Reel Talk & Banter
Ever wanted to just sit around and make fun of an old movie with your friends? That's exactly what Reel Talk & Banter is all about. Join best friends Omari Williams and Jay Richardson as they rewatch movies that came out at least a decade ago. It's a mix of a film review and a comedy roast, where they discuss everything from the plot to the terrible acting, and even if the film has stood the test of time. Get ready to laugh and hear some hot takes on your favorite (and least favorite) classic films.
Reel Talk & Banter
A Classic Sci-Fi Rewatch Reality Check: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
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A movie can be legendary and still not be an easy watch. We finally sit down with Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and come away torn: the practical effects, cinematography, and John Williams score remind us why this 1977 science fiction classic helped define the modern blockbuster, but the pacing and unanswered questions had us checking the clock.
We break down the film’s parallel storylines, Roy’s obsession, Jillian’s terrifying abduction thread, and Lacombe’s scientific pursuit, and ask what the movie wants us to feel when it refuses to explain so much. The famous five-note motif and the musical “conversation” are highlights for us as musicians, yet we still wrestle with what it means to communicate when nobody can translate the message. We also dig into the implications the movie skips past: the cost of disappearance, the ripple effects on families, and why the government presence feels oddly restrained.
Then the conversation goes full real talk: do we think aliens exist, and if they do, should the government keep that information secret until there’s a plan? If you love Spielberg, UFO movies, film history, or you just want an honest Close Encounters of the Third Kind review from first-time viewers, this one will spark opinions. Subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a rating or review with your take: does this classic hold up for you today?
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Welcome And Why This Film
SPEAKER_00Hello and welcome to the Real Talk Adventure Podcast, the movie podcast where we discuss and review films that are at least a decade old. I'm Omari Williams.
SPEAKER_02And I'm Jay Richardson.
SPEAKER_00And today we are discussing Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Steven Spielberg science fiction drama. This was an audible uh that I called in the last in the last second because this will be back-to-back Spielberg movies for us after covering Jurassic Park last week. And um I apologize for making that change so suddenly.
SPEAKER_01I mean, you know, I'm I'm fluid. I'm I'm gonna do good things. I can I can yeah, I like the rocking of the boat.
SPEAKER_00I mean the the reason was is disclosure day is about to come out and um like a week. Sure, yeah, you can just put anything through random melody. Um John Williams can do it.
SPEAKER_03There you go.
SPEAKER_00I like that we were right there because I was about to say, if John Williams can do it, why can't you, right?
SPEAKER_03Thank you. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00Um I saw I saw uh Spielberg on um an interview with Colbert. I saw him on an interview with Colbert, and he started talking about you know disclosure. It was because disclosure day is coming out, and it was one of Colbert's last guests, and Spielberg was just so excited about the School Day. Oh, you mean recently he recently? No, yeah, recently, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and he was um he was so excited and he was like this dude likes alien. I mean, if you know his his his catalog, it's not a surprise that Spielberg is into you know extraterrestrials and just aliens and all that stuff. So he mentioned Close Encounters, and I was like, you know what? With Disclosure Day coming out, I haven't seen Close Encounters. Let's do it. I'm changing it up. So I changed it up, and here we are discussing Disclosure Day. Um so Close Encounters was produced on a budget of uh 19.4 million dollars. It grossed
1977 Box Office And Budget Chaos
SPEAKER_00306 million worldwide. It finished third that year to what two movies? We were in 1977. 1977 is a huge year, and I I f I feel like you should I know you won't, but I feel like you should be able to get the number one film and then I can tell you what the number two film is. But what other iconic piece of um media IP was released in 1977? Star Wars? Star Wars is correct. Ding ding ding ding ding.
SPEAKER_02I actually got one right. I wasn't even worried about it.
SPEAKER_00Did you know that? Did you guess or did you see that? You saw that, you knew that.
SPEAKER_02I saw it.
SPEAKER_00Do you know what a number two movie is? Yes. Or it was. It was.
SPEAKER_02Give me the first letter.
SPEAKER_00It begins with an S.
SPEAKER_03With an S.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. What is it? Okay. Smokey and the Bandit.
SPEAKER_02You know what? I knew that.
SPEAKER_00Get the hell out of here. No, you didn't.
SPEAKER_02I did know that. I did know that because I also saw that, but I forgot. I thought it was like Smokey Bear or something, something, and I was like, what the fuck is that?
SPEAKER_00Smokey Bear. Have you seen Smokey and the Bandit? Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_03Have you?
SPEAKER_00Of course not. Burt Reynolds? No, fuck no, of course.
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00I've barely seen any movies from the 70s. It's bad. It's pretty bad. Um, yeah. Freaking um, yeah, that's Burt Reynolds.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I was doing a deep dive to just try to prepare the best I can for what you would ask. And I saw that, and I again I was completely disconnected from it. So I completely forgot about it. Even though I just read it. I'm like, what is this? Move on. But I did see it.
SPEAKER_00So um A New Hope, Star Wars, specifically Star Wars and New Hope would have been the movie that was released in May of 1977, which grossed $775 million. You know, it's Star Wars. Yeah, yeah. We don't have to, especially for that time.
SPEAKER_021970 something. Um anything above like a million dollars. I'm amazed. I'm like, damn.
SPEAKER_00I mean, get out of here, man.
SPEAKER_02Above a million, I'm amazed. In the 70s, I'm like amazed.
SPEAKER_00I'm like, get out of here, dude. They were spending money back then on movies, alright. They spent 20 million to make this one. I'm just shocked. I was absolutely shocked. Yeah. Yeah. That's and that's like almost twice the amount. The budget was almost twice the amount of uh Star Wars The New Hope.
SPEAKER_02It was twice. Well, it wasn't supposed to be. I don't know if did you read all of that? Did you read all the controversy?
SPEAKER_00No, enlightened us. Oh my god. Spielberg was just completely tripping.
SPEAKER_02He really he really had a passion project with this. So you know, uh, so I think he originally presented to Columbia that the that the movie's gonna be like four million to make, and then completely blew past that budget. Um they actually had to like they were broke as flips, so they barely had any money. They couldn't cover it. They had to like raise money by like borrowing and all kind of stuff just to pay for it. They'll say that throughout the process, Spielberg was just watching movies all night and then would come the next day and say, I want to add this seat. So the budget was just ballooning out of everywhere, out of nowhere. You have no idea what you're gonna do the next day. They had like three or four different riders attached to it first before Spielberg took it over because they just weren't what he was looking for. Um but they just believed in him because he had just come off of Jaws. Jaws made a ton of money, so they were like, Well, I guess he knows what he's doing. And they just ran. Anybody else could probably touch that down, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh, for sure, right? For sure. I mean, and obviously it did yield, you know, like many returns as well as critical game. So I imagine disclosure day coming up, right? Do you have any idea? Because we I think we all know Steven Spielberg and John Wills are frequent collaborators. Do you know how many movies they've worked on together?
SPEAKER_02Oh my god. Um I know I know four off the top of my head. I know that it's probably a lot higher than that, but I know four of the like for sure. I can say for sure these movies. I feel like every movie, I feel like every movie is seven times higher. Is what seven times? Yeah. I feel like every movie Spielberg has done, John Williams has done a score for it.
SPEAKER_00Like, yeah. Um not quite, but just about. I I guess I think Spielberg's probably done more movies than I thought about, but I actually heard this in that interview with Colbert. So Disclosure Day is about to be their 30th um collaboration together, film together. 30th. Okay, so the cast for this movie, we have Richard Richard Dreyfus as Roy Neri, Melinda Dillon as Gillian Guyler, and Francois
Cast Notes And First-Time Expectations
SPEAKER_00Truffaut as Claude Lacombe. I don't expect you to be familiar with Francois because this is literally the only thing he's ever acted in. Um but Melinda Dillon, does that does she do anything for you? Or are you familiar with her work at all? Yeah. What about Richard Dreyfus? I mean, obviously he's a name, a known name, but he's definitely a 70s, 80s actor as far as like we're concerned, you know. But have you seen a bunch of Richard Dreyfus or any Richard Dreyfuss movies before this?
SPEAKER_02If I had, I couldn't pull it up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Dude, I'm gonna be honest with you. I didn't even know what he looked like. Like I know his name, but when I saw, I was like, oh, okay, Richard Dreyfus is in this, okay, whatever that means. And then the movie started, I was like, is that him? Is that him? Is that him?
SPEAKER_02Oh my god. You hear the name. I like, yeah, Richard Dreyfus is out there, but I'm like, I I couldn't tell you a picture he's in, and I if you know who's a lineup, you're gonna pass right by and be like, whoop, like, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00I would not have known. Not at all. Um, the what was crazy for me about this movie is that I didn't know anyone in the movie, and I don't know if that affected my my watching of the of the film, you know, because like there wasn't there's no one. I feel like for a movie this big, I mean we just established that we shouldn't know who Richard Dreyfus is and we don't we don't know him. But for a movie this this popular and big and and monumental, I feel like there would be a lot more actors in it where you know like when you're watching something from back in the day and you're like, oh, he was in that, oh she was in that. I didn't get that at all. Did you?
SPEAKER_02No. I I I didn't they were there were just a bunch of randoms, like they there was nothing in here that I was like, yeah, yeah, that person.
SPEAKER_00This movie is literally about Steven Spielberg and John Williams. Those are the superstars of this movie, John Williams and Spielberg. That's that's really it. So yeah, so getting into this movie. Um was this also your first time watching Close Encounters?
SPEAKER_02Yes, this is my first time.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, this is first time really getting into it. So I came into it. I'm aware it was about aliens, but the background I really didn't know what it was about. So I was pretty much going in blind and just like, okay, just sitting down and going for it here.
SPEAKER_00How surprised were you about the runtime?
SPEAKER_02I was not surprised. I mean, this man does not know how to do a quick 90. He's like, listen, I have a story to tell, and you're gonna watch every single minute of it. Like, yeah. They said in the record in the uh the little bit of research they did, they said it took them like weeks just to edit like the last like 25 minutes of the damn film. Um when the ending of the mother, the mothership coming down and stuff. They're they're just going through like rolls and rolls and rolls of film trying to piece things together to make it like I guess whatever vision he was going for. Which to be honest, I still don't know. But uh, I guess we'll get into that.
SPEAKER_00That that what you just said doesn't surprise me because I feel like that that end scene was like 40 to 30 minutes long.
SPEAKER_01It was.
SPEAKER_00You know. Um, so you saying that yeah, they had to trim it down to that length, it kind of makes sense to me that that that they were like, yo, let's yeah, I figured it's gonna be long.
SPEAKER_02That's why I started early. Because usually I start like a good hour and a half, but I'm like, nah, let me start a little early.
SPEAKER_00I'm struggling to decide how to approach this movie, right?
SPEAKER_02I'm waiting for you to start running with it. I'm waiting.
SPEAKER_00I know, I know you are, right? So I understand Spielberg is one of the all-time all-time greats. I understand that this movie is coveted in whatever movie hall of fame there is, right? Um discussion we had about Amaris Stadenmeier making the Hall of Fame.
SPEAKER_02Um first ballot Hall of Fame, by the way. Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00First ballot. Listen.
SPEAKER_02Oh, your boy made it. He's like, ooh.
SPEAKER_00That is my boy. That is my boy. I love Phoenix Suns all the way, alright? Shit. Come on, standing tall and talented. You do your thing, boy. Um, I had a tough time watching this movie. I really did. As you know, why we're late for the recording, you know. Um, I had some challenges in in watching
Pacing Problems And Missing Answers
SPEAKER_00this and and preparing for this for this episode. I came in high because Spielberg, great, you know, all that stuff. Um probably haven't watched nearly as much Spielberg movies as I think because you know, we just went over like that list of like how many movies just him and John Williams have together. And um I I likewise didn't really all I knew that there's some it has something to do with aliens, and that was I didn't know how we were gonna get there. So the movie essentially takes like three different storylines, kind of that are slightly separate but all connected, where there's Roy um who encounters a UFO or sees a UFO and just becomes obsessed with just finding out the truth about what happened. We have Jillian whose offspring is taken by the aliens. Sorry, that kid man.
SPEAKER_02I anyway I definitely have a note. This boy deserves to be taken because this man is poor to streets. I was like, get him out of here.
SPEAKER_00I was like, get him out of the I was like, dude, just I was like, let him go, just let him go. You're young, he was only three years old, like we even that attached to him? Like, just oh my god, that fucking kid just oh homeboy is like, oh yeah, come out and play. I'm like, dude. I'm like, why in these movies? Why do kids have to be so off-putting and just carry the fucking room? This woman is terrified out of her life, and he's over here giggling and clapping at ha ha ha ha ha, this is awesome, mom. Oh my gosh. Anyway, and then we had True Foe, who uh was approaching things from a scientific standpoint, trying to explain and understand what was going on here. So these things are happening, and then they all intertwine, and it all comes together, and it literally just comes together because they're all in the same place at the end of the movie. Um I had a tough time. I feel like the movie was kind of slow, the uh the pacing was was pretty slow for me, and I feel like not a whole lot happened. I feel like there were some amazing things. I understand why it won so many awards for the visual effects. And um, I mean, it did not win best original score, although it was nominated for it. Which that seems kind of criminal that it didn't win. Um, so I understand a lot of the accolades you received, but like just as a watching experience, I would never ever put this on again.
SPEAKER_03Damn, it's rough.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I know. Is that too is that too harsh to start off the podcast like that?
SPEAKER_02I mean, I mean, uh, yeah, it's a little, it's a little rough.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I would never watch this again.
SPEAKER_00Uh well, hey, how about you give your more glowing takes on it and uh be more optimistic?
SPEAKER_02Oh no, I agree. I just it's just rough. That's uh oh god. Jesus Christ. Oh my god. This movie was it was very long and it felt every bit long. Like, I'm okay with a long movie as long as I don't under I don't feel like it's long, and it was just long. It was like a long joke, a long setup from a comedian, and zero payoff. Like, there was no explanation to much of anything of what's happening.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Half the movie they were talking French and Spanish. I was like, where's the subtitles? Like, why do I not know what's happening? Which, okay, I kind of get it, but we don't the audience doesn't know. And I don't know if this was Prime's version where the subtitles weren't popping up or what was happening, but that's possible. Too much of the movie, if this was the how it is, too much of the movie was in a different language I didn't understand. And I was like, I guess I'm just supposed to use context, but the movie is just all over the place where I I I had no idea what the Frenchman's role was, other than yes, trying to figure out what's going on, but like, why? Who was that? What who were they? Like somehow the military was involved, some some kind of government entity was involved, and I was like, okay. Uh and uh okay. I I really I all that was happening. I'm like, okay, why are we doing this? But fine, whatever. You'll skip over that. The government's involved. Roy Roy goes insane slowly, which Oh my god. I mean, I'm split on Roy. I kinda understand because you know, this is something you've never seen. I assume you don't expect it in general. You know, he seems like kind of a regular blue-collar dude who just, you know, just a lineman, just here to do his work, just as a nuclear family, good to go. Um, and then all of a sudden, you know, an alien ship passes over him. So it's a little trippy. Fine. Um it is personally. Personally, when he first encounters the aliens and uh they they're uh at the road railroad uh stop and you know the mailboxes are shaking and the light bright rhymes up and all that stuff, and his truck turns off and light turns off and everything goes crazy and all of that stuff. I honestly probably would have ignored that. I would have pretended it would not have happened in my mind. And I'd be like, it must be the win and just keep going about my business. I don't have time for any of this. I don't have time for any of this. I'm going home. I might tell you, I might tell you what I'm uh whatever, whatever. But like, you know. But that's how good, you know. That's depending on how consuming it is, you know. I it didn't really show why he's going crazy.
SPEAKER_00You're just assuming, and he's talking about it, but like you every time he showed up on the screen, he was a little more mad, it seemed like, you know, like a little more like out of it.
SPEAKER_02But I would like to see the journey of like the flashes of the things he's hearing or seeing, and like, okay, now I'm going crazy too. I need to find out why it's happening, but it wasn't that, it was just like everything's happening internally to him, and you're just seeing the output of like now he's throwing bricks and mud through the window.
SPEAKER_00And I'm like, right before that, when they were uh when they were having dinner or whatever, and he starts crying, and his son starts crying. I was like, what the fuck is I had to rewind it? I was like, what just happened? I was like, why are we crying? Why are we crying? What is happening right now?
SPEAKER_02And then you just overwhelmed, you don't understand. I was like, I don't understand because we're not seeing it.
SPEAKER_00Really did not.
SPEAKER_02No, a couple of times I had to rewind it because I was like, it was just flashes to the next scene, and I'm like, something must have happened between that scene and this scene. I must have missed it. Went back, nothing. I was like, oh, okay. Nothing. Yes. Alright.
SPEAKER_00I just just that's how they did it.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, okay, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, I just Barry Barry pissed me off so bad. We were literally doing it. Fuck Barry pissed me off that kid, he and his poor mother.
SPEAKER_00He was one of the worst parts, one of the worst parts about this movie. That kid was just, and I'm not even known if I'm talking about the kid as an act like acting-wise. It's just like how that character I don't know. Like that that kid was so just aggravating to watch him just be so clueless. When he crawled through that fucking dog door, I'm like, all right. I guess that's the last time we saw Barry. I thought that's it.
SPEAKER_02I texted you, I was like, where. Barry. I'm like, oh okay. Mary, you gotta stop talking about him. But it's just cool.
SPEAKER_00Oh my gosh. I just I don't know. So yeah, I I remember thinking, like as I'm watching the movie, right? That okay, maybe we're supposed to be lost and confused because at the end, like it's a it's one grand design, and at the end, it'll all just come together like this wonderful tapestry, and we'll just be like, oh my god, you know? So I was waiting for that moment and it never came. And I think another, I think another thing uh why this movie is suffering for me is that I'm not watching this in 17 in 1977. Yes, yes, I'm way too cynical.
SPEAKER_02I was like, kill them.
SPEAKER_00Get the fuck out of here. I know I was like, why are we so beautiful?
SPEAKER_02Kill them out.
SPEAKER_00Why is there no military fucking presence? Like, dude, oh my god.
SPEAKER_02I was waiting for death by alien and it never came. And I was like, well, because I guess not.
SPEAKER_00I'm like, so I'm having to grapple, like, is that a fault of the movie or is that a fault of myself? You know, like internally, because I just find it hard to believe. And like you said, there was like a brief like military army presence like somewhere in the movie, but it ain't no that whole fucking base was like there was only scientists there. Yeah, and I'm like, bullshit. Bullshit. We would have had a whole fucking just platoon of people with fucking rifles aimed and ready when these um aliens stepped up. There would have been some trigger happy fucking rookie just scared shitless, accidentally fired shot off, and now either we massacre these aliens or they show us how fucking advanced they are. I don't know. I I'm like I'm too cynical to watch this. I I feel like John, not John Woods, um Spielberg wrote, like, you know, did this movie with this this air of positivity and love and all this stuff. And I'm like, nah, miss me with that. Like, I mean, that's sweet, that's awesome. But I couldn't, it could not connect with me. I I don't know, guys. Y'all live here in this time, those of you who are stateside, even worldwide right now, it is it's tough. 2026 has been tough for a lot of people, and um, yeah, I just I'm not I'm not in that space to embrace that message, especially with how long it took to get there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I was just like, nah, man, this this is not at all how this would go if if this was real.
SPEAKER_02No, you are 100% right. I mean, um Spielberg intentionally made it so that we were that the aliens were peaceful and it was just about communication. It wasn't world, it wasn't uh world dominance, it wasn't you know anything else that was happening. It was just really just about they were just really trying to communicate with the people and you know figure out, you know. I mean, but again, we never really got an answer why we're trying to communicate. Like But the kidnapping. They were kidnapping builds. Yes, I know, I know. You have to skip over that part and pretend that didn't happen. What the fuck?
SPEAKER_00Why no, what because I can I can uh wrap my mind around the aliens being peaceful. I can't wrap my mind around humans being peaceful, but if the aliens are gonna be peaceful and that's how you want to portray them, why are they stealing people over decades?
SPEAKER_02Yes, I don't know. And then I don't know. I don't know why they were stealing people, I don't know why they released them, you know, um randomly at this time. I don't know why Roy was accepted on the ship. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know what was supposed to be about him. I don't know. I really don't know. And they never explained it. There was no explanation.
SPEAKER_00They didn't, they didn't so and I know this is my movie, so I should come in a lot more of the answers. Um, guys, full disclosure, I fell asleep watching this. Holy shit. Um yeah, I did. I did. I'm just putting it out there. I did now. I'm not gonna mark sit us all in the movie. I have a lot going on. I was pretty tired. Oh, god. However, excuses, it was like three o'clock in the fucking afternoon, four o'clock in the afternoon, and I passed out on my couch watching this thing. So I I kind of was hoping that you might have some, maybe I missed something because you know I was tired while I was while I was watching it, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Our understanding and takeaways from this movie are the same. And them not explaining a lot of this stuff at the end, or just giving me a satisfying enough moment that I don't need it explained because that could happen too, right? There, I've we've all watched movies and TV shows, but they didn't quite explain everything. But you're like, God, that was so that was well done. Like, you don't even care about those, you know, missing uh questions or or whatever.
SPEAKER_02And or you can fill in that gap. You can fill in the gaps with like the ending, which okay, they took this person because this person does this, and they need to train them to cure cancer. I don't freaking know, but something. But yeah, they just like disappeared.
SPEAKER_00Because they had they had those people ready to be taken by the aliens or volunteer to go to the be with the aliens or whatever, right? Like the people who are in their orange like um jumpsuits or whatever. So a part of me was like, well, do they have like a relationship with these aliens and lasting come like communication with them? And that's not the case, but what why did they assume that they could send these people to go with the aliens or whatever? Like, I don't understand. Like, what was that about?
SPEAKER_02I 100% don't know what you're talking about. I must have missed the part because I didn't know there was anybody dressed in orange that would like to.
SPEAKER_00It wasn't our well, what remember at the end when you when they took Roy, right? Yeah, there was all those other people wearing whatever that color suit was, and they had the green like bag, like sashel with them or whatever. Because it wasn't Roy by himself, he was in a line with a whole bunch of people.
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah, I just thought they were, I guess, scientists and you know, maybe wearing some kind of protective suit. I I don't know. I didn't I didn't pick up that they were supposed to go, but I can I can write it if that's what it is.
SPEAKER_00I think they were they were volunteers to go with the aliens. Because they all had that bag and shit. Okay, all right, well. Um Wow. Okay. So positives, right? I found no because we're we've we're we're pretty negative on this movie. Um a lot of people love this movie, yeah. And um for
What Still Works: Music And Effects
SPEAKER_00whatever reasons. And I I did find some positives in it. I'm sure you found some. Um my biggest thing was I mean uh we're we're musicians, you know, we're we're we're musical people. The whole communicating with the aliens through musical notes and tones or whatever was fucking awesome. I loved every bit of that. Even uh in that last scene where they were doing that call and response answer thing, I thought that was super cool. I thought it was visually visually arresting. Um, like that is like I they and the the concept was floated earlier in the movie, you know, when they had discovered the tone when we in India, when we saw the the people in India singing, chanting, and then that's when uh truthful explained he talked about Kodai. Like I went to school for music education, guys. So um, like the Kodai hand signs that resonated with me because I'm like, oh yeah, you know, like that's like this is like actual music theory and stuff kind of being woven into this movie. So I enjoyed all of that. I thought that was awesome, and I just I loved it at the end. So that is that was a highlight for the me for me in this movie. Um, what about you? What was your did you have highlights? Did you have anything positive, like takeaways? Anything you enjoyed?
SPEAKER_02Um, I'll comment about that part and then I'll I'll I can move on to I guess other things I might have enjoyed. My um I was cool with the the five note motif that they're running throughout the um whole movie. Um but then when they got towards the end with the big billboard style piano essentially with lights and the music and the tones happening, they lost me because the guy who was originally kind of working it, he was like, Yeah, but do we understand them and do they understand us? So I was like, Okay, all right.
SPEAKER_00Okay, yep, yep.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so you don't know what you're saying right now, and you have no idea what they're saying to you. I was like, what if you're over here like I'm gonna kill you? No, I'm gonna kill you.
SPEAKER_00Like, yeah, uh okay, so you know, you know how you ever hear how they talk about like uh a happy ending is just a story where you haven't heard like the real ending or something. Like you stop the story before you can get to like the end or whatever. Right, right, right. Yeah, so that's what you just kind of did. I just gave this big explanation about how amazing this whole scene was. Yeah. And I stopped short of what you just said. No, no, no. We gotta talk about it. Yeah, because you're right, you're right. Is they didn't know what the fuck they were saying. And look, it's at one point though, right after he said that, they were like, We're in control now, or like they were like, it's not like they they were controlling the conversation. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, he said some sh, but so I thought they were gonna say, Oh, so the tones mean blah blah blah, and they just never actually told us what the fuck they're saying to each other.
SPEAKER_02Nothing. Oh, yeah, I do recall him saying, like, oh, I we got this, and they flicked some kind of switch, then all of a sudden their piano was just going by itself, and I was like, Correct. Okay, so a cat is on this shit because nothing is happening anymore. Like, what is that? Like, there was no sense anymore, they're just smashing at the same time now. So I'm like, okay, this is uh weird conversation to be having of just screaming over each other. But all right, whatever.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like again, it it was just it was cool musically, and I identify the the the instruments and the orchestra because I'm picturing the instruments and the orchestra playing these motifs and going back and forth. So for sure. I I stepped out of the movie and was just like, yo, this is this is just a cool scene. I'm just imagining John Williams writing this and having his orchestra perform it. But yeah, everything you just mentioned also warrants um yeah, attention.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I don't know if this was intentional, but I did kind of like not kind of I did like the suspense in the beginning. It felt sort of like a scary movie in a sense, and I was like, is at first I was like, is this intended to be a scary movie? I mean, I'm not really sure, but it did feel like it, and it gave for me a little bit of that suspense, like, oh, I wonder what's gonna happen next. So I was interested. I was interested in the beginning of like, oh, okay, well, you know, are these good guys, are these bad guys they're assholes to people just going through their fridge, apparently.
SPEAKER_00But are you referring to that initial opening scene where they were trying to figure out what where these missing people went? Or you just mean like totally the first like half an hour, 45 minutes of the movie you're talking about?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the the first like maybe 45 minutes, where we start with like the planes and oh, where these come from, and there's no landing strips or anything like that, and then getting into the different homes and you're kind of getting like fast movements of things, and the children, aka Barry is being kind of weird and creepy, you know. Usually the the young child is usually the first to go. Then you had these random like bystanders that were just standing on the side of the road staring off into the distance. I thought they were like connected more in a way, like they understood what was happening, and they were gonna give us a little bit of feedback.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah. I th I had that feeling too.
SPEAKER_02But then they just didn't, and I was like, okay, um, cool. Um I like I said, I think it's more of I like the choice of the aliens or peaceful. It's not a bad choice, and it's not something that is typical. So I like that that we that he did go to uh another way with it. Because every other movie in general is always the alien is trying to kill us, and there's you know, and you know, we think we're better than them and they just slice and dice us really easy. So I did kind of like that, um, but it felt like it needed to go that route. He was pushing it so far down my throat in that way that when he went the opposite way, it felt like a bad payoff of like so I don't know, that's a good or a bad. Um it depends. The visual effects would have to be my number one. Um this is 1977. Uh nothing looked well, I don't say nothing, but a lot of it didn't look like me with a stick trying to move things around. Like it looked it looked as real as it possibly could have at that time. And I thought the effects were like practical. They aren't using CGI at this time, right? Um, they're just using lights and you know, whatever whatever else um to kind of uh and film with the 70. They they shot a lot of the effects in 70 millimeters to get that crisper, crispy, crispier um uh shot there. So I thought that was very cool. And the when the mothership did reveal, it was very impressive. It was very big, it was it was, yeah, it was cool. It was very cool, it was very impressive. It was like okay, right, and then the music John Williams pushing the pushing, driving, driving, driving was like, okay, yeah, now we're here.
SPEAKER_00Um and you know, I didn't I did mention him not winning, um not winning for best score because it was nominated, but I would be remiss if I didn't kind of clarify that statement. He he he didn't win for that, but as we stated, this was the year of Star Wars. So essentially the things they lost out on, they lost to Star Wars, and John Williams still walked away with an Academy Award for Best Score because he also scored, you know, Star Wars. So it's just funny, he lost to himself, which is hilarious. He was guaranteed to win that year just because those two movies were in competition.
SPEAKER_02I like the play on faith that they were doing as well, um, with Roy and Jillian, um, and and a ton of other people as well, just kind of following a vision without much proof. You kind of had Roy's entire family and the neighborhood essentially abandon him. Um, not that he didn't deserve it because he was I mean he was insane. He was insane, but he was insane for sure. Uh for sure. But you know, it's hard to like follow a path when you have nobody else around you.
SPEAKER_00Um yeah.
SPEAKER_02So I I did like that. Okay.
SPEAKER_00I thought I thought that that would we would have a better payoff for that, though. Because we had all them like on the the helicopter and there was like the they had the mask because the military was lying and trying to evacuate the area because it said there was uh uh nerve nerve gas exposure, like a train D reels or something. Gas leak, yeah. And um the gas leak. And and you know, Roy was like, nah, like he's the one who called it all like, no, this is bullshit. He took him out. He's like, it's safe. And three of them, so Roy, Jillian, and okay, some other dude escaped the helicopter. No one else was able to escape. And even in the way they escaped, it kind of felt like the soldiers let those three go and then stop the rest of them. Yeah. Um, but I thought there was gonna be this mass exodus on like to that base, to that location where they would have to like con. I don't know. I just we just we never saw those people again.
SPEAKER_02No, I assume, you know what? I thought against it called me. I thought they were gonna like fly up and then have to like have the pilots jump out and just crashed a helicopter to kill them all. And I don't know why. It is dark, it is dark. I'm like, ah, they can't know kill them all. Like I thought, I was like, what else are they doing? Like, where are they taking them? But they just evacuated them. I'm like, oh, okay, whatever. Um yeah, no, I think uh the the Frenchman, uh I I believe he let them go. He he maybe had some some allies there, like, hey, let those three go. And you know, they just kind of let them go, like you said, and then everybody else was kind of sad there. Um but yeah, I don't know. I don't know, man. Like it wasn't worth the payoff. I'm sorry. It it it wasn't worth whatever the hell the ending was, where we had zero answers. Um, the special effects is probably the winner here. The aliens and how they looked were were the winners, but the leading up to it was just uh a fever dream.
SPEAKER_00What you didn't like aliens looked? Those aliens were that first it was fucking nightmare fuel. The that gangly spindly arm thing that came out, the ship first.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that was a puppet.
SPEAKER_00That's um I didn't think about it, but that makes sense to me. That was a puppet, yeah. I mean, just given it being 1970, uh 70s, you know. Yeah, um, it it just none of the other aliens looked like that one. So was that like the fucking mother alien or something? I don't know. Listen to me. When that thing came out, I saw the limbs first. I said, oh fuck no. Like I thought all of a sudden it's just about to become a horror movie, and that is it was in that moment when I really was like, they should be opening fire on this thing because we are small-minded, fucking xenophobic, terrified people. Yeah, ain't no way in hell I would see that thing coming at me and just be like, oh wow.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, they were just in awe.
SPEAKER_00Oh a couple people did run away, and the one head science dude, like he's like took a step backwards. But I mean, you guys should be fucking running in fear and horror, but so I don't know.
SPEAKER_02That was yeah, the mint the one alien, the first alien came out was a puppet. The smaller aliens were just children in uh oh god in uh in costumes.
SPEAKER_00They're like first graders as if they weren't terrifying enough. Oh my gosh. Oh gosh. Alright. Everybody else is right there. There's this base or this mountain uh in Wyoming.
SPEAKER_02Was that base always there? Or did they build it in anticipation of this landing?
SPEAKER_00Or like
Third Kind Encounter in Wyoming
SPEAKER_00I saw that they built it in anticipation of getting the aliens there.
SPEAKER_02No way, no fucking way. They built a base like that in what two, three well, you know what? It's kind of hard to tell how long time has passed, right?
SPEAKER_00I but I think I think I think it's that this has been happening over decades, is the way I I I think the public has just been starting to figure out more and more, and it's been harder for them to contain it. Um, but I I assume that that base had been there, and they were just always trying to keep people away from it. But for whatever reason, we don't even know why was the aliens sending visions to these people.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, we could spend we could spend time just speculating. I think I think they were just they were just interested. They just they just came upon Earth and were like, hey, what's up guys? And figured a way to communicate after probably studying us for some for for some time. Um that uh and plus they've been kidnapping people for a minute, so and I assume interviewing them people in in some way, whatever they were doing, and they came back okay. This is I guess this is the way best to communicate, which is through music. Which this is why we all love music, right? Anybody can keep connect with it through a uh language barrier.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, yeah. But we guess we still don't know what was being said with the music. And we have to let's be real, some of those tones sounded pretty aggressive.
SPEAKER_02They were angry. Oh yeah. Okay, and the responses back were angry. That's all I was like, oh, they just said I'm gonna kill you, and they said I'm gonna kill you too.
SPEAKER_00There was a couple times I thought we pissed them off a hundred percent. I said, Oh, it's About to go down, yeah. Like they were about to get pissed off. At least they were. I thought they were gonna like fuck off and say, Man, fuck you guys, and just leave us alone. Best case scenario. Yeah, and then worst case, I was like, What if they start to attack us? Because we're just over here, just we don't know what we're saying to them.
SPEAKER_02So, yeah, that man, I there is no understanding of what the aliens are there to do. There's no understanding of why they were taking people, there's no understanding of why these select group of people were affected and why the others weren't, what the government was planning on doing, like there was just nothing. It was just it was just a scene of something that's happening in the little desert in Wyoming. And then, all right, have a good night. And it's like, oh. Yeah, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00Oh, no, nope, nope, nope, nope, and and and and they they spend so much time trying to keep um those people away from there. Essentially, Jillian just walks onto the base, picks her son up, and leaves. And I'm like, wait, you guys not gonna stop this woman and detain her? You're not gonna stop her kid who just came off this spaceship? Because I don't know. I think I wrote, I did write when they had um when these uh uh missing pilots and and uh military people were coming back, and he was like, Oh yeah, come right this way, you know. Let's let's you know, let's take you over here. And I was like, Yeah, you're taking him right into a fucking interrogation room. Like, what are you like what is going on right now? Like they made a scene, they'll say, Hey, let's want to take care of you, and it's good to have you back, soldier. I'm like, nah, they're going into quarantine into a fucking holding cell, and they're gonna be interrogated for several weeks, if not months. Like, let's be honest about what's happening here.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was confused there as well of the people that came off. Again, not just that they came off, but like who was announcing them? I was like, is that an alien saying that? It like they were like, oh, Captain Blah blah blah.
SPEAKER_00I'm like, it was one of their scientists dudes, because they had like a dossier or file, and all the people went missing over time, I guess. It was one of the military dudes.
SPEAKER_02They know that that person went missing because they were taking the aliens.
SPEAKER_00I don't know, I don't know, because they should have, I'm sure we've had several wars between when people started going missing and 1977 or whatever this movie is set. So people could just be missing killed in action, killed in action, just missing, just disappeared because they felt like it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um they're like, oh yeah, it's a wall and shit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. How do you know that? I assume they just have a big list back there, and not everyone in their lists walked off the ship. That's the only way it makes sense. They just have all the people that went missing under suspicious circumstances. Well, it's not just people, no, you know what? Stop. I take it back. Because it's not just military people, there are civilians there. There's fucking people.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh, oh, whoa. Oh, Rex has returned. Good.
SPEAKER_02Like, I see a freaking dog roll off the thing. I was like, what the f dog?
SPEAKER_00These aliens are fucking assholes, okay? They're menaces to society. So many people ripped away from their loved ones, and then they brought them back. They haven't aged a day, but guess what? All your fucking family are like 50 years older, your loved ones are dead, or whatever. Man, like all of this stuff is like ringing in the back of my head. It prevent me from enjoying the movie because I'm gonna do the ramifications of what is going on right now. You guys are just glossing over it and just want us to be all kumbaya because they just want to communicate with us. Aww. I'm like, guys, they tore families apart and ruined lives for decades. What is going on?
SPEAKER_02I didn't care about that as much. Like, it is what it is with that part. But I would have liked it. I would have liked it if they had a point. If they came back and like, I know how to cure this, I know how to solve that. And like, okay, that makes sense. But they they didn't at least didn't share that with the audience, so I don't know. Other than that, it was like, all right, but yeah, it is obviously I don't know how you take somebody who disappeared in the 30s, 20s, I think there were a couple of like 1800 people, and um and then just like drop them in 1977. And I don't, yeah, yeah. I don't I don't know what happens at that point. You yeah, but yeah, good luck, I guess. Um they gave them hey, thanks for participating and send them on the way.
SPEAKER_00I know, like they were in a medical study fucking trials. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01Thanks for that, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I really wanted to love this movie. I really wanted to love this movie. I'm not even sure if I like it, you know.
SPEAKER_02Um it's definitely not on my list of something I would see again. I would have to be like literally the only there's like one TV in a room, and this is the only thing playing, and then I'll watch it.
SPEAKER_00But otherwise, and I think even then I'm gonna be in my phone or some shit, man. Like, I just yeah, I don't know. I I oh, yeah. This was this was a disappointing watch for me.
SPEAKER_02Um thank god I'm not the only one who picks bad movies.
SPEAKER_00That's this is not hold on, type out. I did not pick a bad movie, we just didn't like the movie.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00People love this movie. You've picked movies that like no one actually fucking likes.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. It's different, it's different, it's different. Okay, what happens here?
SPEAKER_00That was a bit that was a bit much, that was a bit hurtful. I apologize. Yeah, that was that was tough.
SPEAKER_02That was tough to listen to.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00So before we we wrap this thing up, aliens, right? Because recently, I think you may have seen um where Obama said that yes, there are aliens, and he was like, Well,
Aliens, Fear, And Government Cover-Ups
SPEAKER_00no, no, no, no. Like, I haven't seen any aliens, but I believe there are aliens or whatever. Like, where are you at on the whole alien thing? One, two, do you think, let's say aliens are real, the government taking the whole shady, let's cover it up route. Do you think that's the way to go if aliens are real, that the government should be hiding it, their existence from us?
SPEAKER_02Jesus Christ, tough questions. Um okay, number one, do I think aliens are real? That's the first question, right?
SPEAKER_00Um, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yes. I think I think there are other life forces in in the different galaxies, even in our galaxy, I think there's different life forces. Um I don't think that they are humanoid, like what we expect them to look like, but I think they don't exist. Yes. Why the government is hiding it? I don't think I mean look well oh go ahead.
SPEAKER_00The question is if they're real, should they try and hide it? Is that the way to go? I'm not trying to get you on under I mean, if you have if you have a thought on why they would be hiding it, please share. But more so I'm like, do you think that is even the right course of action? Like, yes, the government should absolutely hide that shit from us. We don't need to know that or we're not like that's uh I'm that's what I'm interested in knowing too.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so um so yes, um, I so I guess uh I guess my qu my answer would have answered both, but the yes, I think that we as a society as a whole is not prepared just because of how we treat our own kind now. Like I don't think we could drop this other life force and not just have mass panic and just deterioration of life as we know it. So um, so for that sake, I think it's for our own protection that you know certain things are gonna drop us uh certain confirmation of things is is hidden from us. Now you could speculate all you want, but you know, until E.T. drops in my freaking living room, I'm just like, you know, as best I can, you know, whatever. But it's a different story when it's like when you're faced with it of like and I think for the sake of us and them is best to keep it from us personally. What are your thoughts?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think you're ultimately right about that, which is tough um to swallow. Um, to answer my initial question, uh I'm I'm in the same light-minded view that I feel that the unknown is so vast that it makes it tough to definitively say there is not and could not be anything else out there. So um I I feel like if if in our lifetime, if it is revealed that aliens do and have existed, I'm not saying that I wouldn't be like, like, oh my gosh, like, you know, like have some type of like excitement or just like sh awe about it, but at the same time, I'd be I would feel more of a sense of like confirmation bias. I'm like, okay, yeah, like that that makes sense to me. That's cool. Like, what uh is it cool or I don't know what's gonna happen next. But still, like I I yeah.
SPEAKER_02I I think our generation would be the most chill about it, going, oh, okay. Well, anyway. No, I know, I know I'm not in a flying shit. I know, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00Because if aliens came up when our parents, well, especially specifically my parents are older than than than your than yours, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Aliens came up when my parents were like our age or whatever. Fuck, oh my god, talk about just pandemonium, right? Nowadays, there's so much just strange shit that just happens on our own planet, right? Where it's like, okay, yeah, all right. Yeah, I guess that happens, you know. So I think you're right. We would be kind of chill about it.
SPEAKER_02You agree that we uh the government should cover it up, or you everybody should know?
SPEAKER_00Should the government cover it up? Yeah, I think they should. I think they should. We don't need that. We I the government already hides a lot of shit from us on covers. Exactly. You know, the I think that's just that's one of those things that they're like, you guys. I I am of the mindset, right? Especially it's kind of tough now. Our government's not functioning the way we want it to, right? But if it's functioning the way it should, even a good government, I believe, should be keeping secrets from the fucking people. Like, we don't need all the stuff. It's your job to handle these things. Um, if it's a good functioning government, that means that whatever you're keeping from us, you're handling it the way it's supposed to be handled, right? And it is going to ultimately better us. So I feel like knowledge of extraterrestrials, especially if they don't know how to explain it themselves, or they can't even say, because what if they're like, yeah, aliens are real? That is a bunch of questions. Well, are they friendly? I don't know. Are they have they ever been here? Are they gonna come here? I don't know. Should we be worried? I don't know. So now they're in a position where they look incompetent, and now there's unrest because we have all these questions that they don't have the answers to. So unless they're in a position where if we found out about aliens, they have already, they've been a government and the world leaders and powers have already met with the aliens, have had several interactions with them, you know what I'm saying? And then now they're revealing it to us where they're like, hey, these guys are cool. Check this out, check out these aliens, you know, that we've been hanging out with, right? Yeah, but I don't know, yeah, that's that would be the only reason why Freddy would tell us because they already have built a rapport with them over several, several, several years.
SPEAKER_03You know, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like outside of that, of like I'm good, some kind of stability of communication and expectations and some kind of city. Exchanges relationship where they're getting this and they're getting that, and it makes sense. But also I think about it, it's like we can't keep secrets for shit. So I don't like it I feel very hard that it isn't Wiley just out there if it real, if it is real. So I don't know. That makes me do that's true. That makes me question it a little bit because it's so hard to keep a secret in life. I was just like, everything is known, especially nowadays, at the day and age, of like it's so easy to just get information. Um, but I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I think um I while like we both agree that they they they could and it probably are out there. I don't think that we have made contact or we that we are aware of, or our government has. Because, like you said, that would have already been leaked, like substantially leaked, where it's like, oh yeah, no, they we know, yeah, they're definitely hiding the shit. Um oh my gosh. All right, you good?
SPEAKER_01I'm good. Let's go.
SPEAKER_00Alright, let's rate this thing. For any newcomers, we rate our movies based on five categories plot and writing, acting, casting,
Ratings Breakdown And Final Scores
SPEAKER_00production, cinematography, music and sound, and cultural impact. Everything is rated on a scale of one to ten. Jill, plot and writing for close encounters, what you got?
SPEAKER_02Um, you're gonna get a two for me.
SPEAKER_00Nice. Nice. I got a three. Acting and casting. What do you have here?
SPEAKER_02I bounce back and forth on this one. I want to give it a low score, but I think that it's again, I don't like to double tap. I think the plot and writing drove the acting and casting. Like, so it's like I guess for what they were asked to do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Five.
SPEAKER_00I have a five as well. I thought it was just fine. What this it was fine.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Productions, cinematography, and visuals. What do you have there?
SPEAKER_02I mean, you have to give I have to give it a solid number for the time and you know what what Spielberg was able to accomplish, so I give it a nine.
SPEAKER_00I had a nine as well. I bumped up to a ten.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00I was gonna give it a nine because it didn't win the award, but Star Wars was that same year, so that was tough. Uh, music and sound. What do you have there?
SPEAKER_02I think I think the plot dro I think the plot is actually dragging this down. Like, I want to give it a 10 because of John Williams. But I'm gonna give it an eight.
SPEAKER_00Ooh, dragged down a lot. Okay, because so how's the plot dragging that down for you?
SPEAKER_02Like it's because the story was just fucking confusing and stupid, and it didn't make no sense. So the music is just there. Like, like it's it's some it's like seesaw. It's like the the plot is dragging the music down, slash the music is dragging the plot up, so I don't know. So I just kind of balanced it on and gave it an eight.
SPEAKER_00I got you. You know, you know something the movie also did well. Um, it was a little annoying when the movie first started. I thought something was wrong on my TV. It played with silence really well. Well, no, when the movie started, there was like 60 seconds of.
SPEAKER_02You know what? Big dog. That was that's actually a great point. I forgot about that. Because there's a couple, there's a couple pieces where like I guess the aliens are about to show up and everything goes dead ass silence. Like the bug stopped moving. You know what? Nine. Nine nine nine.
SPEAKER_00Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So um I will drop mine down from a 10. I did have a 10. I'm gonna give it a nine as well because I'm actually afraid of scoring this movie way too high. So um, I gotta be mindful. And then what do you have a cultural impact? This is a tough one for me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Do you want me to read some stuff for you to um Yeah, let's let's let's build some evidence for or against. Because I don't I actually don't have an answer because I didn't know where to go with it. Because yeah, so I'm about to give it a off the top of the thing there. So go for it.
SPEAKER_00Close Encounters is is credited for the re-emergence of large um of large market like science fiction films in the 80s. That's Star Wars and Superman, which all came out in 1977, 1978, are credited with for the boon of sci-fi movies that would follow in a decade. After the American Film Institute polls, Close Encounters has been voted the 64th greatest American film, the 31st most thrilling, and the 58th most inspiring. It was also nominated. Yeah, I thought I'm just I'm just reading. Yeah, 31st most thrilling. Maybe I can name a hundred more thrilling movies than this, but whatever. In 2024, Close Encounters of the Third Kind was included in Rolling Stone's the 150 best science fiction movies of all time list at number three. Directors that have that have um listed this among their favorites. You have Stanley Kubrick, Edgar Wright, Spike Lee, Danny Villeneuve, Guillermo del Toro, Christopher Nolan, Greta Gerwig, Patrick Reed Johnson, and Michael Williams, and Stephen King also named it as one of his ten favorite movies. Mm-hmm. Where are you at now after hearing all of this evidence for its legacy and cultural impact?
SPEAKER_02I mean, uh, just because I don't like it doesn't mean it's not culturally important. So I I can give it an eight based on that, based on the the accolades you just put out there. Um it's not my cup of tea, but I I get it that it it has spawn um obviously uh uh a revival, I guess, of the sci-fi, which I'm surprised to not I'm surprised, but I feel like Star Wars drove that, but okay, right.
SPEAKER_00How do you parse that? It came out the same year as Star Wars. That's like, dude, that's like if you go back to I can't remember what year when LeBron beat the Pistons in in the playoffs, and LeBron scored like 31 of the last like 35 points or something, and the only other person who scored was Drew Gooden. That's like Drew Gooden being like, come on, guys, me and LeBron are carrying the team by ourselves. It's like, nah, dog. He scored like two buckets, like, get the fuck out of here.
SPEAKER_03Come on, guys.
SPEAKER_00So, like, I know it's just me and Braun out here. What do you guys do? It's like, nah, dude. So for close encounters to be like, yeah, we helped. Well, Star Wars came out like four or five months prior to you, so maybe that did most of the work. But hey, hey, how could we even know the difference? Um, I landed, I I have a six. I I landed on a six for the cultural. Oh, damn. Okay. Yeah, I I just yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's not a movie that again, a part of what I consider, and that's why I didn't I couldn't give it a 10. And I don't think I ever would either way, but if if I was, I'd have to be like, this is a movie that I hear a lot about. Like people reference it, people talk about it, and I feel like outside of you know, somebody born slash living in the 70s, I you know, it's not something that I hear about or people talk about. I don't think I've ever seen it on TV. Um playing, and it is long, so I can see why, but shit, color purple is long as that one has been on TV, so you know, whatever. Um Jaws is long and it's also on TV. So um, so yeah, I don't know. Um I don't know. I'm gonna stick with an eight just to give it its credit, but I don't think it's actually deserving of that, to be honest. So that's it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I got you. When we when we do movies like this and we have this reaction to these movies that are love beloved by so many people, that's when I feel like I feel a little exposed where I'm like, okay, uh, I'm just a dude that watches movies, like and has a podcast. I'm not like this film bro, film critic that's like fucking you know enlightened by all this other stuff. So anyway, um funny enough, we we score our score is exactly the same. We both have a 6.6 for close encounters.
SPEAKER_02You know what? I'm not gonna be bullied. I want to drop all of my points down except for music by two points.
SPEAKER_00Everything?
SPEAKER_02Everything except for music, two points.
SPEAKER_00I if I drop everything, your plot and writing will be a zero.
SPEAKER_02Fine. Then you get a one then.
SPEAKER_00Damn. Alright, well then allow me to do make my own edits too, then. Like, what the hell? That is crazy. Okay, we have a quick audible, folks. We had to redo our scores uh at the last minute here. So Jill's new scores are a one for plot and writing, three for acting and casting, a seven for production cinematography, a nine for music and sound, and a five for cultural impact.
SPEAKER_02I'm feeling it.
SPEAKER_00My new scores are a two for plot and writing, a three for acting and casting, an eight for production, cinematography, and visuals, a nine for music and sound, and a five for cultural impact. Our total scores Jill has a five, and I have a five point four.
SPEAKER_02I like that.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Uh, before we close out, I did want to give a a quick nod to the title of the movie because it's a long ass title. And I honestly had no idea. And I don't think
Title Meaning, Feedback, and Closing
SPEAKER_00the movie ever really explained. It did they did at one point ask, did you have an encounter? Or did it say close encounter? Or did you did it say did you have an encounter? I think when he was being interrogated.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think he said encounter. I don't think he said close encounter. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah. So uh apparently the meaning of the title when you say obviously close encounter is self-explanatory, but of the third kind, so there's three kinds of encounters you can apparently have. Um the first kind would be a sighting of an unidentified flying object in the sky. The second kind is finding physical evidence such as burnt ground, like your crop circles, or missing vehicles, or or I guess people in this case. The third kind is a direct face-to-face contact or interaction with an actual alien entity. Hence the name of the movie being Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The more you know that's like the end. I will see I could find that uh PBS like uh sound effect, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Like the more you know.
SPEAKER_00Well, that will do it for our Real Talk and Banter on Close Encounters of the Third Kind. To connect with us, to give us some feedback, or just say hello. Email us at real talkbanter at gmail.com. That's R-E-E-L Talkbanter at gmail.com. Thanks for listening.
SPEAKER_02Well, go outside and make me a liar then.
SPEAKER_00Fuck, who said that? What was I said? Right, I don't know. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02No, no, oh, um He said that when um homeboy was like, oh, I know you guys are faking when Roy was like, I know you guys are faking the air spine the direction was like long side and making a light. And then he was like, what's going on?
SPEAKER_00Or I don't know. Yeah, sometimes you ever wonder that like the secrets that we find out about is because somebody wanted us to find out about them? You know
Post Credit Scene: Banter on Conspiracy Theories
SPEAKER_00what I'm saying? Like yeah, just feigning competence.
SPEAKER_02You're like, ah, they would never do that. But then you're like, ha ha ha ha ha. There's a whole MIB building in the middle of downtown New York, and no one's ever fucking seen or had a question about, so apparently.
SPEAKER_00Oh shit, yeah.
SPEAKER_02That reminds me of that um that uh comedian um Ron uh is his name Fonchas? Fonchest?
SPEAKER_03Like dude.
SPEAKER_02Okay, either way, he has a com he has a bit where he says, like, he talks about conspiracy theory and how people is it funcest? Yeah, have you seen the bit?
SPEAKER_00No, no, no, what is it?
SPEAKER_02He has a bit, and this is obviously it's funny when he tells it, but he has a bit where he talks about conspiracy theories and how people how he believes in them, and then he's like, I can't believe that a person does not believe in a conspiracy theory because that would mean that you think that the government is telling you 100% of the truth all the time. And he's like, I have a son and I lied to them little motherfucker like three times a day. So why would the government not be lying to you? Like it dragged me every time I think every time I see it pop up on TikTok or whatever, it dragged me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02You're like, factual. Like, people lie on the smallest shit ever. Why would the government not lie about, oh yeah, we have this underground bunker with the whole alien life orange underneath it? Like, first of all, who came for that?
SPEAKER_00That's the and so that's my problem with conspiracy theories, right? Because I and that's a funny bit, but at the same time, not believing in conspiracy theories doesn't mean that I don't believe the government is. I believe the government is lying constantly. I just said I think they have to, like, it's part of their job, right? But the whole conspiracy thing, most times I'm out on conspiracy stuff, just because when you think about it, man, like the amount of work to cover up some of the things that people talk about. It's like now you're telling me, like, on the flip side, you're telling me that all these people are so competent that they're hiding this or keeping this one thing as there's a bunch of fucking idiots in our government and stuff. Like, these things would come out, you know what I'm saying? So not saying that some of them aren't real or have merit, but there there are ones where I hear and I'm like, uh, I'm good. I'm just like, it's if it goes too far, or like that thread that you pull on it is just become so wide scale where you're saying that like fucking hundreds of people have to be keeping this secret, or thousands of people have to be keeping this secret. I'm like, get the fuck out of here. I don't believe that for one second. That's not that's just not possible. Like people suck at keeping secrets like that, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's very tough. So I'm sorry, so are you saying you don't believe in conspiracy theories? I mean, not all of them, but there's not one you believe.
SPEAKER_00Like, no, that shit having no no no that there are some that I would I none I can give you off the top of my head right now, but there are some you know, like when you do those those tests and it's like um strongly agree, agree, can't decide, disagree, strongly disagree, you know, that kind of way, like that slide and skill type of thing. I think I'm more in the disagree category, not a strongly disagree, you know, but like I you kind of have to give me because I'm gonna hit you with some follow-up questions when you bring a conspiracy thing to me. I'm not quick to say, oh shit, really? Is that what happened? I'm like, I'm just I'm so skeptical. I have a skeptical mind, so I'm just like, I'm like, alright, dude, whatever. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh maybe maybe we can do a conspiracy pod episode or something. I'm sure there's a conspiracy Reddit. It has to be one, right?
SPEAKER_03Um, of course.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, maybe we can do that. Yeah, that's something to explore.