Spielberg's (accidental) Alien Trilogy

Having just re-watched Christopher Nolan’s third and final Batman instalment over Christmas, it got me thinking of trilogies.  In particular Steven Spielberg trilogies.  But first going one step back to ponder three Nolan batfilms.  The first one is the origin story (every reboot needs one, right?).  Bruce Wayne Begins Batman - we see the billionaire Gothamite trying to figure out this whole vigilante justice system (no guns etc - America take note).  The second film (and the best of the trilogy) was Batman and Bruce Wayne at their physical and mental peak.  Finally The Dark Knight Returns, the final chapter presented us with Batman and Bruce Wayne in retirement, forced to come back by Bane - only to see our once invincible hero a pale shadow of his former self.  You see the “symbol” mantle passed on to (spoiler)... Robin.  So as a trilogy, it behaves as a projectile - the initial throw of the particle at an angle and velocity.  This projectile reaches its peak at some point during the flight.  Finally it starts its descent... downwards. Only for it to have some energy left for a quick bounce at the end.  Finally the ball comes to a standstill and the trilogy is over.  But if you want, someone else can pick up the ball and re-throw it.  Different thrower but same symbol.

We are not alone - in Close Encounters

Now back to the title of this post...  One of my friends pointed out to me his dislike of Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  His main complaint was that nothing happened.  And when you finally got to the end with the spaceship, you didn’t have much alien time.  You didn’t learn anything about the beings from outer space or what bond or relationships would be formed between Richard Dreyfuss’s character and the beings.  I couldn’t defend Spielberg but I did say that wasn’t what Spielberg wanted to touch upon in the film.  It was there to establish that creatures from space did exist and they had visited us.  Additionally that man (or men in government) knew of their existence.  I posited that this movie can’t be seen as an island on its own but rather the first piece of a wider unintentional trilogy.

Aliens attack in War of the Worlds

Close Encounters established the fact that alien beings did exist.  ET the Extra Terrestrial in my view is the second instalment of an alien trilogy.  ET is the movie that my friend was looking for in Encounters.  In ET, you see the aliens land on Earth.  Not only land like in Close Encounters but you have what my friend called “Alien time”.  The whole movie is Alien time.  You see the relationship between man and space being.  The Alien learns about people and the young kids in turn learn about the spaceman.  The movie ends with government agents cornering the space entity and chasing ET and his team of merry cyclists through the streets of the good old suburbs of USA.  If I were chased through the streets of America upon my (first...?) visit to planet Earth, I can tell you firmly, once I got back to Mars (or wherever) my report to my seniors would not be glowing of Mankind.  In fact, my reports would probably implore our species to leave actual landings on Earth for a little while, instead simply to observe man from afar.  This is exactly how the third instalment of Spielberg’s alien trilogy begins.  H.G.Wells War of the World is the final chapter in the alien trilogy.  That is when the shit hits the fan and hell breaks loose between man and spacemen.  Because H.G.Wells was a human, it's biased and the space creatures lose the war.  And there you have it: Close Encounters, ET and War of the Worlds - Spielberg’s (accidental) alien trilogy.  QED.

Dead Wife. Times Three.

Just watched The Fisher King directed by Terry Gilliam for the first time, starring Robin Williams.  I had a sense of deja vu.  Not because it was a Gilliam movie and it looked like 12 Monkeys.  But because Robin Williams character was again a victim of tragedy.  His wife was shot through the face by a crazy.  This of course in movie-land turns Robin Williams insane.  Then I realised I had seen this before in What Dreams May Come.  In that colourful and visually imaginative film, Robin Williams wife was killed in a car accident.  Also sending him into a spin.  Then there was Gus Van Sant's, Good Will Hunting.  Written by Jason Bourne and Ben Affleck.  I recall Robin Williams character getting very angry and upset when math prodigy Matt Damon tried to psychoanalyse this analysts dead wife.  Dead wife.  Times Three. QED.