Possible a faulty mechanical shark It was the best thing to happen to Spielberg’s filmmaking career. Having to gradually build tension through an unseen threat, the director learned the importance of belated disclosure. “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” captures the audience with bizarre occurrences: planes lost during World War II emerge intact in the Sonoran Desert without their pilots; A ship believed to have sunk off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida has been found in the Gobi Desert; Air traffic controllers in Indianapolis witness an unexplained near miss with an unidentified plane.
Spielberg gives us a taste of the light show that will unfold when Richard Dreyfuss’ Roy Neary comes into contact with a non-otherworldly spacecraft (and little Barry Guiler’s abduction), but it delays the good things until the fascinating final half hour. Although Spielberg, Trumbull and Roy Arbogast more than offered fascinating products, there was a very close encounter that could not be achieved in the pre-digital age.
The scene in question included the “cuboids” described below. “Close Encounters: The Ultimate Visual History” by Michael Klastorin as “dozens and dozens of light cubes dispersed on the landing strip by three reconnaissance ships”. These are basically grumpy beings hovering around the techs at Devil’s Tower, looking for cameras and posing for pictures. Eventually, according to Spielberg’s script, they would turn into “galactic gold dust running in all directions” and cover the assembled audience.
What went wrong? About almost everything.