#46 – A Sci-fi Classic (88%)

A Steven Spielberg classic, do I need to go on. Oh! Clearly, I do as you are still here reading it. Scoring a 7.6 out of 10 from IMDb and loved by Rotten Tomatoes with a 95% score this is a classic and great movie. Released in 1977, written and directed by Spielberg it was produced by Julia & Michael Phillips and had the music by the legendary John Williams. This movie was Steven’s follow-up to Jaws and uses one of Jaws’ prominent actors in Richard Dreyfuss. Along with Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon and François Truffaut. Made on a budget of $19.4m, it went on to make $306.1m at the box-office which really cemented Spielberg as a great director and gave him a career in some of the greatest movies ever made. It was liked by the critics as well with IMDb giving this one a 7.6 out of 10 whilst this was another high scorer with Rotten Tomatoes, who gave it a 94%. I am not going to give this plot justice but here we go.

We begin in a dessert where a squadron of fighter pilots have arrived. It was Flight 19 that went missing more than 30 years ago. The planes are perfectly intact and are still function perfectly, but no pilots are present. Meanwhile in the Gobi Desert the missing ship SS Cotopaxi arrives in a similar state. Elsewhere around the world mysterious things keep appearing in the skies, from Air Traffic Control watch tow airlines narrowly miss a collision with a UFO. Elsewhere a young boy goes to investigate strange light one night and leaving terrified mum behind he does not return. Elsewhere Roy Nearly is called out on a late repair of a large-scale power outage and while out on the road, he has an encounter with a UFO and gives chase where he sees it meet up with others. Following this night Roy becomes obsessed with these mysterious things, along with anyone else who have come into contact with them. The obsession that drives individuals towards a central point, for some mysterious reason.

I really haven’t given this plot much of a sale there, but this is a really clever and intriguing movie. It looks at aliens visiting earth but not firing lasers or trying to take over. Here are aliens that are visiting to investigate and why not. They don’t all have to have evil intentions and this movie investigates these options. I believe that this was a forerunner for the movie that saw Spielberg launched into further stardom – namely ET. This is not the children friendly movie that ET, it’s not the alien tearing people apart horror fest, but it is a grown up version of the mysterious of what might be out there. This is a great version of the what if question. Steven Spielberg is a great director, and this is another good movie to roll off his production line. I would recommend it and suggest you give it a chance.

Next up is a horror movie that took me by surprise as I was expecting one thing and I got something so much better…