful and dramatic, shattering but never hostile, mystical but real, remains, ten years on, as universal, as scintillating and as much a ‘warm embrace’ as Spielberg originally intended.
The dream movie Spielberg could never put down was peppered with commercials, its full Panavision breadth literally chopped in half by TV-cutoff and Frank Warner's and John Williams' soundtrack filtered down to one channel. The thunderous majesty may have been diminished for a first-time viewer, but the drive of the narrative, the humanity of the characters and the sparkling jewel of the idea really brought it back.
Then came a radio interview with Williams. I taped it on my brother's cassette recorder and, again and again, played back what the deejay called the theme from the film -- the disco version. Pure seventies. The movie was beginning to develop its bouquet, an actual physical odor. For some strange reason, I do not have a good sense of smell but when I find a film that stays with me, it conjours up a ‘smell.' Close Encounters is 1978, sweet, earthy, intoxicating, big.
When the mothership came up over Devils Tower at the Odeon Leicester Square on the 24th of March 1978, I would see just how big. After that, my seaside castles never looked the same. I would spend many weekends [building UFOs] inhaling balsa mood shavings trying to recapture my ‘implanted vision.’ And I would bribe a cinema usherette to steal the poster for me.
Ten years later, I've found a copy of the Close Encounters screenplay. You can see every detail, all that atmosphere, the subtle nuances, all down in black and white; uninhibitedly sketched out by someone highly involved, emotionally tied to a story.
The film is now a period piece -- the clothes, the haircuts, the toys, the machinery, the MacDonalds with only 24 billion sold. You notice these things now and can even appreciate the attention to detail, to the reality behind the myth.
Since 1977, Teri Garr has appeared all over the place, tangling with Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, singing and dancing with Francis Coppola in One From The Heart. Dreyfuss is now making a come-back with Paul Mazursky's Down and Out in Beverly Hills and Barry Levinson's Tin Men. He is less chubby, has more grey hair and an Oscar for The Goodbye Girl. Melinda Dillon has kept going with Absence of Malice, TV movies, and Harry and the Hendersons. But now Truffaut is gone.
And so, full circle back to John Williams, the unifying entity, the musical spirit. It's September 1987 as I write this, and Williams is back scoring for Spielberg, recording music for his upcoming film Empire of the Sun. The “soul of the mothership” Williams himself has stated that CE3K is the score he is most proud of. “Timeless and without restraints.” And a really groovy disco version.
Here's to the next time we have the pleasure of sharing a movie theatre with a 70mm print and six-track Dolby sound system or a portable TV propped up by a bed, viewing this golden film, and to all the future generations yet to see it.
Happy birthday, CE3K.
"Watch the skies. We show uncorrelated targets approaching from the north northwest."
"Look with care for the shape of a square, can you fi-ind it?"
"Wha-at is it? Wha-at is it?"
“C’est une petite groupe de gens qui ont partagé un rêve ensemble."
“Zay bee-long ‘ere Mozambique.”
"Allez, allez! Allons-y, plus vite!”
"It's the first day of school, fellas.”
"Are we the first...?"
Reprinted with permission
SSFS © December 1987
ISSN 0883-6094