There’s a wonderful podcast called “It’s Probably (Not) Aliens” done by a couple of sharp young fellas that empathetically explains the sociology and psychology of alien encounter experiences and debunks the racist ancient alien BS. Check it out, #CE3K #TCMParty

Here come the dark suited thugs from ICE, there for the illegal aliens #CE3K #TCMParty

The scary giant alien is there one moment and then, it’s just gone. A vision? #CE3K #TCMParty

We have to speak about Mr. Neary’s case. His wife has left him. His children are monsters. He broken numerous state and federal laws. He needs to get off this planet, NOW! #CE3K #TCMParty

They filmed that square landing ramp from the mothership well before they had any clue what the mothership would look like #CE3K #TCMParty

No joke, John Williams is very into jazz. #CE3K #TCMParty

Spielberg and Doug Trumbull were inspired by LA’s oil refineries at night for the look of the #CE3K mothership, and Trumbull would return to that look a few years later for the LA of Blade Runner. #TCMParty

After after almost 46 years, I FINALLY saw R2-D2 hanging off the rim of the mothership as it flies over Roy and Jillian #Lifegoals #CE3K #TCMParty

In barely 3 years, John Williams scored Jaws, Star Wars, #CE3K and Superman, 4 of the most important, impactful film scores in history. Hell, for Close Encounters, he wrote an entire musical conversation with aliens. #TCMParty

The amazing cloud effects were done with dyes injected into water tanks. How they make them look so real still seems like magic #CE3K #TCMParty

I LOVE how the professionals think they’ve had a successful game, when they’ve only experienced the national anthem
#CE3K #TCMParty

Spielberg’s aliens in #CE3K are MUCH closer to Kubrick’s monolith in 2OO1 than those in Star Trek or Star Wars—we experience them, but we don’t really understand them. The mystery is more important, and perhaps more representative of what first contact would be like #TCMParty

I’m reality, it’s a pretty easy 90 minute hike around Devil’s Tower. But, Roy Neary never does anything the easy way. #CE3K #TCMParty

The choice of Bear Lodge Butte (Devil’s Tower) as the landing site was truly one of the most inspired location selections in movie history. It’s a lovely place, as are the Black Hills and Badlands in general. Go and see. #CE3K #TCMParty

Spielberg’s aliens leverage our collective feelings of the eerie and numinous to select the ones they want to contact—not the governments of the earth, the scientists, but the individuals with the courage and curiosity to seek THEM out. #CE3K #TCMParty

But, back to Spielberg’s aliens. We’ve established that they manifest like supernatural beings, inspiring awe and fear, and triggering in some few a compulsion to make a greater connection. And THAT is the method to their apparent madness. #CE3K #TCMParty

Yanking the top off the clay mountain to reveal the aliens implanted message is absolute genius. #CE3K #TCMParty

It’s also worth noting, #CE3K takes place in the shadow of the assassinations, Viet Nam, the Pentagon Papers, Watergate. Of COURSE the government is covering up aliens, just like everything else. Couldn’t have been made 10 years earlier. #TCMParty

The characters in #CE3K have had a religious experience—it’s not JUST that their worldviews have expanded exponentially, it’s that they have a compulsion to do more, to learn more, to understand, to truly communicate. #TCMParty

In fact, as @TonyJamesSmith observed, Spielberg’s aliens behave like supernatural forces from our mythology, be it Zeus, Yahweh, or Krishna—their appearance awes, confounds, terrifies, and mystifies. They make us feel small, powerless, and, just maybe, curious. #CE3K #TCMParty