Too Close For Comfort

I watched "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" tonight. I don't think I have seen the entire movie since it came out. I was seven or eight when I saw it the first time, possibly at a drive-in. My dad took us to see it, that I remember. (My dad always seemed to have a blind spot for movies that were inappropriate for kids. I have a vivid memory of staying up late with him to watch the original "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers" on TV when I was maybe six. I don't think I slept for a week after watching it.) With "Close Encounters" I remember liking it but also being really freaked out by it. And whenever I think about the movie I get this weird uneasy feeling. We lived in Indiana at the time it came out, and that's where the beginning of the film is set. Around that time my own family was falling apart. My parent's marriage was in crisis and they fought constantly. Watching tonight I realized that the movie is about adults totally out of control. The shots of children watching from doorways or windows as their parents lose it would have been, shall we say, resonant for me at the time. I noticed while watching the scene where Richard Dreyfuss and Teri Garr have a huge fight that I was getting very upset and feeling a sensation close to panic. I can remember as a kid identifying the Richard Dreyfuss character with my dad, feeling then that something like what happened in the movie could happen to him. And in a way it did. All through the divorce and the immediate years afterwards he was a completely different person to me. Maybe at the time I had a prescient feeling that everything was about to change. I am glad I watched it again tonight but I think that will be it. Part of me wishes I had just stuck with "30 Rock." Bee boo bee boo boo.

Comments

[kara]

It's funny how different we are. All I think about with that movie is the mashed potato scene. I still can't eat mashed potatoes without first modeling them into a little Devil's Tower...

[bingsmom]

Wow. Clueless parents.

[Assertagirl]

Isn't it amazing how movies can bring back all kinds of memories? Things you'd think you'd lost track of years ago. (And I know what you mean about inappropriate movies for little kids. My uncle took me to see E.T. when I was barely five and I still can't watch it!)

[MichelleB]

That movie is amazing, and how adorable is little Barry! My fiance and I met watching that movie at a friends house since we are sci fi geeks. He just recently proposed to me with a gorgeous diamond engagement ring from [redacted] and we are now planning the wedding.

He jokingly said we should have a sci fi inspired wedding, since we both loved that movie!

[note: Nice try! Points for actual referral to the post but please stop spamming my site, Michelle - LB]

[E.]

Great post.

My dad was also clueless about what was appropriate for kiddies. He took me to see "Taxi Driver" when I was about 8. Ye god.