Close Encounters of the Third Kind poster
Close Encounters of the Third Kind

The most "year the movie came out" thing

Close Encounters of the Third Kind The Rewatchables

The 1977 markers include World War II's recency, always-on television, rotary phones, neighborhood streets, and whole milk.

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:58:32Read transcript
  • The story treating World War II as only thirty years earlier is proposed as a distinctly 1977 perspective.
  • Roy leaving broadcast television on for hours to receive news is identified as a vanished media habit.
  • A McDonald's sign advertising only twenty-four billion served is singled out as a period marker.
  • Rotary phones and neighbors gathering in the street are proposed as additional 1977 details.
  • A three-year-old child named Barry is treated as a name choice unlikely to recur now.
  • A pitcher of whole milk at the dinner table is the final period candidate.