See these filns: Close Encounters of the Third Kind + E.T. @ the Brattle

Before he had them kill off a billion people in War of the Worlds (2005), Steven Spielberg was more optimistic about aliens. In fact, they signified redemption. For example, in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977), Richard Dreyfus plays a family man seized by visions that take him to a terrifying and ecstatic rendezvous with the mother ship. In E.T: The Extraterrestrial (1982), the blue-eyed homunculus of the title is a cute little Messiah hiding in the closet of suburban rugrats played by Drew Barrymore and Henry Thomas. Where are they now that we need them? The Brattle is at 40 Brattle St, Cambridge | Wednesday: Close Encounters @ 4:30 + 8 pm; E.T. @ 7:15 pm | $9.75; $7.75 seniors; $6.75 students | 617.876.6837 or brattlefilm.org.