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Before I get to the list .... my hand is forced by earlier posts to lay down some smack fact on Close Encounters.
The Criterion version is NOT the 1977-release version. Two scenes are missing, and haven't been seen on TV, laserdisk, VHS, DVD or theatre screen since 1978 when the original film went out of release.
In doing the Special Edition, Spielberg was told by the studio folks to speed things up, and get rid of all those damn references to things reminding Roy Neary of Devil's Tower. In the Special Edition, there is but one left - - when the kid, Barry, is building a dirt mound at the hill where everyone returns to see if UFOs will do likewise. Roy recognizes the shape ... but, quite importantly, this version of the film includes no scenes of Roy building such a mound himself, in his house. The 'mountain of mashed potatoes' is the first time in this version - and all subsequent versions - that we see Roy "building" his own version of the mountain. The absurdity of the situation may still be funny, but the joke is lost without the set-up - - namely that Roy has been obsessively building a mountain in the midst of his model train layout.
The most recent "Director's Cut" restores the scene where Roy first perceives the shape (in a pillow) and restores the scene where he goes bananas and takes apart everything outside his house as raw materials to build a GIANT MODEL of Devil's Tower to replace his small train set version.
But - the mashed potatoes scene is STILL the first time we see Roy making his own version of "the shape." His obsession with the shape, which featured prominently in the original film, was toned waaaay down ... and remains a reletively minor plot point to this day.
Bah.
In the first missing scene, Roy and his wife Ronnie are getting ready to go to the AirForce News Conference and we can see that Roy has turned the playroom into UFO Central, with dozens of cut-out articles and a couple of Star Trek models. Most importantly, it's the scene where we see that Roy has added a prominent mountain to his model train layout.
The second missing scene immediately follows the army's plans to stage the phoney chemical spill. It has just been revealed to the audience that the target of the UFOs is Devils Tower. And even though you may not have ever seen Devils Tower before you've seen Close Encounters, you know what it looks like as soon as you see that shot of the Wyoming contour map.
The next scene, the missing scene, is of Roy in his playroom making desperate modifications to his mountain. The suspense here is great, because the audience now knows exactly what must be done. Just lop off the top and score the sides of the mountain with ridges. And just as Roy begins to scrape grooves into the side of the mountain, he is called away to dinner ...
In the only version of this sequence that is available today, the film would have you believe that Roy's mashed potato mountain is the first sculpture that he does. And it is not until later that you see his miniature train set mountain for the first time. This is totally wrong.
* * * * *
Oh, and one word about the insertion of that nervous breakdown scene that was not in the original version: Roy does not attack his wife. He is sitting in a bathtub the entire time and is rather submissive and pathetic. It's Ronnie who gets hysterial, angry, and screaming. She yells at the kids, the kids start yelling, and Roy is the one pleading for calm.
It is a disturbing scene. Once you've seen it, however, you realize that the following scenes have some logistical and story continuity errors if the "nervous breakdown" scene is missing. I think Spielberg may have left it out of the original because it makes the family seem far more dysfunctional, and tends to give away the ending that Roy would choose an unknown outer space adventure over his life on earth.
Sorry for the length. Great films butchered by editing is a particularly peevish peeve of mine.
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