e., organic foods were now considered unhealthy).Allen's sole sci-fi film was loosely based upon H.G.Wells' rewritten dystopian 1910 novel "The Sleeper Awakes" (based on Wells' own earlier serialization "When the Sleeper Wakes" from 1898-1899).The film's title inspired Paul Bartel's camp classic and spaghetti western spoofLust In the Dust (1984), with Tab Hunter and 300 lb.The massive artificial monolith, in contrast to its natural surroundings, stands in a shallow depression in the rocks where the man-apes gather around a water hole.One of the film's posters declared: "We are not alone."The transcendent film followed the odyssey of various characters, including an obsessed, middle-class power lineman named Roy Neary (Dreyfuss, who had earlier appeared in Spielberg'sJaws, but was offered the part only after tough-actor Steve McQueen declined) and a distraught mother named Gillian (Dillon), and her young son Barry (Guffey), as they are inexplicably lured to a volcano-like mountain in Wyoming, to experience a spectacular, extra-terrestrial encounter.This great film was nominated in three Academy Award categories, including Best Supporting Actor (Robert Stack who should have won, but lost to Anthony Quinn forLust for Life) and Best Song ("Written on the Wind"), with Dorothy Malone aking home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar (her sole career nomination and win) for an overacted slinky, catty role as a sex-obsessed, wild, nymphomaniacal, provocative member of the Texas oil dynasty's family.