What are close encounters of the first and second kind, may I ask? I love that the movie doesn’t specify. The title is mysterious if you do not know the answer, and I think it’s cool that it’s mysterious.
So are encounters of the first and second kind like sightings of flying saucers and such? Only the third kind is a face-to-face meeting?
Please explain.
And just for fun: God, I remember this movie poster. Don’t you? It was everywhere. To my nostalgic mind, it appears to capture an entire era (perhaps not as much as THIS poster, but pretty close!)
IIRC
First encounter – sighting of a UFO
Second encounter – physical evidence of UFO
Third encounter – Inhabitants of UFOs sighted
There may be more than three degrees of encounters.
Richard Dreyfuss at the end perhaps had an encounter of the 4th kind:
Flying away in the mothership into the depths of the space-time continuum.
At least a close encounter of the 4th kind, I’d say.
Which, to follow on from your initial comment – “The title is mysterious if you do not know the answer, and I think it’s cool that it’s mysterious.” – is also cool, and mysterious.
I’m remembering Bill Murray on SNL doing his lounge act, singing the theme from Close Encounters. The words were set to the famous five-note theme:
First encounter, you…..
Second encounter, me……
Third encounter, we…….
Close encounters of the third kind……
So funny.
I seem to remember they detailed the three types of Encounters in the trailers and advertising material for CE3K.