Episode 116 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

<p>An Indiana electrician encounters a UFO and goes insane, a baby is abducted by aliens, and scienists have a battle of the bands against a spaceship. Steven Spielberg's follow-up to the massive success of <em>Jaws</em> turns out to be a blueprint for the rest of his filmography: the dissolution of the nuclear family through parental abandonment; strong religous themes and yearning; aliens and horror; the difficulty of communication. Even specific scenes we find in later films first show up here. It's a skeleton key to his body of work, a fascinating bookened to 2022's <em>The Fabelmans</em>, and arguably his best film.</p> <p>Starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and the great François Truffaut. Written and directed by Steven Spielberg.</p>