When You Wish Upon a Star...Close Encounters.

When You Wish Upon a Star…Pinocchio. This song was played within the final musical sequence of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Pinocchio was mentioned several times in this film; when the father tried to take the kids to see the movie, there was a figurine on the table when he was cleaning up and, as mentioned before, the song played within the final musical sequence. Perhaps the father was attracted to Pinocchio because he felt he had followed his life’s course as a puppet and was finally able to be a ‘real boy’ during this process of finding the aliens? Or, maybe he was attracted to the idea of Pleasure Island, where you can do whatever you want? Whatever the reason, Steven Spielberg has again put a Disney or Fairy Tale theme into one of his films.

My neighbor recommended that I see this film in order to compare it to ET. It was also noted that throughout many of Spielberg’s movies, he has portrayed women in a condescending manner. I have to agree with this sentiment. In both ET and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the women were whiney, flakey, and bad house keepers. Although these movies took place in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, women by this time were certainly more prevalent in the workplace; in popular culture, women were often depicted as ‘super-mom’s’. Spielberg showed no competent women in either film. Almost all of the scientists and workers in the films were men (I think I may have saw one woman at the final scientist scene in 3rd Kind). The mothers’ main communication with their children was yelling. The mothers’ all had cluttered, dirty houses. And the mothers’ often did not manage their children; instead, they allowed them to discipline themselves and only yelled and whined at them.

Spielberg’s depiction of women in both films is very disappointing. Many people watched his films and perhaps they took these depictions to be natural. It makes me wonder is some of the problems women still face today, in regards to equality, stem from what children saw in the 70’s and 80’s? I also wonder if Filmmakers have a duty to promote equality for their characters. Or, does creativity trump any responsibility?

Finally, it is interesting to note similarities between many other directors and Steven Spielberg. One of my favorite directors is M. Night Shyamalan. I find a lot of his earlier work to be creative, exciting and interesting. In Shyamalan’s film ‘Signs,’ there are a lot of similarities to ET and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The scene in the farm house, in my opinion, almost entirely mimics ‘Close Encounter’s of a Third Kind’ where the young boy was taken by the alien ship.