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128 of 139 found the following review helpful:
 I wished upon a star and my dream came true!Nov 15, 2007
By Ivan K. Samuelson
"Bolski"
Now this is the way it should be. You get all three cuts, all remastered in 5.1 surround and all have been digitally transferred. Thank you so much Mr. Spielberg because this without a doubt has to be one of your best (along with the original ET).
Last night, I watched the original theatrical version and forgot how much was removed for the "Special Editions" and the final "Director's Cut". In my mind, the original version is the best and to finally have it in all it's uncut 5.1 surround sound (which didn't exist back then) glory is simply wonderful.
The packaging is nice, although I found it very difficult to remove the DVDs without fearing I might snap them because the locking mechanism seems to not want to let go of the DVDs no matter how hard I press down on them. I suppose I could look at it in that I shouldn't fear them coming off during shipping and getting scratched up.
The box is nicely designed and inside are some wonderful items. It comes with a poster that gives a time line for each movie and where each cut differs which I found really interesting. It also comes with a book full of bios on the actors and other people that worked on the film. Plenty of in-movie and behind-the-scene shots. Finally, the three DVDs are housed in a tri-fold container. Inside and outside are colorful shots from the movies and it really makes the entire set look nice.
In addition to the three editions of the movies, there is also a new "30 Years" documentary looking back over time at how CE has been a favorite movie that has stood the test of time. Also, the making-of documentary that was on the original Director's Edition that came out a few years ago has been split across the three DVDs. Also included is the 1977 making of documentary which was also on the previously released Director's Cut DVD.
Missing are all the "deleted" scenes that were included on the Director's Cut. So, if you own that one, it might be best to keep it since they are absent from this edition.
Overall, this is an excellent release and no one should be without it. To finally watch it like I did when it first came out back in 1977 (and I lived in Muncie, Indiana at that time so you can just imagine what the crowd did when that came up during the movie) was so refreshing and wonderful that I can't wait to watch it again!
165 of 194 found the following review helpful:
Finally Coming To DVD! Preorder Now!Mar 10, 2001
By Michael Porter
This two-disc set features a THX-certified 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer of Spielberg's (so far) favored cut of the film (the third!), dubbed the "Collector's Edition" after its 1998 release on VHS and laserdisc, and runs 137 minutes. The anamorphic transfer is minted from a hi-def transfer created at Sony's DVD center in Culver City, California and cleaned up for this release. The disc features both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 soundtracks, the 102-minute "The Making Of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" documentary by Laurent Bouzereau created for the 1998 laserdisc, a collection of additional deleted scenes, a featurette on the film's enduring place in the sci-fi film pantheon entitled "Watch The Skies" (which, coincidentally, was the original working title for Spielberg's opus), talent files, and two theatrical trailers. Note that the still gallery on the laserdisc will not be carried over to the DVD. The set also comes packaged in Columbia's new "book-like" special edition casing with extensive production notes.
61 of 73 found the following review helpful:
We are not alone.....Sep 04, 2003
By Alex Diaz-Granados
"fardreaming writer"
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Steven Spielberg's 1977 UFO classic, is the thematic antitheses to 1996's Independence Day. While Roland Emmerich's ID4 is a throwback to 1950s "invaders from space" flicks, Spielberg's vision of a "close encounter" between humanity and extraterrestrials is more mysterious and, in the end, more hopeful and awe-inspiring. Instead of exchanging bullets and "heat rays," humans and aliens communicate by using musical notes.Spielberg's screenplay divides Close Encounters roughly into three acts, basically corresponding to each of the three kinds of "encounters." In the first category, sightings of a UFO, we first see a very strange sight in the Mexican desert: an international team of researchers led by French UFO expert Lacombe (the late Francois Truffaut) and guided by several Mexican Federales finds five World War II vintage Grumman TBM Avengers. The planes are abandoned but strangely intact, as though they were brand new. "Who flies this kind of plane?" asks a bewildered cartographer/interpreter named Laughlin (Bob Balaban). "No one," replies another astonished researcher. "This is Flight 19." (Flight 19, of course, is a reference to a Navy training flight which took off from Ft. Lauderdale one morning in December 1945 and vanished, along with a Martin Mariner search plane sent up to look for the missing planes and crews. Flight 19 is now famous in the lore of unsolved mysteries related to the Bermuda triangle.) Laughlin is baffled by something else, as well. A Mexican villager, old, sunburned, and seemingly delirious, keeps repeating, "El sol salio anoche y me canto. El sol salio anoche y me canto." When Laughlin asks what the phrase mean, a researcher who is fluent in Spanish says, in an awed tone, "He says the sun came out last night. He says it sang to him." Later, in the Indianapolis Air Traffic Control Center, a more dramatic close encounter of the first kind plays out on the radar scopes as airliner pilots call in reports of bright lights in the sky and unknown contacts make their presence known. For a few tense minutes it look as though tragedy is imminent, but within moments the contacts vanish into the night sky. Torn between reporting a UFO sighting or just letting the incident slide by, pilots and air traffic controllers alike opt to keep quiet, mainly to avoid having to fill out tons of bureaucratic paperwork. As important as these sequences are, the focus of Spielberg's story is on Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), an employee of a Midwestern power company whose life on Earth is ordinary, hectic, and somewhat unfulfilling. Sent out to investigate a section of power lines in rural Indiana (caused, of course, by the UFOs' passage), Neary has a close encounter of the first kind and impulsively goes on a truck-borne pursuit of two small "flying saucers." This sequence, which ends with a Keystone Kops-like police chase of the same UFOs, triggers an obsession within Neary that neither his wife Ronnie (Teri Garr) nor his children will understand, much less accept. Neary, along with several hundred other people from different towns and states, will soon be haunted by both a visual image and a simple five-note musical phrase. The traces of the UFO flights that leave traces behind (sunburn on people who, like Neary, were exposed to bright light at night) are known as close encounters of the second kind. Spielberg weaves Neary's everyman-faces-an-extraordinary- situation plot with the official investigations being carried out by the UN-sponsored Lacombe team and a more secretive U.S. government First Contact program. These plot threads will all lead to a climactic and awe-inspiring close encounter of the third kind: actual (and documented) contact between humanity and another space-faring civilization. The Columbia/Tri-Star Collector's Edition brings not only a newly re-edited version (trimming some excess material from the 1980 Special Edition) of the 1977 film, but also comes with a second disc loaded with extras such as a Laurent Bouzereau documentary on the making of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a 1977 promotional featurette, and the theatrical trailers.
17 of 18 found the following review helpful:
 Excellent movie - deleted scenes must be added back inJun 13, 2002
By Ivan K. Samuelson
"Bolski"
I would really rate this as 3.5 stars but not 4, so I'm forced to give it a 3. First off, the movie overall is excellent. Heck, I was 11 years old when this came out and I LIVED in Muncie, Indiana when it was released. The theater went nuts when the subtitle came on, saying "Muncie, IN", and then seeing Roy wearing a Ball State University shirt, well that just got the crowd in the theatre all worked up. We loved it! I saw the "Special Edition" on VHS when it came out. I was a little diasppointed at the time when the scene with Roy tearing up his lawn was removed from that edition. However, I wasn't as disappointed with that version as I am with this. Many of the scenes from the 1st SE have been moved off to the second DVD as deleted scenes. A bad choice in my opinion. However, those scenes that were missing in the SE from the original release are back in with some other new scenes plonked in as well. Still, it's a disappointment with the other scenes missing. But, the other features on the second DVD are great. But, I wish Columbia/TriStar would take notice of how James Cameron released T2 - The Ultimate Edition. In that release, you have the choice of 3 versions of the movie on the same DVD: The original theatrical release, the Special Edition which came out a few years later on VHS, and then a third version with more deleted scenes in addition to the SE version. I don't know why Columbia/TriStar/Spielberg couldn't have done the same for Close Encounters. The picture itself is great and the sound is excellent. Much better than the original release back in 1977, but of course, technology for sound has improved vastly since then, so it's not a surprise. Still, it's amazing how the sound can make a difference in how a movie is presented. To have this on DVD is a must. Now, if Spielberg would release the Indiana Jones movies and Lucas would release the 2nd trilogy of Star Wars as well on DVD, my sci-fi/action DVD collection would be almost complete.
28 of 32 found the following review helpful:
Review of the DVD itselfNov 19, 2007
By SeaKayaker
OK, here's a review of the DVD itself. (5 stars because the studio finally has released all 3 cuts of the film) There's never enough info out there on the DVD content alone, but there are hundreds of people's reviews and opinions of the movie. Suffice it to say I love the film, always have; simply one of Spielberg's best films ever. And to now have the actual 1977 cut of the film on DVD is a huge payoff for fans of this modern classic film.
OK, this standard DVD release is on 3 discs. The 1977 Original Theatrical Version on disc 1; the 1980 Special Edition on disc 2; and the 1998 Collector's Edition (aka The Director's Cut) on disc 3. The studio split the 101 minute 36 sec "making of" documentary directed by Laurent Bouzerau into 3 parts, one part on each disc. Not very convenient but at least its the same documentary, same length, as was on the 1998/2001 "Collector's Edition" DVD. The two trailers from that earlier release are here although the 1977 trailer here is called Original Theatrical Preview and is 1:20 longer (for this one they add 1:20 footage up front from the air traffic controllers scene; almost sounds as if the narrator is different, see what you think). The Special Edition trailer is the same as on the Collector's Edition DVD. The 1977 "Watch the Skies" featurette has also been released here on the 30th Anniversary Edition as well. What's totally new here is a newly-filmed conversation with Spielberg called "Steven Spielberg: 30 Years of Close Encounters" running 21:21; and a 2 minute 30th Anniversary release trailer. One of the coolest things of all is a 14"x21" glossy poster with a complete guide to the 3 versions (edits) of the film indicating which scenes are unique to each version and which scenes were trimmed, added, excised, etc. laid out in a "timeline" (of the 2 hour+ running time) fashion. Finally CE3K fans can get straight which scenes were in which version after all these years! The reverse side of the poster is the 1977 movie poster. There is also a really nice booklet (lots of pages) with production stills and filmography information on Spielberg and the 4 main stars. The only thing not included here that was on the Collector's Edition DVD are the 11 deleted scenes totalling 24:17 - so between that release and this, you should have pretty much all you need! (The 1990 Criterion laserdisc material would be great to have as well, but it's not a perfect world - this set and the Collector's set together make this fan completely happy!)
Disc 1:
- 1977 Original Theatrical Version (135 min)
- Making of Close Encounters of the Third Kind Part 1 (39:15)
- Original Theatrical Preview (6:02)
Disc 2:
- 1980 Special Edition (132 min)
- Making of Close Encounters of the Third Kind Part 2 (47:30)
- Special Edition Trailer (1:58)
Disc 3:
- 1998 Director's Cut [as it's called on the DVD menu; aka Collector's Edition] (137 min)
- Making of Close Encounters of the Third Kind Part 3 (15:29)
- Steven Spielberg: 30 Years of Close Encounters (21:21)
- Watch the Skies [1977 featurette] (5:55)
- 30th Anniversary Trailer (approx 2 mins)
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