The film's inspiration arose in director Steven Spielberg's childhood, when he and his father watched a meteor shower in New Jersey. At age 18, Spielberg completed the full-length science fiction film Firelight. Many scenes fro… See more

The film score was composed, conducted, and produced by John Williams, who had previously worked on Spielberg's Jaws. Williams wrote more than 300 examples of the iconic five-tone motif, which had specificly b… See more

Film critic Charlene Engel observed that Close Encounters "suggests that humankind has reached the point where it is ready to enter the community of the cosmos. While it is a computer which makes the f… See more