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film1977

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Disciplines:
drama
science fiction

Summary

Steven Spielberg's 1977 science fiction film about a man drawn by mysterious visions toward a first contact event.

Core Contribution

Provided Nolan with the template for the father who is separated from family by an encounter with the cosmic -- the emotional architecture of Interstellar.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • Wonder without explanation (Spielberg refuses to explain the aliens -- they are pure phenomenon and their meaning is the feeling of encountering the inexplicable)

Historical Influences

No recorded historical influences.

Intellectual Lineage

New Hollywood sci-fiSpielbergian wonder cinema

Allied Works

Interstellar Contact

Contemporaries & Peers

Star Wars 2001: A Space Odyssey

Minds Influenced

Interstellar

Intellectual Posterity

First contact as spiritual experience in film

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Close Encounters of the Third Kind

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