Viewing Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" for the umpteenth time, it still makes my throat get raspy at certain scenes. No, it's not when the Disney movie music and merchandising floods the screen nor even when the little white dwarf aliens grab the hands of the American scientists in a loving way. It's about the idea of visions and dreams. Holding on to both when everything seems to conspire around you, re-inforcing self-doubt or fear.
I think the power of the film (Whatever your personal "takes" on it, critics that we all tend to be, it has held up, all these years and it is based on the pantheon of ufo lore...give it that much!), you have to consider the philosophical premise about the power of the individual vision. Even the "craziest" among us can be motivated by something beyond their own dementia--beyond the mood altering substances they may have ingested in the recent past. When we accept that all of us can actually carry an honest-to-God dream of "something better"--or a pure vision of something "bigger than ourselves", then we can't dismiss ...well...anyone, really.
What a world when even the dreams of the disenfranchised are given audience! Where would it lead us? How would it lead us? Perhaps it is the fear of being taken to a strange new existence that stops us dead; makes us regulate and create rules of conduct, of dress, of language and culture that homogenize us--try to make us all a bland culture, from sea to shining shore. Terror of the unknown, of "the other", of anything which hides just out of sight, or grasp, is a human hallmark. Only when we venture beyond the fear does anything really change.
On the other side of that wall, though, is the equally human tendancy to assimilate what's exciting and new...How many of us were born before cell phones, I-pods, I-pads or 4-G technology? How many of us first rode in a Prius, unnerved at the silence when the engine shut off--or seemed to? How many of us still doubt the authority of an on-line college-level class? These ideas have recently rocked the world. They are the continuing tide of technology that surely would have seemed alien, or at least "other worldly" a decade ago. Yet, none of us remain untouched by these innovations.
What once seemed crazed or in the realm of science-fiction/fantasy now is part of our daily lives--and we are thankful, demanding ever more of the same sort of "stuff". We learn how to work the technology into our schedules to make our schedules less unwieldy; to make our lives "simpler". Yet we don't consider "going back" to simpler lifestyles...hmmmmm.
What is a true vision and what is a true breakdown? Who is crazed and who is gifted? When do innovations that seem "out there" become trends that are demanded and necessary? More importantly, when will we stop ridiculing those among us who see things from a different slant? Who hear a different melody coming from the heavens? Who look or speak or think about more than the latest gossip sites and t.v. shows? Who treasure what we haven't yet been able to decipher for ourselves?
It's mainstream now, but the seeds that set-off "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" were anything but when the project began. How soon we forget...
I think the power of the film (Whatever your personal "takes" on it, critics that we all tend to be, it has held up, all these years and it is based on the pantheon of ufo lore...give it that much!), you have to consider the philosophical premise about the power of the individual vision. Even the "craziest" among us can be motivated by something beyond their own dementia--beyond the mood altering substances they may have ingested in the recent past. When we accept that all of us can actually carry an honest-to-God dream of "something better"--or a pure vision of something "bigger than ourselves", then we can't dismiss ...well...anyone, really.
What a world when even the dreams of the disenfranchised are given audience! Where would it lead us? How would it lead us? Perhaps it is the fear of being taken to a strange new existence that stops us dead; makes us regulate and create rules of conduct, of dress, of language and culture that homogenize us--try to make us all a bland culture, from sea to shining shore. Terror of the unknown, of "the other", of anything which hides just out of sight, or grasp, is a human hallmark. Only when we venture beyond the fear does anything really change.
On the other side of that wall, though, is the equally human tendancy to assimilate what's exciting and new...How many of us were born before cell phones, I-pods, I-pads or 4-G technology? How many of us first rode in a Prius, unnerved at the silence when the engine shut off--or seemed to? How many of us still doubt the authority of an on-line college-level class? These ideas have recently rocked the world. They are the continuing tide of technology that surely would have seemed alien, or at least "other worldly" a decade ago. Yet, none of us remain untouched by these innovations.
What once seemed crazed or in the realm of science-fiction/fantasy now is part of our daily lives--and we are thankful, demanding ever more of the same sort of "stuff". We learn how to work the technology into our schedules to make our schedules less unwieldy; to make our lives "simpler". Yet we don't consider "going back" to simpler lifestyles...hmmmmm.
What is a true vision and what is a true breakdown? Who is crazed and who is gifted? When do innovations that seem "out there" become trends that are demanded and necessary? More importantly, when will we stop ridiculing those among us who see things from a different slant? Who hear a different melody coming from the heavens? Who look or speak or think about more than the latest gossip sites and t.v. shows? Who treasure what we haven't yet been able to decipher for ourselves?
It's mainstream now, but the seeds that set-off "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" were anything but when the project began. How soon we forget...
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