The Bearded Trio

Taking A Look At One Of My Favourite Steven Spielberg Scenes: The Air Traffic Control Scene From Close Encounters of the Third Kind One of my favourite scenes in a Steven Spielberg movie is from the 1977 classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind .  It's the traffic control scene where the operator asks the pilot if he wants to report a UFO.  The fact that we can get involved in a tense scene between a couple of aircraft completely off screen making us use our imagination to fill in the gaps is pure genius.  We hear the pilots trying to figure out what exactly they are witnessing as the object whizzes by getting too close to them.  Then they refuse to report a UFO for fear of stigma and not knowing what exactly they just saw.  It's a gripping scene that I never tire of watching. It turns out that this scene was actually shot before the movie was officially "green-lit."  Columbia realised that in order to qualify for funds from tax shelters they would need to sh