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Close Encounters of the Third Kind (30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition)
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Return this item for free
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Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
DVD
January 31, 2011 "Please retry" | — | 1 |
—
| $8.90 | $7.60 |
DVD
May 29, 2001 "Please retry" | Collector's Edition | 2 |
—
| $18.97 | $2.80 |
DVD
March 31, 2003 "Please retry" | — | — |
—
| — | $10.24 |
Watch Instantly with | Rent | Buy |
Purchase options and add-ons
Genre | Military & War, Science Fiction |
Format | Multiple Formats, AC-3, Widescreen, Closed-captioned, Box set, Dolby, NTSC |
Contributor | Franois Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Steven Spielberg, Philip Dodds, Matthew Robbins, Shawn Bishop, Teri Garr, Jerry Belson, Adrienne Campbell, Bob Balaban, Roberts Blossom, Hal Barwood, John Hill, Cary Guffey, Warren J. Kemmerling, J. Patrick McNamara, Richard Dreyfuss See more |
Language | English |
Runtime | 6 hours and 44 minutes |
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Product Description
Product Description
Steven Spielberg's classic film is back now on this never-before-released Ultimate Edition DVD, which includes all three versions of the sci-fi blockbuster. Richard Dreyfuss stars as cable worker Roy Neary, who along with several other stunned bystanders experience a close encounter of the first kind - witnessing UFOs soaring across the sky. After this life-changing event, the inexplicable vision of a strange, mountain-like formation haunts him. He becomes obsessed with discovering what it represents, much to the dismay of his wife and family. Meanwhile, bizarre occurrences are happening around the world. Government agents have close encounters of the second kind - discovering physical evidence of extraterrestrial visitors in the form of a lost fighter aircraft from World War II and a stranded military ship that disappeared decades earlier only to suddenly reappear in unusual places. Roy continues to chase his vision to a remote area where he and the agents follow the clues that have drawn them to reach a site where they will have a close encounter of the third kind - contact.
Set Contains:
It's promised as the final word on the subject, and it certainly seems definitive. Steven Spielberg's wonderful Close Encounters of the Third Kind is here collected in three different cuts, each with its own specific history. There's the original theatrical release, never before issued to home video, which Spielberg said was rushed and not completed to his satisfaction. There's the 1980 Special Edition, which allowed Spielberg a re-edit, some new effects and scenes, and a controversial new ending that went inside the alien craft. Spielberg later said that ending was dictated by Columbia Pictures as a marketing ploy, and that he regretted showing the interior of the spacecraft. Amends were made with the 1998 Director's Cut, yet another re-edit that restored elements from the first version and eliminated the shots inside the Mother Ship. (For all the fuss, there are still fans who prefer the original version.) A thorough, previously-available 100-minute documentary on the film is included in the package, as well as a 5-minute featurette from 1977. New this time is a 20-minute interview with Spielberg, looking back from the perspective of 30 years. A 30th anniversary collector's booklet offers some pretty pictures but a rather desultory collection of mini-biographies and quotes (some credited to the "International Movie Database," by which they presumably mean the "Internet Movie Database"). Most helpful is a glossy fold-out timeline charting the differences between the three films, a useful tool for sticklers. --Robert Horton
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 2.35:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
- Package Dimensions : 7.6 x 5.75 x 1.46 inches; 13.6 ounces
- Director : Steven Spielberg
- Media Format : Multiple Formats, AC-3, Widescreen, Closed-captioned, Box set, Dolby, NTSC
- Run time : 6 hours and 44 minutes
- Release date : November 13, 2007
- Actors : Richard Dreyfuss, Franois Truffaut, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon, Bob Balaban
- Dubbed: : French, Spanish
- Subtitles: : English, Chinese, French, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese
- Language : Unqualified
- Studio : Sony Pictures
- ASIN : B000VECAD0
- Writers : Hal Barwood, Jerry Belson, John Hill, Matthew Robbins, Steven Spielberg
- Number of discs : 3
- Best Sellers Rank: #51,903 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #716 in Military & War (Movies & TV)
- #1,137 in Science Fiction DVDs
- Customer Reviews:
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Countered to this inbred "fear" is also the capacity to engage in wonder. Human beings are also infinitely curious, and our curiosity stems from a child-like desire of wanting to know, to understand, and even to touch that which may be different. Fear and wonder are very incompatible bedfellows which reside in each of us. It is a constant challenge for the human race to decide which emotion will have its say in terms of behavior: wonder or fear. Fear is about anger, stereotypes, barriers, burning bridges, and making war. Wonder is about happiness, trust, letting go, being curious, and being vulnerable; it may be ultimately linked to those emotions associated with love. In the brilliant SF film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", Spielberg and co. explore how these two opposing views clash in the midst of our "third" encounter with aliens from outer space.
Early on, the story draws the divisions between those characters driven by fear as opposed to those who are willing to throw off fear in favor of wonder. Claude Lacombe (Francois Truffaut) and David Laughlin (Bob Balaban) are the two investigators who are led around the world by the series of inter-connected coincidences which lead them to believe something extra-terrestrial is going on. They are in the wonder department. And so is Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), a mid-west suburbanite who has an amazing "encounter", as well as a little boy, Barry, in the same geographical region who is enthralled with the coming of the aliens.
The US military, Roy's wife Ronnie Nearie (Teri Garr) and their family, and at first Jillian (Melinda Dillon), the mother of the little boy, belong in the fear department. In a simultaneously poignant and revealing scene, when the aliens come to visit the little boy's house one night, his mother shuts all the doors. Then suddenly, Barry opens one of the doors revealing a splendor of light and magic spilling from beyond. Jillian runs to the door and quickly closes it. She will not forsake her child's safety for Barry's wonder and curiosity. Over and over, Barry displays a kind of innocent curiosity for the encounter while his mother can only react in fear. Lacking the fear of his mother, Barry eventually leaves the safety of his mother and joins the aliens.
Ronnie Neary not only can't understand Roy's mood-swing from his encounter, she doesn't want to know anything about it. Something has been planted in Roy's mind, presumably by the aliens during his encounter, and he can't reconcile the image and its meaning. But Ronnie only fears what she doesn't understand. Roy doesn't do himself any favors when he turns his family upside down, but neither does his family attempt to find out what's troubling him. Fear becomes her dominating emotion while Roy is desperate to understand. The US military acts similarly to Ronnie as they want no outside interference in regards to the alien encounters, and continually deny the presence of these encounters.
Ultimately, by film's end, we learn that all the fears of the characters have been unfounded, a delusion on their part. All consternation and trouble, which are usually required for a story to be compelling, were human-created and not of alien origin. The encounters were designed out of benevolence, not hostility. Only one character, that of Barry's mother, realizes her error and changes from one who is at first fearful to someone who is willing to embrace wonder.
I believe fear rarely serves the human race. Certainly, fear has its place if a rhino is charging at you in the jungle. But if all human behavior is dictated by fear rather than a child-like wonder, we will miss out on some of the best of human experience, which I think may be Spielberg's point. The encounters and the close encounter of the third kind are only possible when human beings tear down the walls, throw down the barriers, and build bridges to the unknown. Certainly the unknown may be filled with snakes. But it could be filled with treasure also. The child risks falling by walking on two legs. Maybe adults should learn to do the same. Are we going to be a species who continually hides under the bed in the face of the unknown, or are we going to be the little boy who opens the door into the world of unknown wonders?
When the discs arrived I was extremely pleased that the picture at last was of a quality that the film deserves. There are film grain visible but it doesn't matter since almost all 35mm releases have visible film grain on Blu-ray disc (I expect the same is true of HD DVD releases too). The picture was quite simply magnificent, the level of detail was very rich and the colors were very vibrant. The colors of the picture of BD releases is what I really am impressed with and this movie shines.
The sound was a little different matter. I use a PS3 to watch BD movies with an optical cable to my Yamaha amp with only Dolby Digital decoder (no DTS decoder) so when I watch the movies I use the DD track if available. The DD core of the Dolby TrueHD track was only 448 kbps instead of 640 kbps (all other Dolby TrueHD titles that I have have a 640 kbps DD core) and it was a little underwhelming, being the same sound quality as the DD track on DVDs. But when I set up my PS3 to decode the Dolby TrueHD track as a 2 channel LPCM track the soundtrack really excelled. The film originally was mixed in Dolby surround so to use the surround processor on my amp to play the surround sound in mono on my back speakers didn't bother me. The detail in the sound, especially at the end of the film, was so rich. I know this is not a fair assessment of the Dolby TrueHD sound, but Sony should have but a 640 kbps core on the TrueHD track, like with the Spider-man trilogy. I am really looking forward to getting an amp with HDMI input to process the true HD sound from both Dolby TrueHD and uncompressed PCM BDs (and DTS-HD MA when the PS3 can decode it).
The extras were basically the same as on my old LD Sony release with a great in-depth documentary on the making of the movie, the special edition (released in 1980) and director's cut. It also included a new 2007 interview with Spielberg reflecting on the movie after 30 years (the documentary was made in 1997, 20 years after the original release). In the case there was a booklet with some text on the making of the film with lots of pictures and a fold out with the film poster on one side and on the other side there is a outline of the differences of the three versions of the film with three timelines (one for each version) and notes pointing to various points with comments. What I really miss is a commentary track with Spielberg on each of the versions. I don't think that there is a single movie of his that has a commentary track on either BD or DVD. It would be perfect with a commentary track.
As it stands this release is really good. Some have complained on the lack of a BD plastic cover and I can understand it but with this content it is well worth the price (some have complained on that too) and I would recommend this release to all sci-fans.
Addition on 17. January 2008:
I have since I reviewed it bought an amp with HDMI to hear the uncompressed PCM sound from my PS3. I must say how that the sound is truly amazing. It is so full and detailed. The bass, especially in the scene with Dreyfuss in the truck in the beginning, is truly spectacular. The sequence at the end behind Devil's Tower is a feast for the ear. I have only been able to get the HD sound from the Dolby TrueHD track but I would expect the DTS HD-MA track is equally impressive since both is a lossless format.
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宇宙作品と云うとエイリアンやプレデター、スターウォーズなどを連想しがちですがこの作品は、未知の宇宙に存在する成体へ人間がコンタクトをいかに取っていくかを描いています。
主役のリチャードドレファスはジョーズで有名ですが昔、ジョージルーカスのアメリカングラフティにも出演しており、アポロ13やダビンチコードの監督をしているロンハワードも出ています。
最初のシーンからドレファスは少し異常な感覚の人、取り憑かれた様に描がかれています。
自宅にタワーを連想して泥の山を作り上げるシーン
何も家の中でと思いますがスピルバーグには子供の泥遊び=純粋な心を持った者が未知とのコンタクトを持てるとのメッセージかと思いました。
見終わった後、また見たくなる作品です。
作品は、30.40周年バージョンや特別編など色々出ています。
違いはネットで検索してもらうと分かりやすいかと思います。