Close Encounters of the Third Kind: 30th Anniversary Ultimate Ed (Blu-ray) (1977) |
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Close Encounters of the Third Kind: 30th Anniversary Ultimate Ed (Blu-ray) (1977) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Science Fiction |
Active Subtitle Track-View From Above Interviews-Crew-Steven Spielberg: 30 Years of Close Encounters Featurette-The Making Of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind Featurette-Watch The Skies Deleted Scenes-x9 Gallery-Nine gallaries Theatrical Trailer-Trailer for each version |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1977 | ||
| Running Time | 137:14 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper |
Dual Layered Dual Disc Set |
Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | Steven Spielberg |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Sony Pictures Home Entertain |
Starring |
Richard Dreyfuss François Truffaut Teri Garr Melinda Dillon Bob Balaban J. Patrick McNamara Warren J. Kemmerling Roberts Blossom Philip Dodds Cary Guffey Shawn Bishop Adrienne Campbell Justin Dreyfuss |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $44.95 | Music | John Williams |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 1080p | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | English | Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | Yes | ||
As with George Lucas, Steven Spielberg was a very slow and cautious adopter of the DVD format. But fortunately we have not had to wait too long for Spielberg to make his high definition debut, as his classic film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, has arrived. An outstanding critical and commercial success, Close Encounters has been crafted with inspiring awe and meticulous attention to detail. This two-disc, 30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition on Blu-ray now offers us no less than three versions of the film, all remastered and presented in high definition, including a Director's Cut that finally represents Spielberg's original vision.
Growing up in Arizona, Steven Spielberg had made his first amateur film, an 8-minute Western, The Last Gun, at 12. Spielberg funded the project with a tree-planting business. Charging local kids admission to see his films, by 14 Spielberg had become more ambitious, and had made a 40-minute war film, Escape To Nowhere, shot on 8mm, and another short, Battle Squad, which mixed WW2 footage with sequences he'd shot at Phoenix airport. Buoyed by his success, Spielberg began work on Firelight, a 140-minute sci-fi epic, based on a story his sister had written about a UFO attack. Of course the themes of aliens and WWII was to appear frequently throughout Spielberg's later work. Another recurring theme, is the semi-autobiographical one of a child (often a young boy) in distress, with a remote or absent father.
Interestingly, Spielberg was refused entry to the University of Southern California's film course not once, but twice, and he ended up studying English at California State University instead. Spielberg's first big break was to come in the form of a short, Amblin', that was a prize-winner at the Atlanta Film Festival, and won Spielberg a seven-year contract with Universal Studios. (In memory of this, he would name his first production company Amblin Entertainment.) Now a working director, 22-year-old Spielberg honed his skills directing episodes of television, including Marcus Welby MD and Columbo.
Spielberg's first project to grab industry attention was the made-for-television Duel (1971), which was followed by the reasonably successful, feature film, Sugarland Express (1974). But is was Spielberg's work on Duel that convinced producers to let him direct Jaws (1975), a project that had a very similar theme. Indeed, Spielberg later referred to Jaws, as Duel "with water". The US$8.5 million Jaws was to become a phenomenal critical and commercial success, raking in US$260 million. It also became the first film to break the US$100 million barrier, and it did that in North America alone. Jaws was to launch a career that is unmatched in terms of box office success.
Spielberg's following notable films as a writer and/or director include, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982), The Color Purple (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), Schindler's List (1993), Amistad (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Artifical Intelligence: AI (2001), Catch Me If You Can (2002), War of the Worlds (2005), Munich (2005), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (due 2008). In addition to these, Spielberg also directed the original Indiana Jones trilogy, and the first two Jurassic Park films. Spielberg is also credited with co-creating the very successful series of WWII themed video games, the Medal of Honor series.
Furthermore, Spielberg has also produced the very successful, Poltergeist (1982), Gremlins (1984), The Goonies (1985), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Twister (1996), Deep Impact (1998), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Monster House (2006), Flags of our Fathers (2006), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), Transformers (2007), and the television series, ER, and Band of Brothers, as well as the Back to the Future trilogy, and the two Men In Black and two Zorro films. An admitted workaholic, he is currently working on producing no less than ten film projects, including Jurassic Park 4 (due 2008), and Transformers 2 (due 2009), while completing post-production on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (due 2008).
However, it is the phenomenal success of Jaws that is credited with creating the Hollywood trend for summer blockbusters. Prior to Jaws, studios churned out a number of movies each year that were 'hit or miss', but following Jaws, the big studios all opted to make fewer films, with maximum box office potential. Now 'big-event' films and summer blockbusters, with expensive marketing campaigns, were to be expected. For example, Jaws was quickly followed by Star Wars (1977), Grease (1978), and Superman (1978).
"We are not alone!"
Written and directed by Spielberg, Close Encounters of the Third Kind is undoubtedly a wonderful movie, and would have been successful anyway, but it benefited greatly from its timing. Although at the time Spielberg was apparently concerned about his film being released only a few months after Star Wars, Close Encounters actually thrived on the pro-science fiction hysteria that followed George Lucas' unexpected blockbuster. Despite Close Encounters being a very different film to Star Wars, cinema audiences were now excited by stories about space and aliens. Released in November 1977, Close Encounters enjoyed a domestic gross of US$116 million. It has since earned a staggering US$303 million globally, and thirty years later, it still remains in the Top 100 Box Office Films (Adjusted) of all time.
All great works of science fiction never date, even with the passing of time or advancements in technology. For example, this is true for sci-fi books such as Frank Herbert's Dune (1965), Douglas Adams' Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy (1979), Isaac Asimov's I, Robot (1950), HG Wells' The Time Machine (1895), and Jules Verne' 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870); It is also true for sci-fi films, such as Blade Runner (1982), The original Star Wars trilogy (1977-83), Alien (1979), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969), The Terminator (1984), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Forbidden Planet (1956), Planet of the Apes (1968), Back to the Future (1985), Jurassic Park (1993), and Gattaca (1997); And it is also true for sci-fi television, such as Star Trek (1966-69), The X-Files (1993-2002), Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94), The Twilight Zone (1959-1964), Space 1999 (1975-77), The Time Tunnel (1966-67), and Doctor Who (1963-1989).
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is unquestionably a great work of science fiction. Despite the contextual references to post-Watergate America, this film has aged well, and it’s as effective today as ever. Although as Spielberg observes in an interview in one of the BD's extras, that he (as with many others), have become far more sceptical about UFOs, the film's theme of the age-old human fascination with "what’s out there" still remains relevant today.
It is this question - are we alone? - that is the obsession that drives the film's plot. This movie is not character or plot driven, it's driven by the obsession of characters within the film to answer this question. Based on the classification scheme devised by Dr. J. Allen Hynek (who appears in the film briefly, and acted as the film's technical advisor), a close encounter of the first kind is "any UFO reported to have been within about 500 feet of the witness". A close encounter of the second kind is a UFO "that leaves markings on the ground, causes burns or paralysis, frightens animals, or interferes with engines or TV or radio reception". A close encounter of the third kind includes a "purported sighting of, or meeting with, the occupants of a UFO".
Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) is the every-man power lineman in Muncie, Indiana, at the centre of the story, but Spielberg really just uses Roy as a plot device: One night in his truck, Roy has a close encounter with UFOs which leaves him a fundamentally changed man. Apart from sunburn to one side of his face, he’s got an overwhelming obsession with the visitors, and with a strange shape that he starts seeing everywhere. Roy becomes increasingly alienated from his wife, Ronnie (Teri Garr), and his three children. Driven by forces he doesn’t understand, Roy, like others similarly affected, such as Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon), to make a pilgrimage of sorts to the secluded Devil's Tower, Wyoming, to find an answer.
As Roy’s strange obsession unfolds, a French scientist, Claude Lacombe (Francois Truffaut) travels the World, investigating strange occurrences, such as the circle of vintage fighter planes in perfect working condition found in the Sonora Desert, Mexico. A verification reveals that the planes are identical to a squad of fighters lost in 1945 in the Bermuda Triangle. Lacombe is also visiting those who have experienced a close encounter. A mysterious five tone musical theme becomes a common experience.
As with Spielberg’s suspense-thriller Jaws, Close Encounters benefits from his masterful restraint. Using the very same techniques of Jaws to create a very different effect, Spielberg presents us with a slow, gradual, and very disciplined series of dramatic moments which slowly build the film's suspense and tension. But, instead of the almost unbearable fear and horror of Jaws, we are now overwhelmed by the sense of child-like wonder and amazement. Throughout the movie we know we are being led somewhere, and with open minds we dutifully follow unquestioning. This film isn't about aliens or their actions. There is no invasion, war, abduction, or attack. We are not fascinated by the aliens themselves, but the very possibility of their existence. Close Encounters is thrilling and fascinating and succeeds in inspiring wonder in its audience. Indeed, one of the outstanding features of this film is its overt optimism. Here unlike the vast majority of alien films - especially the cold-war 1950s invasion films which helped set the mould - Aliens are benign and friendly visitors who pose no threat to us.
Close Encounters was an intensely personal project for Spielberg, and as he reveals in an interview contained in the BD's extras, he was placed under great pressure by Columbia Studios to rush the film's release before Christmas 1977. Consequently, Spielberg described the film as a "work-in-progress", and did not believe that this original version truly represented his vision. Based on the outstanding success of the film, Spielberg asked the studio for more money to 'finish' his film. He was provided with a further US$2 million to shoot some additional scenes (such as the ship strangely stranded in the Gobi dessert), and to re-edit the film. But there was a catch, the Studio insisted that the audience gets to see something new - i.e. what's inside the UFO mother ship. Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Special Edition was released in 1980 with about 15 minutes of original footage deleted (such as cutting the scene in which Roy throws dirt and plants into his family's home to build his model of Devil's Tower), and another 12 minutes of new footage, including a few minutes inside the mother ship at the end were added.
Unhappy with the unnecessary scene inside the mother ship which tore at the audiences imagination, Spielberg freely admits it was a terrible mistake, and consequently became very unhappy with the film. Spielberg released a third version - a Director's Cut in 1998, which is the version of choice included on this 30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition. While from a thematic and content perspective, all three films are very similar, the Director's Cut combines the best of the two previous versions, and accurately represents Spielberg's original vision. But in tightening the scenes, Spielberg has cut something I always thought was a nice touch in the original film. There is a moment early in the movie when Roy is at home with his family, playing with his train set. There is a close-up of Roy's Pinocchio figurine, while a music-box version of When I Wish Upon A Star can be heard in the background. I always thought that brief shot said so much about Roy's character.
Visually, Close Encounters is a stunning film, with a distinct visual style. Indeed, Vilmos Zsigmond won an Oscar for the cinematography. The BD's transfer is noticeably sharper and far more detailed than the previous DVD release, and as with Bram Stoker's Dracula and The Fifth Element (Remastered) BDs, the high definition disc is now the very best presentation of this film to date, and the ultimate way to enjoy it at home.
Partly due to its age, and partly to the film stocks chosen by Zsigmond, the film has gritty, grainy, and heavily textured look, which suits the story. The transfer is presented in high definition, having been authored in 1920 x 1080p. It has been encoded using AVC MPEG-4 compression, and presented in a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1, in a native 16x9 frame. This is the film's original theatrical ratio.
While understandably not as crisp as some more recent high definition films, the film is noticeably sharper than the previous DVD release. For example, consider the vastly improved delineation in the scene of the Mexican village at 37:24, or the detail in the family home at 16:17. This is a very dark film, and fortunately the black level is generally excellent throughout, and the shadow detail is surprisingly good.
The film's overall production design is fantastic. Colour is used strongly throughout, and the BD accurately reflects the colour palette of the source material. The film looks far more vibrant now, compared with the DVD.
The BD's transfer has an average bit rate lower than what I have seen on other BDs that I have reviewed. It ranges between 20-25 Mbps, compared to 25-30 Mbps. There are no problems with MPEG artefacts, such as pixelization. There are also no problems with Film-To-Video Artefacts, such as aliasing or telecine wobble. A few small film artefacts, for example, tiny black or white flecks, appear infrequently throughout, but these were never distracting, and indeed, they were hard to spot.
20 subtitle streams are included. The English ones are accurate.
The three features are provided via seamless branching on a BD-50 (50 GB) disc. The Director's Cut is divided into 20 chapters.
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The sound on Close Encounters provides a great home theatre experience. Close Encounters BD's audio is wonderful, and again there is a noticeable improvement over the DVD.
Close Encounters was released on DVD with the choice of a Dolby Digital or dts 5.1 mix. The BD, however, offers two excellent next generation audio options for the feature: An immersive English Lossless dts HD MA surround audio and a Lossless Dolby TrueHD surround audio option. Both these next generation audio options are encoded at 48kHz/24-bit, and are magnificent in both their clarity and range, but I particularly enjoyed the dts HD MA surround audio which sounded fuller and deeper.
As mentioned above, the first audio option is an English dts-HD Lossless Master Audio. This format can potentially support an unlimited number of surround sound channels, and downmix to 5.1 if required. This is 'future-proofing' as currently there are no Blu-ray or HD-DVD players that I am aware of that are able to decode the dts-HD Master Audio, but all Blu-ray and HD-DVD players can currently decode the dts-HD "core" discrete audio at 1.5 Mbps. I understand that firmware upgrades in the near future (via download) will address this situation.
Dolby TrueHD Lossless audio is common to both Blu-ray and HD-DVD, although for the HD-DVD format, TrueHD is a mandatory codec, and all HD-DVD players must support it, whereas in Blu-ray, TrueHD is an optional codec. For both Blu-ray and HD-DVD, TrueHD is capable of carrying up to eight discrete audio channels, at a sample depth and rate of 24-bit/96 kHz. The maximum bitrate that can be encoded on either format is 18 Mbps.
Despite all the extensive use of ADR, the dialogue quality and audio sync are excellent.
The original music is credited to the great John Williams, and forms part of his trio of famous adventure/fantasy orchestral scores of the late 1970's, which include his memorable compositions for Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Superman. For Close Encounters, Williams was required to provide a simple five note hook, both as the element of a plot, and as the basis for his score, prior to the film's completion, and with his excellent work here, it is no wonder he was nominated for the Best Original Score Oscar (although he won in the same year for Star Wars.)
As with the DVD, the surround presence and activity is not as expansive as more recent films, but it is still good, and it adds a lot to the film, in terms of giving viewers an atmospheric experience. The rear speakers are often used to provide ambience and support the score. The film boasts a demo-quality LFE track, and the subwoofer is utilised very effectively throughout. The scene where Roy has his first 'close encounter' has the deepest and most intense bass I have ever heard, on any format, including DVD, HD DVD or BD! In other scenes, the UFOs rumble will shake your home and (literally) rattle the windows.
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This two-disc, 30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition has a number of genuine and interesting extras, spread over two discs.
As with other BDs, the menu can be accessed while the film is playing.
This option allows viewers to watch any of the three versions of the film, and icons and text boxes will appear throughout, pointing out footage that has been added to deleted in that version.
Disc Two
Encounters
Deleted Scenes
There are nine deleted/extended scenes presented in standard definition.
Explorations
Trailers
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced, these are the trailers for the three versions of the film:
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
As with Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg has chosen to make his high definition debut on the Blu-ray format. In terms of content, this appears to be pretty much the same BD as was released in the US.
As many of Spielberg's blockbusters were distributed by Universal Pictures and Paramount/DreamWorks, I had assumed that it would be the HD DVD camp who would provide us with the first high definition Spielberg film. However, the HD DVD camp have had to publicly apologise twice now to Spielberg for promising his films to consumers on the HD DVD format. Furthermore, in the recent Paramount/DreamWorks HD DVD announcement, it stated that Spielberg's DreamWorks films would be exempt from their HD DVD exclusive arrangement.
In summary, Close Encounters of the Third Kind 30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition has been released on DVD and Blu-ray. It will not be released on HD DVD.
Close Encounters is one of the all-time great science fiction films, and also one of Spielberg's best films.
The video quality is a little grainy, but is the very best presentation of the film to date.
The audio quality is good, and the bass absolutely terrifying.
The second disc of extras are genuine and interesting.
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| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Sony Playstation 3 (HDMI 1.3) with Upscaling, using HDMI output |
| Display | Panasonic High Definition 50' Plasma (127 cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Samsung Pure Digital 6.1 AV Receiver (HDMI 1.3) |
| Speakers | Samsung |