Steven Spielberg in a great interview with Tom Snyder on the Tomorrow Show, recorded 1-9-1978. They discuss the newly released, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Spielberg's greatest film, I can't believe this is not as celebrated as Star Wars. Even as a kid, I was WAY more dazzled and blown away by "Close Encounters". The one-two punch of Jaws and Close Encounters is the bedrock of Spielberg's reputation. Thank you so much for posting this!!!!!
@Mr Right Star War is for thumbsuckers, Close Encounters is for people with brains, and I knew this at 8 years old. I saw both in the theater when they came out (I saw Star Wars opening day). I liked Star Wars, I was blown away by Close Encounters. The audience for Star Wars had a blast, as did the audiences for Superman (which came out the next year), Raiders, E.T., all of those blockbusters. The audiences at Close Encounters (I saw it three times) went through an experience that left the entire theatre walking out in a daze, but like a kind daze, like Christmas time, I can't even explain it. And the communicating with an alien ship through music is beyond brilliant. Please, don't embarrass yourself. You can keep your Star Wars and your ten million hilariously dopey sequels, I didn't even like Empire that much when it came out, I hated Yoda. Seriously. I just saw both movies recently! Star Wars looked as one-dimensional as ever, Close Encounters was as entrancing and as multi-dimensional as ever. End of discussion, geek.
Those 2 films definitely placed him in the spotlight, but 1941 switched it off. Raiders is what cemented his reputation, and from then on it was pretty much smooth sailing.
@@aliensoup2420 "1941" didn't "switch it off". It was a bomb, but nobody thought Spielberg was "over", any more than people thought Scorsese was "over" after "New York New York". The only person who was "over" during that era was Cimino. When "Raiders" came out, the press wasn't "here's Spielberg, the comeback kid". "Jaws" and "Close Encounters" - which was rereleased in the Special Edition, remember? - were still very much in the forefront of people's minds. And no, it wasn't "smooth sailing" after that. He had more big hits, but never any hip ones, lol.
I don't agree. I love spielberg but I never grew up with Close Encounters unlike ET and Jurassic and finally saw it in my late teenage years. It didn't have any impact on me and the ending was a little wrong (Spielberg even agrees now). It's nowhere near as influential or as much fun as Star Wars
@@TTM9691 Inside hollywood a bomb means you're in dangerous ground. He was not cemented until Raiders. Until then he was the golden boy who made Jaws, but it may have been a fluke hit coz of Verna Fields.
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I've seen just about all his films at the drive-in with my Mother and Father. Starting with Jaws to E.T. to the Indiana Jones films. It was a very special time in my life as a kid growing into a young teenager. I am 55 years old now and still love these films like it's the first time watching them.
This is gold. Spielberg is, for me, "the cinema" of an era. And Close encounters was the first film i watched in a theatre, i was seven. I love it and i love Spielberg´s cinema. Thank you very much for this.
I'm a fan of Spielberg and especially Close Encounters and I had never seen this until now !!!! So I really want to thank you for this gem (and for the quality of the image of the video, for a 1978 TV interview !) because it was simply perfect for my rainy friday evening !!!!! :)
I saw Jaws in the theater as a kid in 1975. To this day, it's my favorite movie of all time. I also saw Close Encounters in the theater in 1977. I remember wanting to see it, not just because it was science fiction and was about UFO's, but also because the "guy who made Jaws made it". Both blew me away. Such a great streak of movies that came out in the mid-late 70's. I was lucky enough to see some of the "classic" and not so "classic" (but still fun) movies in the theater in the late 70s including: Rocky King Kong Star Wars Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger Superman The Movie Magic (first Rated R movie I ever saw) Jaws 2 Grease Apocalypse Now Amityville Horror (filmed in my hometown where I watched some of the filming)
Tom: You said that you would not do a sequel to Jaws. Would you do a sequel to this?" Spielberg: Yea, this movie was designed for sequels, as opposed to Jaws witch was a once in a lifetime event" Funny how it turned out the exact opposite. Although, Steven Spielberg has said during the making of Close Encounters he thought about an alternate ending where one of the Aliens from the mother ship gets left behind. Years later Spielberg gives us the ultimate masterpiece E.T.
Spielberg is a genie. I think he arrived on one of those space ships. Mind blown- Spielberg did Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. and Poltergeist (writer) in the span of a year and a half and Jurassic park and Schindler's List in a span of two years.
Amazing to learn Steven considered Philippe Noiret, Yves Montand, Trintignant or Piccoli for Truffaut's role. I am sure they would have been equally good, but Francois had this genuine charm that none could have topped
So sorry he never got around to making that film about the kids. I imagine it evolved into E.T., whose original title was A Boy's Life. But I'd still like to see his version of Truffaut's Small Change.
Someone in another comment said it may have become _The Goonies._ Too bad I never saw it as a teen, but there were so many movies of the 1980s I did see.
Please, what does he say between 27:24 and 27:27?, "real kind", "wheel kind" or anything else? I´m adding spanish subtitles to this video and i´m really stuck at this point. The automatic transcription says "real" but i´m not sure when i listen carefully. Thanks.
i went to see this with a large group of friends only two of us liked it the rest thought it was boring i believe that i was the only one who got that it was steven's take on the giving of the torah on mt sinai
I absolutely love Star Wars (the first, episode IV, etc) Saw it 13 times in the theater because it kept coming back to the theater for two weeks etc. I love both so much. But, CE3K is my favorite movie ever!
It might be Spielberg’s best film? I love Raiders, Jaws, E.T., Last Crusade, Saving Private Ryan, etc. But I have actually watched Close Encounters more, and more in the theater than any other film of his.
@maxwesty I've done a ton of coke, never made me stop blinking.. I'm not talking about later interviews, talking about this one.....are you guys produced in a moron factory??
Interesting that he wanted the French character to be a different take on the German investigator. I recently watched a video saying the whole movie is about communication, and trouble communicating. From the start there's communication difficulties between the investigators and the Mexican witness; then the Frenchman in charge with the Americans, then between husband and wife, father and kids, and of course the aliens with the human beings. If the French character was instead American, British, Canadian, or Australian, or French with no need of a translator, then this thesis would fall apart.
He never talks about it but the French Character was nothing more than a substitute for French UFO investigator Jacques Vallee. A very well known UFOlogist in that world. Any nerd UFO aficionado would know who he is. Lacombe is Jacques Vallee in every way. Francois Truffaut was fabulous in the role.
Interesting interview. Does anyone know what happened to the film Spielberg was planning in 1978 “about little children in the afternoon”? I suppose he could mean E.T., but he still had to make 1941 and Raiders. Was he linked to a project that someone else ended up directing?
@@aliensoup2420 Yes but I don't think he already had the script for E.T. back in '78, did he? E.T. was several years later and was loosely based on the "Night Skies" project that never got made. I'm referring to when he tells Snyder that his next project is about "little children in the afternoon". Maybe it never got out of pre-production...
@@atroyz Yeah, "A Boy's Life" was the working title for "ET". Now I'm beginning to wonder if JJ Abram's "Super 8" was not derived from Spielberg's 'Night Skies" since they both involve kids and Aliens, and Spielberg was the producer.
@@karlkarlos3545 _The Goonies_ sounds plausible. There was a script about a boy and his alien friend floating around Hollywood by a writer/filmmaker from India. So it would be good to know whether or not Spielberg saw it before making _E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,_ and the progression of his ideas leading to the script. Although he says _Close Encounters of the Third Kind_ could lend itself to a sequel, he doesn't talk in this interview about leaving the alien behind. I'd like to know when that became the thing.
So sad that Spielberg would even have to explain his movie (one of the top ten best ever made) was not suppose to be StarWars. It's painful to watch him (Spielberg, who's a genius) explain himself to schneider (MORON). It's amazing that the human race has made it this far.
True but because Steven diversified his resume he's going down a legend while people will only know George for Star Wars nothing wrong with that by the way but Steven to me is more of a artist in it's true form
it's too bad Snyder doesn't know a thing what-so-ever about film making because it would have been nice to have known exactly who did what in Close Encounters. eg "ah Steve what input did you have on the special effects of the film? "Ah Steve, who picked the locations? "Ah Steve etc; instead of this silly superficial conversation about pranks in theaters when they were kids
