Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Blu-ray)
30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition
This edition includes:
1977 Original Theatrical Edition (135 mins)
1980 Theatrical Special Edition (132 mins)
1998 Director's Cut (137 mins)
After an unsettling incident on a lonely road, working man Roy Neary (Dreyfuss) becomes obsessed with strange visions, much to the dismay of his increasingly distraught wife (Garr). Meanwhile a series of bizarre and mysterious incidents baffle scientists across the world, led by French scientist Claude Lacombe (Truffault). What is the meaning of the unusually-shaped mountain Neary keeps imagining and how will it become involved in a revelation that will change mankind’s future forever?
Member Reviews
Classic - KeithTalent
I have not seen this film since I was a kid and I have never seen the D.C., so finding this box-set used for $20, I could not resist. Such an impressive film for so many reasons, building a lot of tension through lighting and other effects, but also doing a great job of creating an emotional attachment to the characters and the plight of the families involved here. Spielberg sure is a wizard working with kids as Barry, the kid in this, is just awesome and I have to think much of that came from how Spielberg worked with him. The D.C. seems to be a bit of a darker film than the other iterations I've seen and that's a very good thing. I guess I can see how some may find this film to be a slow burn and even boring, but I think it's quite riveting.Favourite of Spielberg's Early Film's - Gregg
According to the film and those that study UFO's "close encounters" are interactions with extra-terrestrials or UFO's, and a close encounter of the third kind is actual contact with them.
The story focuses on two people who have had encounters with UFO's Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfus) and Gillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon), in fact Gillian's son was abducted by the aliens. Both of these charaters and others would be strongly effected by what they witnessed on a sub-concious level and find themselves compelled to take actions they might not otherwise take.
I addition to the strong performances from Dreyfus and Dillon we also have good performances form Teri Garr, Bob Balaban and the french director Francois Truffaut
One of the strengths of this and several of Spielberg’s other pictures from this era is his evocative portrayal of growing up in suburbia.
The film featured a memorable score from John Williams of which the most memorable part is a five note sequence that would be integral to the story.
While some have praised the special effects I myself found them to be not outstanding but I did feel they served there purpose here fairly well.
The result for me was not only an intriguing science fiction plot but also a rather compelling mystery and suspense story which also had a message of a sort.
While Spielberg would go on to surpass himself later as a director with such great films as Saving Private Ryan and Schindlers List this remains my favorite of his earlier films of which there are several very good films.
The first re-release while adding some good additional material also made the unfortunate mistake of showing the inside of the mothership, something Spielberg himself later regretted. The director's cut is probably the best version of the film overall but I found very little amiss about the original theatrical release.Well done - JimmyFace
The video quality is excellent despite there being three versions of the movie on the disc. The way they did this is that they chopped up the movie files and just linked in the extra parts dynamically depending on which version you pick. Original, Special, or Director's cut.
Boo on the PCM track, it's Dolby True HD 2.0, not sure why, but the DTS track rocks big time.
The movie itself was great. I watched the Director's cut and the start and end are quite different. I liked it a lot.
I would recommend giving this a watch if you haven't seen it in a while or have never seen the Director's Cut which has two huge changes.
Member Reviews
Read All...
Classic - KeithTalent
I have not seen this film since I was a kid and I have never seen the D.C., so finding this box-set used for $20, I could not resist. Such an impressive film for so many reasons, building a lot of tension through lighting and other effects, but also doing ...Favourite of Spielberg's Early Film's - Gregg
According to the film and those that study UFO's "close encounters" are interactions with extra-terrestrials or UFO's, and a close encounter of the third kind is actual contact with them.
The story focuses on two people who have had encounters with ...Well done - JimmyFace
The video quality is excellent despite there being three versions of the movie on the disc. The way they did this is that they chopped up the movie files and just linked in the extra parts dynamically depending on which version you pick. Original, Special, ...