My opinions about the great movies don't really change much from when I first see them, even if it was decades ago. But sometimes the big changes in your life can alter them in some obvious ways.
Take Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It's an absolute dead-set classic of a film, from the period of peak Spielberg. And when I watched it recently for the first time since becoming a father, I could not get over how much Roy Neary is a total asshole towards his family.
It's such a goddamn cliché to say parenthood changes your perspective on things, but it really fucking does. I really can't watch anything when a little kid is harmed, and any movie that features the loss of a child fucking tears me up inside.
And while I desperately try not to judge any other parents for the way they do things - all kids are different, and all parents equally so - I do get frustrated by movie characters who are totally awful parents, because they're missing out on the truly great things in life.
Spielberg's own history of familial strife is well-documented, but Roy's family are still little more than collateral damage on the man's journey to the stars.
It's still a fantastic movie - the unrealness of the first encounters, the lights and sounds of the mothership at the climax, the connection between two vastly different civilizations - but don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, Roy.
If I didn't like movies with unsympathetic characters, I wouldn't like very many movies, so it's not like it's a game changer. But the sense of wonder as Roy heads out over the rainbow and into that bloody big spaceship is certainly dimmed by the thought of kids he leaves behind.
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