Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Purely Coincidental




Is it just me? Well, of course it is, but I wonder how many people ever took a close look at the ads for two different movies and saw a resemblance in advertising procedure? I vote for "unintentional," but the comparison is too interesting to pass up.


Just as a routine visual for the movie, "U.F.O." shows the darkness of a radar scope, its sweeping hand and bright UFO images, the major poster for Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" relies upon the dark of night, an emitted light source and brilliant stars in the sky.


Two movies about UFOs, one fiction (with a cameo appearance by Dr. J. Allen Hynek) and the other a documentary (with appearances by and about several people involved with UFO investigations) made 21 years apart -- and each begs our attention with a mix of foreboding darkness and mysterious images of light.


Sometimes, studio publicity divisions seem to speak a common language, yes?