Notices by your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦 (blogdiva@mastodon.social), page 2

OPENING!

one of the things Spielberg does incredibly well in this movie, but especially during the opening credits is the use of SILENCE.

silence is integral to the sound effects in this movie. it’s what builds not just tension but horror.

but what am noticing with this opening is how JOHN WILLIAMS’ score makes him part of the sound effects team.

this opening is absolutely a spin on the opening of STAR WARS which was released 5 months prior.

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another thing about this movie: the product placement was just out of control and highly criticized at the time.

AND YET!

it’s why it’s such an important cultural artifact. it’s a true snapshot of that era.

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SOMEWHERE IN AN INDIANA SUBURB

you know this movie is a fantasy because Richard Dreyfuss is married to Terry Garr.

that said, the chaos of that family room is peak 1970s Sears-Roebuck catalog.

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MUNCIE, INDIANA

this is the scene that really cements Spielberg as a master of horror.

this scene was so seared in my brain, i have forever been scared of American houses in the middle of nowhere.

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AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL

love, Love, LOVE how they use the filtered sounds coming from the airplane reports. the ambient sounds coming in from the the airplanes and all the people talking over each other was very fresh and new in film-making.

it’s amazing how many techniques taken for granted in film-making today can be traced back to Spielberg movies.

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only Steven Spielberg can make crickets sound creepy.

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i have never watched, and will never watch, Schindler’s List because i cannot imagine it not being a horror story

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the mailboxes opening up and then the light from above and everything floating inside the truck. just reckoned they were trying to vacuum him into the spaceship.

seriously, Spielberg makes horror stories.

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OMG! this moment

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back in Indiana, and Roy’s domestic chaos still fills me with dread.

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Gobi Desert, Mongolia

i don't remember the flags in these trucks being of the United Nations.

these are the little ways Spielberg spells out conspiracies and i appreciate that: show don't tell.

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darkness swalling up the toll booth, like in a Zurbarán makes this movie a perfect sample of neobaroque aesthetics.

the clouds, after the spaceships disappear into it is straight out of El Greco.

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GOLDSTONE OBSERVATORY

so upon announcing to my brood that i was rewatching ―yet again― THING1 told me that he found out Spielberg’s father was a software developer and his mother a musician.

this movie is literally a love song to both his parents (software was developed to play the famous encounter music at the end).

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the irony of not knowing they are asking the state to Stop & Be Friendly.

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AT A SECRET UN MEETING SOMEWHERE

i have no idea how many times i have watched this movie and i just noticed the crew that Roy ends up joining is in this meeting sitting in a balcony in their flashy yellow jumpsuits. i finally noticed thanks to the blonde lady’s beehive.

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Dharmsala, India

this isn't even peak Orientalism for Spielberg. the depths he sunk to in the Indiana Jones movies is now legendary.

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seriously, the screws unscrewing themselves and all the gadgets turning on by themselves and then fucking Barry going in thru the dog door laughing?

nightmare fuel.

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THE BABY ABDUCTION SCENE

just pure nightmare fuel.

that is all.

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for the longest time i confused Wyoming’s Devil’s Peak with New Mexico’s Enchanted Mesa. it's wild that the United States is so big it has these amazing geological outcrops.

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it’s also a magnanimous fuck you who those who think science nor tech depend on the Liberal Arts.

without the translator/mapper, played by Bob Balaban, there is no movie. each major plot point is moved forward by his intervention.

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