Word: storyâ
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...want the full account of Frank Rowe's murder, it will not be provided by Paul. Paul is 13 now, was seven at the time, yet he can still only get so far into the story???to the point where "Daddy, he ran to the back, to the next house"?before he starts crying. He has a woman's face, still dimpled, along with the absolutely blue eyes of most Belfast children, and brown hair parted carelessly down the middle: the sort of face the old masters sought. His school tie hangs cockeyed; it was knotted in a hurry...
What lifts this film into orbit?and what saves it from being a shaggy flying-saucer story???is the breathless wonder that the director brings to every frame. Whether he is showing us a pristine, starry Midwestern sky or displaying Special Effects Wizard Douglas Trumbull's formidable arsenal of spaceships and celestial storms, Spielberg seems to be looking at everything onscreen as if for the first time. The freshness of his vision is contagious?and exhilarating. While most thrillers, including Jaws, manipulate the audience mechanically, Close Encounters makes it a partner in the film maker's quest for excitement...
...brutal edge so evident when draft resisters were burning flags and Middle Americans slapped LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT stickers on their bumpers. Some observers have disconsolately described the decade as the "fragmented '70s." That may mean only that the period, unlike the '60s, lacks a single theme or story???no continuing drama for Americans like Viet Nam. Journalists addicted to a diet of disaster find the present moment disconcerting. One Washington journalist was even moved to complain: "There hasn't been a decent story out of the White House in two weeks." The time is very much like Jimmy...
...operates with a pack mentality. At the same time, the intense competitiveness of the newsmen?once they are fully aroused on a major story???occasionally makes them reach too far. New Republic's John Osborne, perhaps Washington's most judicious Nixon watcher, acknowledges that the press performed a "necessary and proper" function in getting at the basic facts of Watergate. "But," he adds, "I have to say at the same time that they're like dogs who have scented blood and are running the fox right down to the death...
...secretly pleased some Presbyterian elders. Many customers, scared of the pub warfare, quit early. This has given rise to dour little jokes. The long-suffering wife of a drinking husband supposedly says: "That's the first time Paddy has been home before closing time in years." Another story???a true one?tells of fleeing bombers who had to return their stolen getaway car because they had unwittingly taken it from another I.R.A...