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Originally Posted by innerSpaceman
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.
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Consider me humbly smacked. I could swear my Criterion ld claimed to be the theatrical cut (it also claimed exclusivity on this point, as I recall) but I foolishly sold the damn thing, so I can't check the label. If even that was a tampered print, then things are indeed totally out of whack with this picture.
I'm also stunned at how badly I've misremembered that added "mad' scene - guess I hated it so much I made it worse in my head. You're right in that it adds good reason for Roy to leave his family behind. (Also interesting that Spielberg, in the doc on the latest editions, says that he would never make this film now that he has a family of his own. I'm glad he did so before he got domesticated.)
Hopeless innacurracy is the price I pay for writing posts from work when I'm too tired to fact check.
For what it's worth, I do remember those two scenes you describe. I hope Columbia will do right by this title someday. For anyone here who has never seen it, I think even the bastardized re-cuts are worth your time.