kevdonahue

I caught Steven Spielberg’s latest movie, Disclosure Day, this summer.

I liked Emily Blunt — though her alien language was a lot clickier than that spoken by my 8-year-old granddaughter, who likes to speak to me in “alien.” I thought Josh O’Connor wasn’t all that interesting, though he managed to sneak past vigilant fiendish government agents with alarming ease! I also found the idea, in this multi-channel multiverse media world, that someone could gatekeep the announcement that aliens had visited earth seemed … quaint.

It was a 7 out of 10 for me, though I have to say that the last 30-odd minutes, when Spielberg reveals the footage that has been hidden for decades, was really wondrous and beguiling to me. (Those aliens walking into the tent …) I thought he nailed that part perfectly, that what he was showing us would transfix the world, at least for a few days. Then back to TikTok …

I also found it very interesting that the film says the alien’s superpower is empathy. In a world that currently is lacking greatly in the value, it made me love the aliens. And it’s fair to say that Spielberg has always a) liked the aliens way better than people and b) the aliens are us.

That said, the ridiculous chases and lead-up to the alien disclosure? Pretty much, yawn.

The movie did make me curious to go back to where Spielberg’s alien fascination started, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, released in 1977. It’s pretty good. And bludgeoned by the reality that almost every movie today is 3 hours long, I found it succinct in a really satisfying way. It ain’t perfect, but it at least didn’t waste my time.

That said, honestly, I wasn’t ready for how odd the movie is. Not the special effects, which were fine for 1977. The odd, challenging part was the family drama.

In case you’ve forgotten, in the first third of the movie, regular ol’ guy Roy Neary (Richard Dryfuss) has a brush with the aliens and becomes obsessed with the mystery of and surrounding them. His family (including a few heartbroken kids and a very cute Terri Garr — did I mention my wife bears a passing resemblance to Terri Garr?) are essentially, and very publicly, abandoned by Neary, who couldn’t be less interested in his family. Once his family leaves and he is left to his own devices, he builds a massive mountain out of mashed potatoes (yes, mashed potatoes) that bears a peculiar resemblance to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. And, once he hits the road for this cosmic rendevous, we realize he is not alone.

I don’t want to spoil a movie that is nearly 50 years old, but in the end, Roy decides he’d rather get on a spaceship with the aliens (who are very advanced – how do we know that? Because they have already discovered GLP-1s, judging by their non-fatty frames) than live out his days with his very real actual family that from all appearances loved him despite his eccentricities. Watching it for the first time in nearly 5 decades, I wanted to punch him in the face or, at the very least, send him packing with a “Good riddance!”

Close Encounters is a reminder that conspiracy theorizing is pretty baked into America, and not just a new thing (anyone ever watch Capricorn One?). The government is orchestrating a huge conspiracy, claiming there has been a nerve gas leak near Devil’s Tower to chase away the residents, up to and including crop-dusting people and cattle with a sleeping agent. If only Trump could put us all to sleep and we’d awake to no more war with Iran. a) Wishful thinking. b) Let’s not give him any ideas.

It’s a weird endpoint, and it made me more curious about Speilberg’s second alien movie, the biggest of them all, E.T. (1982).

That one is more of an intergalactic family drama than sci-fi, as the alien is the brother/friend Henry needs when all the humans aren’t there for him. I don’t have much to add. Disclosure Day doesn’t much build on E.T., for this watcher.

So I’m left with Disclosure Day — an imperfect movie, a reminder that aliens remain a potent symbol of … something?, and a reminder than even a great director can swing and foul one off.

Now I did see The Odyssey, which I don’t think is a foul ball. That’s coming soon.