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Well, the long-awaited and too-expensive DVD set of Three Kinds of Close Encounters of the Third Kind is extremely disappointing in its false advertising of containing the original 1977 theatrical release. It most certainly does not.
What it does contain is the closest restoration yet released, but only by the most incremental of measures. In the early 1990's, the reputable Criterion Company released, on laserdisc, a purported restoration of the original theatrical release that was nonetheless missing several scenes ... and that version, more or less, was the one broadcast by television stations across the country until 1998, when a "Director’s Cut" of Spielberg’s 20-year’s-later preference for the film was released on home video. Since then, TV stations have been running either version.
The only "improvement" of the new DVD release purporting to be the "original" version is the inclusion in the film of two so-called "trim" sections previously available only as disc "extras" on the Criterion Collection laserdisc. These trim sections, lasting less than 10 seconds in total, correspond with two segments of footage excised for the 1980 "Special Edition" release, but are not necessarily the actual footage excised.
The two shots are 1) Roy Neary driving his truck through a tunnel, just after his first close encounter at the stop sign intersection; and 2) Roy, Gillian and Larry (from L.A.) pushing past Hazmat personnel to break out of the army helicopter that’s set to fly them away from the Decontamination Camp at the base of Devil’s Tower.
These snippets of film do indeed match up with tiny segments that were cut from the original release version. But there’s reason to believe they are not the cut footage, or at least not all of it. It’s telling that Criterion chose not to insert the footage into its restoration attempt (at Spielberg’s specific request, if the laserdisc’s printed materials are to be believed), while - at the same time - they inserted two other tiny snippets also cut from the ‘77 version (the line "They can run rings around the Moon, but we’re years ahead of ‘em on the highway" and the extension of the Days of Our Lives opening, "This is MacDonald Carey, and these are the Days of Our Lives.")
Further, the "trims" do not make sense. The first one of the tunnel is certainly part of the missing footage. But the "restored" scene now cuts directly from Roy driving away from the stop sign to a shot of him suddenly inside a tunnel. I’m fairly sure there was some connecting shot, and though this piece was found on the cutting room floor as a "trim," Criterion notably did not include it in the film.
More jarring is the scene of Roy and Co. pushing past Hazmat Guards to escape from the helicopter, because there is no sign of pursuit in the next few shots ... which would have seemed bizarre in the original cut if they pushed guards to the ground and were not chased. In fact, the footage of Neary, Gillian and Larry running through the camp shows only puzzled onlookers among the personnel unloading Piggly Wiggly and Baskin Robins trucks, with an element of pursuit added post-production by an off-screen dubbed voice shouting, "Hey, wait a minute!" There is definitely some missing footage when Roy and Gillian escape from the helicopter, but I don’t believe this is it. Criterion notably did not include it in the film.
HOWEVER, I must look upon the new DVD’s inclusion of these two snippets as a legitimate attempt to get closer to the 1977 version. And that’s as far as they went.
Major and minor differences still remain, and it’s a pure and despicable LIE and fraud to claim this new release as the 1977 Original Version.
It’s closer than the disastrous "Special Edition" of 1980, closer than the vaguely-palatable "Director’s Cut" of 1998, and a teeny, tiny bit closer than the previous restoration attempts by Criterion and aired on various TV stations.
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