thanks for the rec eric. having seen bits and pieces over the years I was never really inspired to watch it start to finish. but im glad i did. Contact is probably my favorite movie on the subject.
can see why it ignite a ufo fever in the late 70s early 80s - but having hear all kinds of stories over the years it was almost like spielberg took every theory he'd ever heard on the topic and put it into a movie.
discs, craft of different shapes, orbs, etc. military and global collaboration / involvement. cover stories. esp. abductions. and of course the negative stigma. it certainly held my interest and am still thinking about it today.
The topic both amazed, and terrified me. That is what makes a great movie, drawing out the emotion of the viewer. I also love the little details when they show any scene where the night sky is in view. I love to see the UFO's moving over the town as the power goes out, as well as the one Barry chases into the night. Great movie.
I did think the extended version's added footage was boring as hell though.
Although it is set in Indiana and Wyoming, most of the movie was filmed in locations in and around Mobile, AL. The Devils Tower airfield scenes were filmed inside a huge aircraft hanger at Brookley Field in Mobile. To this day, I believe it's the largest indoor movie set ever constructed. Roy's house is in Mobile. Jillian and Barry's farmhouse is across Mobile Bay in rural Baldwin County. Some of the Wyoming evacuation scenes were filmed in Bay Minette, AL.
Spielberg has said that his perspective on the ending has changed - he had no children when he made the movie. Now that he's a father, he dislikes that Roy eagerly leaves with the visitors, abandoning his children. If he made the movie today, he would have changed that part.
The aliens were portrayed by young girls in costumes, except for the alien that uses sign language with Francois Truffaut. That one was a puppet.
The film was Truffaut's only appearance in an English language movie, as well as his only appearance in a film he didn't direct. Since his struggles with English were real - he was not fluent - he used surreptitiously placed cue cards in many scenes.
The scene in Jillian's house when the aliens come for Barry was not rehearsed. This was so that Melinda Dillon didn't know exactly what was going to happen in the house, and when, so her startled, fearful reactions would be more genuine.
The famous UFO author J. Allen Hynek has a nonspeaking cameo as one of the NASA scientists at Devils Tower.
The artists who built the spaceships had also done the ship models for Star Wars that same year, and one of them attached a small R2-D2 to the bottom of the mothership as a joke. If you look closely, you can spot it.
One of Roy's children was played by Richard Dreyfuss' real-life nephew.
I only remember useless things. Anyway, it's stuff I remember from a "making of" feature on CE3K I used to have taped. I didn't remember everything completely, some of it I had to look up to verify. The Alabama stuff is interesting to me because I lived in Baldwin County for a few years.
one of the Air and Space Museums I think, either DC or Chantilly (Chantilly if I'm remembering correctly) has this model and you can find that little R2D2 on it. I remember looking for it and seeing it.
lonk - ( New Window )
As a kid, I didn't quite understand what they movie was trying to convey there, but it's a great scene.
And the scene were the kid gets taken away from the house is terrific.
Great movie.
Quote:
Wait a minute
I'VE been knighted
"The walking Storehouse of Useless Information "
.
I only remember useless things. Anyway, it's stuff I remember from a "making of" feature on CE3K I used to have taped. I didn't remember everything completely, some of it I had to look up to verify. The Alabama stuff is interesting to me because I lived in Baldwin County for a few years.
wasn't Amistad after Schindler's List
Quote:
.
I only remember useless things. Anyway, it's stuff I remember from a "making of" feature on CE3K I used to have taped. I didn't remember everything completely, some of it I had to look up to verify. The Alabama stuff is interesting to me because I lived in Baldwin County for a few years.
I'd like to add one filming point to the unrehearsed scene in the house. The young boy Barry looks into the kitchen. To get a his facial reactions, someone off camera jumped out dressed in a gorilla suit, followed by someone in a clown suit. It explains his initial startled look, then the one where he smiles.
I saw something where they had radar tracking two craft. That scene?
It was a deleted scene where he's one of the National Guard troops. He tries to get Dreyfus to leave the town due to the nerve agent.
Quote:
but found it long and tedious. I think that Spielberg does these type of movies to understand the topic, then his next movie improves the idea (ex: Close Encounters then E.T., Amistad then Schindler's List).
wasn't Amistad after Schindler's List
You're right, I stand corrected.
Anyway, you can substitute Duel, then Jaws for horror films...I think at some point he was trying to improve the way he made movies...maybe he still is.