Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) written and directed by Steven Spielberg is a classic film about first contact with a visiting alien race. The main character in the film, Roy Neary (played by Richard Dreyfuss), is an electrical line worker who after an alien encounter becomes obsessed with a series of mentally imprinted images and sounds. These images and sounds help guide him and other individuals to a secret location where a large delegation extraterrestrials will dramatically encounter the human race for the first time. First contact!
Music and sound play a very important role in the film. The music score is by the great John Williams. Close Encounters of the Third Kind was Williams’ second film with Spielberg (the first being Jaws in 1975), and became among the first of many collaborations between the composer and director. After their very successful creative collaboration on Jaws, Spielberg and Williams worked closely on the early creative development of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, during it’s conception. Elements of the music score were developed at the same time as the script and specifically integrated into the film’s structure, making them active story levers in the plot line.
