Media outlets are highlighting the streaming availability of Close Encounters of the Third Kind on Peacock as a lead-up to the premiere of Steven Spielberg's latest project.
Revisiting the 1977 classic, Rachel Abrams revealed on The Daily that she watched the film in preparation for Disclosure Day, finding its deliberate pacing a stark contrast to modern cinema. Abrams remarked that "Close Encounters opens more slowly" in its storytelling than Spielberg's newer work, appreciating the patience of the film's build-up.
However, Steven Spielberg himself remembers the production of the film as a lonely experience. Speaking on The Daily, he explained how the massive success of Jaws silenced his creative collaborators. Spielberg recalled that "all of a sudden, all that input stopped," leaving him to direct without the usual pushback from his crew. "I started to make Close Encounters, and everybody was quiet," he said, revealing the intimidating shadow his own success cast over the set.
As fans queue up the movie on Peacock this week, they will likely see those long, quiet sequences not just as a stylistic choice, but as a reflection of a director working in an accidental vacuum.