Close Encounters of the Third Kind is Spielberg at his weirdest, most personal and best

Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Steven Spielberg's 1977 UFO epic, remains one of the most influential and beloved sci‑fi movies. Its presence is still felt today — not least in Spielberg's new film Disclosure Day. The film can read as an evolutionary dead end for the genre after George Lucas's Star Wars arrived six months earlier; the two directors even swapped profit points in a famous bet.

Spielberg already sensed that his ecstatic-thriller vision was not a match for Lucas' space fable, and Close Encounters helped shape what he did next: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, and especially E.T. Familiar as its imagery is, Close Encounters still unsettles.

Spielberg kept the sole screenwriting credit and later performed very public edits on the film across 20 years, turning a culmination of his homebrew sci‑fi impulse into one of his most personal works outside The Fabelmans.

close encounters, steven spielberg, ufo, science fiction, disclosure day, george lucas, star wars, e.t, jurassic park, the fabelmans