Perform a close reading of the following clips from Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Think about how Spielberg uses ideas of sight and looking (especially with the Spielberg Face) and sound to create a reflexive allegory of the New Hollywood Blockbuster itself. Why are these motifs important for the film? Consider his use of special effects, the concentration of the characters, and how the film includes the viewer in the action (or “marveling,” to spin a pun off of a recent Hollywood blockbuster franchise). Some scholars argue Spielberg uses these scenes to teach us how to watch the Hollywood blockbuster, which was an innovative form at the time. The information in the modules will be important in forming your close reading.
How do these two scenes help us to better understand and problematize the film as a whole?
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