Steven Spielberg is a force of nature in the film world. Whatever he touches tuns to cinematic gold. I can remember watching "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" when I was a kid, and while I loved it, I didn't quite understand it. I dug the fact that it was about space ships and I liked that the cat from "Jaws" was in it, but the real truth behind the film never quite hit me back then. But watching it as a teenager changed that, I suddenly had a huge fascination with UFOs and "Close Encounters" is the film that opened up my curiosity.

The genius of this film is the fact that it centers around people that the everyman can identify with; the guy that lives down the street with three kids, the woman whose husband is no longer in the picture, so she roams the neighbor hood with her son quite aware of the whispers in the background. These characters existed then and still exist today. So by focusing the bulk of the plot around them instead of some military unit that only a handful of people could identify with Spielberg made a wise decision.

The film follows a core group of people starting with Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) a city employee with a wife and three kids who has an encounter with the flying lights, Gillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon) and her son Barry (Cary Guffey) who for some reason the aliens are after, and Claude Lacombe (Francois Truffaut) a government official investigating the strange lights. After Roy and Gillian's experiences with the flying lights they can't seem to think about anything else. Gillian because the aliens took her son, and Roy because he is haunted by visions of a strange mountain. He even looses his family, who think he's going crazy. After all is said and done the two of them make their way up to the mystery mountain where they find a military base that is throwing a welcome to Earth party for the aliens.

This film is awesome! I could watch it over and over again. Spielberg captures time like no other filmmaker on the planet. If you were born around 1977 when this flick was made then the visuals on the set are like slices out of your life. But somehow the his films don't seem dated either. Every detail is thought of when it comes to the characters and the settings they inhabit. Also the special effects are amazing and knowing that they were done using models instead of 3D (which wasn't where it needed to be at that time) makes them even more unbelievable. One thing that I enjoyed about the flying lights was that not one of them was the same. I'm guessing that these aliens are very creative and refuse to save money and settle on one design. The cinematography is also wonderful, although with a cinematographer like Vilmos Zsigmond it's not hard to see why. So combine the effects, visuals, directing, and the wonderful cast and you have a nearly perfect movie.

Now being that this is the 30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition it is loaded with cool features. You get the original theatrical version, the special edition (with the short scene in the mother ship), and the directors cut. I'm partial to the original theatrical version, but the other two are also worth watching. There are two documentaries on the disc as well; one about the making of the flick, and one that follows the life of the movie. Of course the theatrical trailer is on there as well, and a nice booklet and poster are thrown in for good measure. Any fan of this movie shouldn't feel any hesitation about picking this set up. "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" is a killer film and the "30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition" is a killer set.