History Trivia / CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind

** One early concept for interpreting the aliens included an orangutan on roller skates. The idea did not work, because the orangutan became very frightened the second its roller skates touched the ground, and it kept grabbing onto the arms of its caretaker. This would have cost the film a NoAnimalsWereHarmed in any case, and wouldn't sit well with sensitive adult or child viewers. Marionettes were also considered, but the time, expense and practicalities of having almost 70 puppeteers manipulating the 7 puppets required for the scene caused them to nix the idea.

** One early concept for interpreting the aliens included an orangutan on roller skates. The idea did not work, because the orangutan became very frightened the second its roller skates touched the ground, and it kept grabbing onto the arms of its caretaker. This would have cost the film a NoAnimalsWereHarmed in any case, and wouldn't sit well with sensitive adult or child viewers.

* AuteurLicense: After the success of ''Film/{{Jaws}}'', Columbia Pictures said that Spielberg could make pretty much whatever movie he wanted, so he made this. It nearly [[CreatorKiller bankrupted the studio]], but ended up their highest-grossing him up to that point.

* DuellingMovies: With ''Film/ANewHope'', the other big science-fiction blockbuster that year. Both proved to be game-changers for the genre. As noted under ChristmasRushed, ''Close Encounters'' as not originally intended to come out the same year as ''A New Hope'', though it wouldn't have mattered given the first ''Star Wars'' film got a major re-release in 1978 anyway so the two films would have still been in competition.

** Creator/GerardDepardieu, Creator/JeanLouisTrintignant and Creator/LinoVentura were considered for the role of Claude Lacombe. The role instead went to film director Creator/FrancoisTruffaut in one of his only acting roles.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: In many, many ways:
** Old cars and '70s fashion everywhere.
** TechnologyMarchesOn. To cite just one example, the scene with the giant globe being obtained in order to work out the map coordinates would make no sense in the era of Google Maps. On a more meta note, Spielberg himself says that UFO phenomena was more believable in the '70s, before camcorders were invented in the '80s and sightings actually went down.
** A middle-aged man (played by Creator/RobertsBlossom, age 53 at the time) mentioning that he saw Bigfoot in 1951 and 30s-ish Roy giving 1944 as his birth year.
** Major Benchley says, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is a flying saucer. It's made of pewter, [[MadeInCountryX made in Japan]], and thrown across the lawn by one of my children." This carries the implication of Japan being a source of cheap goods, which it was back then.
** Howard K. Smith's NewscasterCameo places the story no later than 1979, meaning the film was already dated when the special edition came out in 1980. (Although this one is more YMMV as Smith later played himself as an active newscaster in ''Series/{{V1983}}'', set in the mid-1980s.)
** The real ''Cotopaxi'' was found in 2020.[[note]]Well, technically it was found in 1985, but it wasn't positively identified as the ''Cotopaxi'' until 2020.[[/note]] Allegedly lost in TheBermudaTriangle, it turns out the wreck was off the coast of Florida the whole time. Ah, well.

* UsefulNotes/AFIS100YearsSeries:
** AFIS100Years100Movies: #64
** AFIS100Years100Thrills: #31
** AFIS100Years100Cheers: #58

* AFIS100YearsSeries: