The Phenomena of Light in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema: ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’

All film directors employ light — natural, artificial, and reflected — not simply to illuminate but to add to the desired mood of the scene or to provide another supernatural dimension.

For example, use of light in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (directed by Steven Spielberg in 1977), provides a means of communication among characters, audience, and the dubious presence, good or evil. It also acted as a way of heightening the cinematic experience by disguising where the source of the light was actually coming from, that it was acting on behalf of the being(s).

I have always loved what I call “God Lightâ€ shafts coming out of the sky, or out of a spaceship or out of a doorway. It’s just been very romantic and extremely wondrous to me, light. — Steven Spielberg

In combination with its positive emphasis on the “surface of thingsâ€ science-fiction’s de-emphasis of narrative process and closure allows corresponding weight to the sense of awe and wonder evoked by many science fiction films. This is particularly apparent in films like ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’ in which a child character, responding with amazement at some miraculous apparition, function as a stand in for the film’s spectator. — Annette Kuhn

In the closing scenes of Close Encounters, the alien mothership has opened up her womb to the human beings, who stand in a paralyzed state, unable to move out of sheer adoration. Like gods from heaven, the aliens appear from within the light, surrounded by an emanating, iconic glow, they reach out to share their love and warmth with human kind.

It is at this moment that we see lead protagonist Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) regaining control of his life, and by entering the womb of the mothership he is going to be reborn, heading toward the light that is hope and eternal life. We are presented with one of the most memorable scenes in cinematic history, the awe and wonder of the mothership, the outward structure of which resembles that of a city. When we see the alien beings for the very first time it is like a religious experience in itself. The use of overexposure and backlighting gives the aliens that mysterious presence, where we try so hard to see what they look like but as always, Spielberg only allows us to see so much, making us return again and again to relive the experience.