Close Encounters of the Third Kind rereleased to theaters

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by primejive, Jul 25, 2017.

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  1. Johnny66

    Johnny66 Laird of Boleskine

    Location:
    Australia.
    Man, go read some of Truffaut's film criticism prior to his making films. He was utterly brutal. He was a street-smart petty criminal in his youth, and wielded his pen in a similar manner. I think Spielberg mistook Truffaut for his films, which can be truly gentle and tender (but - ruthlessly - never sentimental).

    I wouldn't want to encounter this petty thug on a dark night (from 1951, during Truffaut's time in military prison):

    [​IMG]
     
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  2. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    I dunno what happened. I was in school in Muncie IN, when the thing got filmed, and local media was all over it. (One of the guys down my dorm-room hall even had press credentials, and made pretty good use of them..) Saw the movie on break, at home: really nice.

    Sometime months later, I wandered into a mall cinema in Muncie..and this screen was miles tall! I mean, who builds a mall cinema with a roof that high; what if Sputnik slammed into it? Was I in the Tardis..?!

    Anyway, the screen was brilliant, the projection was just a shade beneath 70mm ( I was a film stoodent, paying attention to these things), and I wondered how I had missed this particular auditorium before. Seriously, Devil's Tower had never looked that magnificent...and then I realized...that was just the spud version Neary was sculpting it on his plate...! :yikes:
     
  3. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I think you're absolutely right. I think Spielberg believed that Truffaut had the heart of the innocent people in his more optimistic films, but I think the reality is that the French director was a lot more critical and cynical than he knew. Regardless, I think Truffaut's comments were pretty accurate, according to everything I know about CE3K.

    Yeah, I saw Close Encounters the first day it opened in LA in mid-November 1977. I played hooky from work and took a long lunch in order to catch the first showing at the Cinerama Dome on Sunset Blvd. A friend of mine and I got about the last two seats in a totally-packed house, which were right in the front row of the theater (not the best seats by far)... but the movie had a huge impact. I went back and saw it again a couple of weeks later on a more-traditional screen under better conditions and still enjoyed the film very much.

    I think the movie has a lot of logical flaws and things that make absolutely no sense, but it's a fun film and also very emotionally moving, and I think the final results transcend any criticism you can have about logic and all that.
     
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  4. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I think Spielberg went through a lot of angst in terms of the final edit, and if you read the credits, you'll see there are no less than five cinematographers listed including original DP Vilmos Zsigmond, who got fired at the end of the Alabama shoot. The reason why is that Spielberg kept realizing there were jumps in the story that kind of made no sense, so they would go back out and shoot more linking footage to help tie everything together. I believe even the opening of the movie, where they find the lost 1940s airplanes in a Mexican desert, was shot only a few weeks before the movie came out. The original opening of the movie was the "near miss" of the aircraft from the air traffic control tower on radar (a sequence edited by Verna Fields as a favor to Spielberg).

    Spielberg has changed his story in later years as to what his intentions were with Close Encounters and where the film was supposed to go. One of them was that he always intended to show Richard Dreyfuss enter the alien spaceship at the end, which he was able to finally shoot in 1980 (3 years after the original release). All I can say is, I have two or three early drafts of the script and this scene is not there.
     
  5. I personally think it was unnecessary to go inside the ship. My imagination was much better than what we were shown plus Dreyfus was three years older and noticeably heavier. I honestly think that Spielberg was, to a degree, in over his head and it didn't help that the producers probably were (Michael and Julia Phillips) as well. Being in over your head isn't ne essarily a bad thing when you have the skills that Spielberg has but I think it challenged him in ways that 2017 Spielberg could have handled in his sleep.
     
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  6. Ringmaster_D

    Ringmaster_D Surfer of Sound Waves

    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    Any idea which version will be shown? I'm betting the 1998 "Collector's Edition" which would be fine by me. I think that version struck the best balance between the original cut and the 1980 special edition. Eliminating the final interior scene was the best choice, not only for mystery but also pacing.
     
  7. EddieVanHalen

    EddieVanHalen Forum Resident

    I didn't know the scene of Dreyfuss getting into the alien spaceship was shot 3 years later after the theatrical release. That must have been expensive as the sets sure were dissasembled and had to be put together again just for a few shots, or these shots share nothing with the original shots from 1977. Anyway Close Encounters Of The Third Kind must have made really well at the box office to do reshoots 3 years later after its theatrical release.
     
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  8. Thievius

    Thievius Blue Oyster Cult-ist

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY
    Doesn't Spielberg tell a different story in the bonus features of the blu-ray Ultimate Edition? If I recall correctly he says it was a mistake to show Neary inside the ship in the Special Edition but was pressured to do so by the studio. And that's why he subsequently made a third and final Director's Cut without that scene.

    Its possible I'm remembering it wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's how he tells it on the blu-ray. And if so, it contradicts his claim that the scene was in an early draft, though its possible he had a change of heart, the studio caught wind of the scene and wanted it back in for the SE.
     
  9. thxdave

    thxdave "One black, one white, one blonde"

    What wonderful memories this movie brings back to me. I saw it in St. Pete, FL with my two best friends when it first came out. One thing that I remember vividly was coming out of the theater and immediately looking up at the night sky. I read a few years later (IIRC) that Spielberg said that he felt that the film had been a success if you came out of the theater and looked up at the sky. Even if I have that wrong, it's a memory that will be with me forever.
     
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  10. KevinP

    KevinP Forum introvert

    Location:
    Daejeon
    If you were around in 1977/78, you probably had to give some answer to the Star Wars vs CE3K debate. Sure Star Wars won, so much so that the question now is as unthinkable as Star Wars losing to a Woody Allen movie, but in 1977, it wasn't unanimous.
     
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  11. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I think all they had to do was to rehire Dreyfuss, put him in the same outfit for a few closeups, and then put up a wall behind him for the closeups as he was walking through the entrance. It was not an extensive shoot for the actor. The stuff that took a lot of time was all the model work done over at the VFX studio in Marina Del Ray.

    Julia Phillips was actually fired off the film by the studio because she was so crazy and had some major drug problems (which she confessed to in her excellent autobiography You'll Never Have Lunch in This Town Again). This was the first published account I ever saw that revealed that Spielberg had blamed a lot of shooting delays on Vilmos Zsigmond and had him fired towards the end of the picture, and Phillips called Spielberg out on that in the book.

    I met somebody in the 1980s who had written a Making of Close Encounters book in 1977 that was ready to be published in early 1978, and she told me that Spielberg got very egotistical and nutty when the book contract was being signed and abruptly walked out of the final meeting right before the book was going to be printed. She had bad things to say about him, since the book was shelved and never released.

    I think it's fair to say Spielberg got a lot more mature as time goes on, but he had some rough days in the 1970s and early 1980s. Spielberg is known as being a very demanding director in terms of his crews, but you can see that kind of perfectionism in the results (at least technically).
     
    Last edited: Jul 30, 2017
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  12. Thievius

    Thievius Blue Oyster Cult-ist

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY
    Yeah I was a Close Encounters kid. I saw CE in its first theatrical run, and adored everything about it. Conversely, I cared nothing about Star Wars and never even bothered to watch it until it came to HBO.
     
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  13. Thanks for the info. Too bad it is on Facebook. I will not use anything Facebook but that does not make the helpful info any less appreciated.
     
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  14. KevinP

    KevinP Forum introvert

    Location:
    Daejeon
    Star Wars came out first and I loved it, but when Close Encounters came out, I eventually preferred it.

    Of course Star Wars is a franchise now and CE3K isn't, and honestly, that's a bigger point in its favour. Not only haven't I seen all the Star Wars movies, but I'm not even sure which ones I haven't seen.
     
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  15. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    I was the opposite. Loved Star Wars, for the characters, the story, the humor and of course 'game changing' vfx. It was a complete spectacle at the time and a fun ride. CE3K by comparison was lower in scale, sort of interesting but nothing remarkable and the vfx were kind of cheesy in a christmas decoration sort of way. It simply didn't compare to SW in any way for me.
     
  16. EddieVanHalen

    EddieVanHalen Forum Resident

    How do you think this will look on UHD Blu ray on an HDR display? As you said before, most pre-1980 movies won't benefit much of 4K. Better color and dinamic range? Better contrast, blacks? Better rendition of film grain?
    I haven't seen Close Encounters Of The Third Kind in years, around 10 years or so. I bought the first BD release and after a couple of views I gave it to a friend. I remember it quite grainy, as most 70's movies use to be. A couple of week ago I received Léon The Professional on UHD BD. After watching the movie (I love how it looks on UHD BD) I played some scenes from the HD 1080p BD. Grain was better rendered on UHD BD than on BD, on 1080p BD I have the feeling that AVC compression is strugling to compress picture because of the random nature of grain. What it looked to me like video noise on BD I think it was actually small compression artifacts. I could saw this by playing the movie on BD in slow motion -4x worked well. Is this what's called mosquito noise? I did the same with the UHD BD and I saw grain perfectly rendered, but no noise or mosquito noise,no compression artifacts even in slow motion at -4x or -2x, nothing. I know HEVC is more efficient than AVC and the UHD BD of Léon uses a 3 layers disc. What do you think regarding that Vidiot (and other forum members)?
     
  17. The Hud

    The Hud Breath of the Kingdom, Tears of the Wild

    Fathom Events

    Maybe this will help instead. :)
     
  18. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Hard to say. I don't know if CE3K has been color-corrected yet in HDR. I think it would do well in 4K, even though it's made before 1980 and is an anamorphic film (and has tons of diffusion filters, which was the style for that era). I would bet that since Sony Pictures owns the movie, they would remaster it in 4K (and Sony does make a very fine 4K HDR mastering display, the BVM-X300).

    Grain reproduction is going to be a function of how well your monitor is set up, on top of how the film was mastered. I would start with turning all the automatic controls off and making sure sharpness is set to "0" so there's no enhancement going on (assuming "0" is the right setting).

    I don't notice grain at all in the stuff I watch unless it's excessive and gets in the way. I'm generally trying to look at the lighting, the actors' faces, taking in the story, the dialogue, what the camera is doing, and all that stuff.
     
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  19. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    My first job in Hollywood was working for Michael Philips, who is a very nice man. Very mellow fellow and not at all your caricature of a manic producer. He was a very polite, quiet-spoken person who looked for scripts with "a sense of wonder." That was what he looked for in sci-fi scripts, "a sense of wonder." so I think CE3k was a very meaningful film for him.

    I remember seeing the "special edition" where Richard Dreyfus goes into the spaceship (Dreyfus, in my mind, is responsible for the film's success as much as Spielberg. I watched it last night re this thread, and Dreyfus is perfect. He's amazing in the film. His flustered everyday Joe is wonderful. The boyish man -- the boy who never grew up (and wants to take the kid to see Walt Disney's Pinocchio. Spielberg's obsession!

    Anyway, when I saw CE3K that scene aboard the ship confused me. I came away thinking that Drefuss had somehow transmogrified into an alien. Maybe it was a confusing cut (I don't have the SE to check) or I wasn't paying attention, but I took away that idea. And years later. one of the first things I asked Michael (this was pre-internet, remember) I said "My friend and I were arguing if Richard Drefuss turns into an alien at the end of 'Close Encounter." And he looked very sad and said "No. No. He didn't. I'm sorry. We must not have made that clear enough. " What a nice man! Instead of calling out my dunder-headed idea (which it was,) he was sad he had let me down as a viewer!
     
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2017
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  20. KevinP

    KevinP Forum introvert

    Location:
    Daejeon
    I figure it boils down to Pertwee's Yeti-in-the-loo quip. There's likely a correlation between the Star Wars/CE3K response and whether you prefer science fiction set in the stars or on Earth.
     
  21. Johnny66

    Johnny66 Laird of Boleskine

    Location:
    Australia.
    For the CE3K fan, this drone footage is great fun. I'm still planning to make the trek to Devil's Tower one day, just to prove to myself that it really does exist!

     
  22. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    That's not relevant in my case. I like all kinds of scifi (even though SW is more sci-fantasy). I just didn't find CE3K all that compelling. Same goes for ET. They were just okay movies for me.

    Earthbound scifi movies that I do rate much higher include Terminator 1 & 2, The Abyss, Predator, Back To The Future (all of them), The Thing (original).
     
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  23. Thievius

    Thievius Blue Oyster Cult-ist

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY
    I think I just naturally have an aversion to whatever's popular. :laugh: But its not just that. When I eventually saw the first Star Wars, I really did enjoy it, as I did Empire Strikes Back and to a lesser extent Return of the Jedi, but it ended there. I think Close Encounters resonated more for me because although its clearly fiction, it was more grounded than the swashbuckling fantasy of SW.

    These days I find it even harder to relate to SW because its jumped the shark many times, and now its sunken to ret-conning. State of the art cgi does little for me if its merely titillation, nor do vast amounts of fast action and explosions. The stories have become way too predictable and seem to have taken a back seat, imo.

    But I don't want to poo-poo anyone else's tastes, if they appeal to you and are still fun to watch, God bless ya. I would never say they suck, or anything so juvenile, me and Star Wars have just drifted apart, that's all.
     
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  24. KevinP

    KevinP Forum introvert

    Location:
    Daejeon
    I'll agree with you on ET.

    I like some science fiction, including Doctor Who, but I don't like anything because it's science fiction.
     
  25. Didn't Paul Schrader work on the script at one point? I hwv to wonder what the draft he did looked like compared to the final one that is solely credited to Spielberg.
     
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