Just saw this for the first time

I thought the ending was interesting, but not interesting enough. No tension, no real conflict unless by conflict you mean building a mountain in your basement and driving out your wife and kids simply because your biggest idols are coming to Earth and they have hand picked you, their best groupie, to meet them. That's pretty much all I garnered from this film, along with a sappy sense of wonder of the unknown with regards to peaceful extraterrestrial life. I mean didn't the guys just recently kidnap a kid only to give him back? Who knows, they could all have purposely transmitted a toxin from them to wipe out the human race so that the aliens don't have to go through all the effort of spending resources on deploying for a planetary extinction level operation. This is one damn flawed classic that yet, still had a level of weird ridiculousness that kept by attention. Other wise, this was just a precursor to what filmmakers could do with the genre back in the day, not much else really.

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Having seen "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" the summer after its release, with no influence from later films, I can heartily concur with many of your statements. I vividly remember the buildup, the heartfelt endorsement by my favorite author, Ray Bradbury (on TV, not in print), huge write-ups in national magazines, and many details of that awful evening at the drive-in when my friend's mother took me and her youngest daughter and son to sit through an interminable succession of dramatically-rendered scenes amounting to a tale full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. My friend's little brother, a little older than the main boy in the movie, mercifully had the good sense and good luck to sleep through part of it but the rest of us just sat stunned and staring, hoping that it would eventually come together and amount to a meaningful narrative, as our hopes slowly deflated and our spirits were dashed and downcast though stopping short of crushed. We were at least momentarily amused by the little ball of light following the larger craft. I've never had the patience to sit through it since but when I have caught parts on TV the scenes I see have that same irritating, exasperating effect. The boy smashing the doll against the crib is nails on a blackboard Chinese water torture, and one of the few fairly brilliant moments--the director knew just when to have the father intervene before the audience totally lost its last shreds of patience and sanity.

I'm feeling old. I saw it when it opened. I was the right age to be thoroughly wowed. Now I can't get my kids interested enough to go see the re-release. :(

I agree... it is seriously boring. I have gave it several chances through the years, and still boring.

One of my favorite films. There aren't many films I would spend $50 to own. This is one of them. The special effects are often times beautiful. The score is magnificent. The cast is great. Most will point to Star Wars as the great SF film of 1977 but for me it's Close Encounters.

It was 1977, fool! What, you think Spielberg should get in a time machine and go back and add 21st century special effects? Why can't people enjoy old films without having to be so douchy about them?

Yeah, I'm afraid it appeals more to kids and young adults. Sorry you missed out on the mystery and wonder you would have felt if you'd watched this as a child.