Close Encounters Blu Ray

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alex_piano1994

New member
Hi, to celebrate my purchase of a full HD telly yesterday, I finally got 'round to watching the Original Theatrical Version of said film on the Blu-Ray set. I've never seen it before, being brought up on the tiresome 1980 special edition, then enjoying the 1998 ultimate edition. But this, to me is the best version. And it looks amazing in HD.

Anyone else seen it yet, waddaya reckon, whats your favourite version folks.
 
Al- Ive got the" ultimate edition" ( on DVD) which I thought was the original theatrical version , but from what you say obviously it isnt.
The 1980 cut has scenes inside the mothership doesnt it.
So whats the difference between the original and the ultimate.
 
I have it on BD.

I love it but I don't really like having a zillion different versions of a film. Prefer the longest cut the best.

At least there's a handy little poster explaining the differences between the three different versions which is good.
 
Hi Raytops, The Ultimate Edition you have contains most of the original cut, leaving out, I think some great scenes, (I'll not bother listing them, I'm sure Wikipedia has the lowdown) plus a few scenes shot for the 1980 scene, namely the ship in the Gobi Desert and a bit more, but as you know, thankfully the "Inside the Mothership" extended ending is removed.

I've seen CE3K loaRAB of times over the years, and got really bored with the special ed. So when the Ult. Ed you have came out it was a breath of fresh air. But watching this original cut was a real treat, OK I geeked out over Blu-Ray picture quality and got a real sense of nostalgia seeing scenes I don't remember at all, I mean, I don't remember Carl Weathers in any other cut, and his scene is great. I may be way of on this as it's been about 4 years since I last watched it, but crikey, what a film. Even the whole whimsical take on the subject matter seems so relevant today, it's a real "they don't make 'em like that anymore" film, and The Beard himself is living testimony to that, but as I said times are so different now.........Christ! listen to me, I'm only 38.
 
Zillion!

I know what you're saying though, too much tinkering. Though I think Spielberg knew the Special Ed was flawed and felt rather than just re-release the original, he'd make it right with the 3rd cut, which he pretty much did, but after seeing the original again, well thats the cut for me.

And yep, that poster is bloody handy. The booklet's nice too, though did you notice all the quotes and info is straight out of, ad verbatim, the docu the extras disc.
 
I saw the original version at the cinema and then recorded it off ITV for its one and only showing before the Special Edition replaced it.

If your jaw didnt drop at the sight of the Mother Ship then inside the ship wasnt going to do anything.

I have to say that after nearly 30 years of home video the only sequence of any film where I felt that it demanded a cinema screen was the first appearance of the Mothership.

Before the crap little multiplex screens we had very large cinema screens and the Mothership was awesome .

The Bluray disc has a useful lttle extra feature that you can switch on - and at relevant points in the film you a get a text overlay telling you whether the scene is exclusive to the version you are watching or whether its a different edit to the other versions.
 
tried the view from above option when i watched the special edition. Basically it tells you what scenes are unique to the version you are watching.
 
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