Steven Spielberg is known for his blockbuster-scale sci-fi films with a strong emotional core. While he has ventured into serious dramatic territory and has succeeded with films like Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, and The Post, his contribution to genre-filmmaking is unparalleled.
Before the filmmaker made the iconic E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Spielberg ventured into sci-fi territory immediately after the Summer hit Jaws. With Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Spielberg seemed to have his first stint at the UFO film. Like E.T., the film seemed to connect to his parents, which he only to realize after an interviewer pointed it out.
Steven Spielberg Thanked An Interviewer For Noticing The Personal Connection In Close Encounters of the Third Kind
After Jaws became the highest-grossing film of all time upon its release, Steven Spielberg went against type and rejected the offer for a sequel. He instead chose to make a film based on an idea that he wanted to develop right after his second film The Sugarland Express. The filmmaker began developing the sci-fi film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
According to the Golden Globes, Spielberg first got the inspiration for Close Encounters when his father took him to watch a meteor shower in the middle of the night. The event reportedly inspired the filmmaker to make the amateur film Firelight, which he directed when he was eighteen years old.
However, the childhood incident turned out to be just one of the many personal connections he made in the film. The late James Lipton asked Spielberg in an interview if the UFO communicating with a musical phrase was a reference to his father and mother’s professions as a computer engineer and a concert pianist, respectively. Spielberg said,
That’s a very good question; I like that. I’d love to say I intended that, and I realized that was my mother and father, but not until this moment. … Thank you for that.
The video showed that the moment when Spielberg realized the connection was met with cheers from the audience.
Steven Spielberg Said That He Got The Idea For E.T. While Making Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Steven Spielberg has established himself as one of the best sci-fi film directors of all time. With films like Jurassic Park, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and Minority Report, Spielberg proved he could tackle heavy themes through the genre. However, his deeply personal stories mounted on a sci-fi scale like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial are still special.
He began his journey in the sci-fi realm with Close Encounters with the Third Kind, which he says also inspired his masterpiece E.T. Talking about the film and its connection to his parent’s divorce, Spielberg spoke at the TCM Film Festival about working on a story on divorce while filming Close Encounters. He said,
We’re shooting this scene and I suddenly thought wait a second, what if that little creature never went back to the ship? What if the creature was part of a foreign exchange program? Dreyfuss goes, he stays or she stays. And what was the feeling that I had: what if I turn my story about divorce into a story about children, a family, trying to fill the great need and creating such responsibility – a divorce creates great responsibility especially if you have siblings, we all take care of each other.Â
Though Spielberg would go on to direct the classic after making two more films, including Raiders of the Lost Ark, the seeds of E.T. had already been planted in his brain.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is available to rent on Apple TV.
