Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Here's your pitch: restless dad sees UFO, chases UFO, boards UFO. Sounds like a blockbuster, doesn't it?

Not to poo poo, but how do you root for the dad when he's leaving his wife and kids behind to hitch a ride with aliens? Maybe this is why Steven Spielberg doesn't write his scripts anymore.

Legend has it that this is the loudest film in cinematic history. Might be. My speakers are not the loudest in the world, let alone the county, so I have to take Wikipedia's word for it. There's plenty of sound and fury going on, climaxing with a righteous keyboard jam between a scientist-musician and the Mothership (which is not only loudest but also the biggest mother-loving spacecraft of them all); throw Frank Zappa in there and it could be a concert album.

Still, even at the beck of sweet, maximum decibel electronica, dad comes off as an anti-hero. He leaves his family behind to explore the stars without so much as saying goodbye. This is unusual for a Spielberg film, who ordinarily gives us a fleshed-out but scrupulous protagonist. Remember Schindler's weepfest, or Indiana Jones tsk-tsking government meddling? We don't get that here, and I can't decide if it's a good thing.

One thing's sure: you would never see that happen now. At the very least his wife and kids would be there for a hug session. They might even go with him, setting the stage for the sequel: Earth Parents are Easy, Close Encounters 2: Parent Harder, or the crossover smash of the century, Indiana Jones and the Musical Mothership, in which an elderly Indy takes to the stars on the ultimate rescue mission that leads him to discover the source of the music of the spheres.