When the 1980 Special Edition came around, Columbia went for something a little less iconic, but certainly effective...
Sunday, July 29, 2012
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977) Theatrical Posters
When the 1980 Special Edition came around, Columbia went for something a little less iconic, but certainly effective...
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Always liked the theatrical version better than the special edition. The shots of the mother ship interior were totally unnecessary, a fact which Spielberg himself now acknowledges.
ReplyDeleteThe DVD director's edition which combines the best of the theatrical version with the best of the special edition is my favourite version of the movie.
The Blu-ray contains the Theatrical Cut, the Special Edition Cut, and the 1997 DVD Director's Cut. It's quite beautiful....
DeleteAlways loved the iconic "road leading to the mysterious glow over the horizon" image when I was a kid. It really left so much to the imagination. I'm sure it also allowed them to keep, what was at that time, some really ground-breaking visuals under wraps.
ReplyDeleteThe original theatrical poster is one of my favorites of the 70's and one i've been trying to find a really nice reissue of to have framed up on my wall along with Jaws, Superman (You'll believe a man can fly Bob Peak version)and Berkeys Towering Inferno............ I remember being scared looking at the poster as a litte kid, it was more about what scary thing was over the hill at the end of the road and not the wonder of discovery in my young imagination!
ReplyDeleteThe second one might look "consumery" (did you mean created by a fan?) because of the poorly mixed font choices. I think the web has made us all a little more sensitive to design choices like mixing and matching too manuy different fonts. I'm no graphic designer, but often the first thing that strikes my about the kitschy designs of the 70's and 80's are the retched fonts.
ReplyDeleteBy "consumer" I meant a poster made to be sold to fans, rather than one distributed to theaters for lobby display. Back in the 70s' every K-Mart and similar type of store always had a bunch of posters (psychedelic blacklight, Farrah & Lynda Carter, Star Wars, Charlie's Angels, etc.), and that second poster (with its lack of credits and rating)looks like it might be one of those.
DeleteAll I can say Chris is WOW!
ReplyDeleteClose Encounters was the first Blu Ray I bought a couple of years ago that convinced me about Blu Ray it was so clean it looked like it was made yesterday and not 30 plus years ago
ReplyDeleteI have a large reproduction of that second poster and there is a credit at the bottom which says it was published and distributed by Toho Co, Ltd, so it was probably used to promote the film in Japan. And btw...I actually had a Close Encounters poster that was purchased at Kmart when I was a kid. It was similar to the main theatrical release poster except that it dipicted an enormous saucer (which kinda resembled a creepy face) looming over the horizon in place of the glow. it was one of four commercially sold CE3K posters produced by Image Factory in 1977. I was a bit too young to see the movie when it came out, but I loved UFO stuff when I was a kid.
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