Jul. 21, 2005 - 7:06 pm
i remember seeing this movie a lot as a kid, but up until we watched it again, i only remembered bits and pieces. actually i don't think Jill had ever seen this one previously, so we decided it was time for us to watch it. what made us think of it? i think it was when we were playing our dvd trivia game Scene It.
yeah, so i'm wondering what exactly is "the third kind"? and what are the other "kinds"? the best resource i've found is here. the third kind is when humans come in contact with a UFO. the first kind is when you see one within 500 feet. the second kind is when you see them affect your surrounding environment. they go all the way up to the sixth kind, where a person or animal is known to be killed by a UFO. weird stuff.
the movie then, is about people coming in contact with a UFO, or really more like a fleet of UFOs that visit the midwestern U.S. some of the people that get really close to the UFOs are sort of implanted with this vision of Devil's Tower, a big rock in Wyoming. they also become obsessed with getting there and meeting the aliens. needless to say, the main character played by Richard Dreyfuss makes it to Wyoming with a couple of other people. he and some scientists get to communicate with the aliens using the famous five-note tune from this movie, and then the movie is over.
it's an interesting film. i also like how Steven Spielberg gets to use his recurring theme of the problem-riddled father figure. the main woman who is changed by the aliens is an unmarried mother, and Richard Dreyfuss's character leaves his family to be with the aliens.
i can also definitely see how this movie caught the public eye. it has a lot of gimmicks in it and then we're always fascinated with aliens. ...especially when it involves them coming to visit us on our own turf.